Contemplations ON MORTALITY.  
Wherein The Terrors of Death are laid open, for a Warning to Sinners: And the Joys of Communion with Christ for Comfort to Believers.  Phil. 3.20, 21. We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body. Bernard, To the Knights of the Temple. The death of Christ is the death of my death; because he died that I should live: for how is it possible that he should not live, for whom life hath died. 
LONDON, Printed in the Year 1669.   

To his highly honoured FATHER Mr. Samuel Lee, Grace and Peace be multiplied from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Honoured and Dear Sir,  
THis little Tract was hatched by the warmth of your desires: it hath broke shell too hastily: It looks but callow and speeds to your bosom for wing and protection. The bonds of nature, grace and promise oblige it from me. I wish it 'twere worthy your view, might help your faith or raise your joy. I shall wrap my Preface under the dignation of your paternal leave in a Testimony, a Request, and a Prayer.  
My Testimony respects a grateful acknowledgement of your singular goodness, unwearied kindness and tender love from my birth upward. When reason budded, your wholesome and godly counsels ever dropped as rain, 
Deut. 32.2  your speech as dew, as small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass. The warmth of your affection cherished me under the divine influence into a flower: your wisdom then transplanted me into the nurseries of grace and learning, and at length to the Muse's garden at Oxford. It was ever your pious care to place me under the shadow of holy Tutor I magnify God and thankfully ac●s knowledge your prudence and love. My body indeed was ever but tender and weak: your affections strong and vigorous, your charges great, your solicitous thoughts were ever wakeful, that no unkind storm might blow upon me. I prospered for God was with you, your prayers went up, his blessing came down, and lo, by the grace of God I hope your labour hath not been altogether in vain in the Lord. You watched me and the Lord us both, and hath kept us as the apple of his eye, and hath blest us together many lustres of years. There's none like the 
a Deut. 33.26.  God of Jesurun, that rideth on the heavens for our help and in his excellency upon the sky. The eternal God be your refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms.  
Dear Sir, my Request follows. The God of Heaven hath sprung a branch out of your roots, and given you to see a grandson of your own bowels. Blessed be his name, who gins to speak concerning his servants 
a 2 Sam. 7.19.  house for a great while to come. Will you please to give him a principal share in the lifting up of your hands to the holy Oracle; that the Covenant may never departed out of his mouth 
b Isay 59.21.  nor the mouth of his seed (which the Lord graciously grant him) nor the mouth of his seeds seed for ever. Will you please to lay your hands on his head and say of him as holy Jacob to Joseph? 
c Gen. 48.15.  The God, who fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel, who redeemed me from all evil, when I came over Jabbok from Laban my hard Uncle: Bless the Lad & let my name be named upon him: let the good will of him that dwelled in the bush, over shadow his heart. Will you please to bless him in the name of the mighty God of Jacob, that his days may be long? If it seem good in the eyes of the divine wisdom, that he may grow to a multitude in the midst of the earth and see peace upon Israel, that his smell may be of a field, which the Lord hath blessed: 
d Deut. 33 12.  Let the Lord cover him all the day long, let him dwell between his shoulders.  
He is designed for the Sanctuary: if the Lord please to accept and gift him, and to bless his times with seasons and places of wholesome and pious literature. Be pleased to bless him as a freewill offering in the name of the Lord, that your little Samuel may be girt with a linen Ephod to minister before him in Shiloh, to burn incense and whole  offerings upon his Altar: that grace being poured upon his heart and lips, he may have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to weary souls.  
Honoured Sir, My humble Prayer remains that the great God of Heaven would please graciously to support your spirits under the weakness of age, that you may never want the staff of jacob's faith to lean upon, in the hour of worship; that your sleep may be sweet in Bethel upon the Cornerstone, and afterwards may ascend the Seraphical Ladder after the great Angel of the Covenant into Heaven, that over all your sacrifices of prayer and praise that Angel of the Lord 
a Judg. 13 19  may do wonderfully; that at evening-tide, the covenant of freegrace may shine full in your face like the 
b 2 Sam. 23.4.  light of the morning, when the Sun is arising, even a morning without clouds and that your assurance may spring like the tender grass by clear shining after rain, that 
c Luk. 2.28.  Simeon like you may take Christ in the arms of your faith while living, and that Christ may warm your heart in the arms of his love, when dying; That you may sing aloud that louly Song, Now let thy Servant departed in peace: For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation: that having seen him here as a Prince of peace, you may see him there as the King of glory  
If the following papers may contribute any thing: I rejoice, waiting that blessed time, when all our joys shall be full and none 
d Joh. 16.22, 24.  take them away, when Christ shall see us again, and 
e Heb. 9.28.  appear the second time to our Salvation. When the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] shall also 
f Rev. 7.7.  wipe away all tears, not only from standing in, but springing out of our eyes, when the tear-fountain shall be dried up, and the 
g Punctum lachrymale. Bartholin. Anat. p. 344.  conduit stopped.  
Here's little, but sinning and suffering, mourning and praying, there shall be nothing but holy enjoying, rejoicing and praising. Here we 
h 2 Cor. 5.2, 4.  groan being burdened with clay-tabernacles, which set heavy and weighty upon us, since the animal spirits are much exhausted by length of days and the sorrows of this frail life. And yet we groan, but not simply to be unclothed, not merely to put off our clay; but to be clothed upon, after our clay is baked in the earth into a transparent Porcelain Tabernacle, fit for glory. When Mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and our vile bodies 
i Phil. 3.21.  shall be changed and fashioned like his most glorious body; then shall we ever follow the Lamb with agile spirits wherever he goes, leading us to the living fountains of waters. The Lord graciously make us all fit vessels for the Temple not made with hands, by the imputation of his Son's righteousness, that after a holy life, we may sleep peaceably in Jesus and reign triumphantly with him.  
Most honoured Sir, I humbly commend you into the bosom of this blessed Lamb and Prince of Life to be presented 
a Ephes. 5.27.  without spot or wrinkle unto himself. To this Lamblike Shepherd of Zion, that his crook and his staff may comfort you. That goodness and mercy may follow you all your days and you may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  
So prays, humbly and earnestly begging your fervent petitions and blessings from the fountain of Israel, upon  
Your most obedient Son, in all humble duty and sincere affection, in our Lord Jesus. Samuel Lee. July 30. 1669.   

Contemplations ON MORTALITY.  PSALM 23.4. 
Yea, though I should walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil: for thou wilt be with me: thy crook and thy staff they shall comfort me.  

CHAP. I. Upon the words of the Psalmist.  
KIng David from his Royal Palace in Mount Zion, might feast his eyes with many delicious Prospects.  
1. The first and chiefest was the Tabernacle of the Lord of Hosts, who 
a Ps. 87.2.  loved the gates of that mountain, more than all the dwellings of Jacob. This holy Prince delighted in communion with God and therefore is styled a man after Gods own heart: he 
b Ps. 13.1, 2, 4, 5.  swore against the slumber of his eyelids, till he found a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. And where did he fix the Tents of the holy One of Israel? did he not bring up the Ark from the house of Obed-Edam into the 
c Sam. 6.12  City of David with gladness? For 
d Ps. 132.13.  the Lord had chosen Zion, he desired it for his habitation. Thrice happy those Princes, who entertain the pure worship of God within their Courts. They shall 
e Ps. 89.15  know the joyful sound of Temple-musick they shall walk, O Lord, in the shining light of thy countenance.  
A Second lovely Prospect with which David enameled his eyes was the pleasant City of Jerusalem, 
f Ps. 122.3  a City Compact together, 
g Ps. 48.2, 3.  beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, God is known in her Palaces for a refuge.  
A third, Was the valley of Kidron, a dark valley through shades and precipitious rocks. It's name from Kedar, obscurities and thick shadows, environed with mountains and a swift torrent trilling along its caverns. This gave a comely off-set to the neighbouring hills: here were the shady strokes of nature's pencil the more to illustrate the bright pieces of this holy Landscape, Hence were redoubled the pleasant and warbling echoes of the silver Trumpets at new Moons and Sacrifices.  
The fourth and last, was the three-ridged mount of Olivet fruitful, healthful and pleasant.  
In the first of these Prospects, he saw the holy One of Israel walking in his Sanctuary and enjoyed sweet fellowship with the divine Oracles. From the second, he took a view of the State of this vain life. In the third, he might raise Contemplations upon the house of all living. In the fourth, he beheld as in a glass a glorious cast of the Resurrection, 
a Zach. 14.4.  the day of Judgement and Ascension to Heaven.  
The sweet Singer of Israel had tuned in consort with his Harp, many choice Meditations, near the murmuring waters of Kidron, and here in this Psalm he plays upon the valley itself. Let's descant on his Lesson in four parts.  
1. Here's a comparison of the state of death, to a walk in the shady valley of Kidron. I know it is usual to interpret the shadow of death, by great and deep afflictions, but I shall accept the phrase in this method: In its first notion, that darkness which seizes upon persons ready to die, is represented. In a second the grave and death itself. It's plain by the conferences of 
b Job 3.5. & 10.21. & 34.22. & 38.17.  Job with his Arabian comforters, 'twas Eastern language. In a third by a Metalepsi, those horrors and terrors that attend the agonies of dying mortals; yea, any grievous calamities that paint the face of death to the life in the glass of imagination.  
Here under an elegant Allegory holy David prosecutes the divine shepheardy: Gods gracious care and conduct. The green pastures and the crystal streams with which his soul was refreshed. Not doubting but goodness and mercy should follow him all the days of his life, and although he should be lead through the valley of the grave; the Lions and the Bears, the Tigers and the Wolves of those fell bottoms should not scare him. I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Assuring himself that the great Shepherd of Israel had wisdom and power sufficient to guide him safely and at length to enclose this sheep of his Pasture in the Folds of his 
c Ps, 23.6.  house of glory for ever. Other shepherds tremble at the yelling of the Lions, and the print of their foot stamps horror, much more to convey their Flocks under such dismal shadows be the slads never so verdant, and the gliding brooks never so sweet and pleasant; left they and their sheep prove sorry comforters to one another, when they slide together into the Maws of such ravening Butchers. But here's a blessed and glorious shepherd, 
a Muscul. in Loc.  (qui sciens prudensque ducet in mortem ipsam:) who purposes and resolves to lead his Flock through the jaws of death; So that David sings this Psalm in the warm feelings of the divine Presence, I'll fear no evil: thy crook and thy staff they shall comfort me.  
Secondly, Here's the person, that walks through this tremendous valley, ruddy, royal and holy David. Thy sanguine complexion must now turn blank and melancholy, when Abishags arms shall be cold and feeble comforters, and thy real body must shrink into this grim 
b 1 Sam. 15 16.  Michols bed. That conquering Sword at whose brandishing, Edam and Ammon trembled, must be shaped into death's  to mow thee from the Land of the Living. Thy holy heart must take Sanctuary in the divine Covenant, 
c Ps. 49, 15 89.48.  that God will one day redeem thy life from corruption, and thy darling from the hand of the grave.  
Thirdly, We should muster up the formidable evils that put on their armour, gird on their Swords, and whet their glittering Spears for a fatal encounter in this valley.  
Fourthly, We must prepare the Cordials, the Balms and all the sustaining comforts and quickening promises to refresh the Soul and uphold the spirit from sinking; that we may fear no evil, since God is with us, his Crook and his Staff shall comfort us. 
d Bochar● de animal. l. 2. c. 44. col. 459. part. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  His Shebet [pedum pastoral, 
e Mich. 7.14. Leu. 27.32 ] his Shepherd's Crook to guide and conduct to the Pastures of Glory, his Mishgnan, his staff, to beat off wild beasts and enemies that might assault and annoy us.   

CHAP. II. Of the Valley of Death.  
DEath 'tis compared to a Valley, to a Valley of shadow, to a walk in a Valley, to a night walk in this shady Valley of Kidron.  
1. Death is compared to a Valley, While men are alive their feet are set upon a Rock, on a high Mountain on the towering Pinnacle of a Temple, and oh how hard it is for any to persuade themselves, that they shall once step down the precipice into this Valley. Every one thinks he may live to morrow, be he never so old: and the morrow of his thoughts can see no evening. But down he must and visit the dark land of his forefathers mansions.  
In the Valley of Kidron were the 
a Jer 31, 40.  Jewish Sepulchers on the East-side of the City, between the aspiring Mountains of Moriah and Olivet. Here the Ravens of the Valley picked out the 
b Prov. 30.17.  Eyes of disobedient Children. Did Jews or Romans (who had also their Tombs in the 
c Liv. Dec. 3. l. 6.  Esquilian Mountains on the East of Rome) turn their faces to the rising Sun, in hope of a resurrection to a future life? whatever glances might in spirit their Customs: Into this Valley they must all descend and run their appointed race. Into this Valley of Kidron, through the water-gate was conveyed the Soil and Offal and Filth of the City; probably most of their Sewers and Drains had here their vent. Here all the d Ashes and refuse of the Sacrifices, 
Jea. 31.40.  all the recrements and purgations of the Temple found a Lay-stall. Death and the grave cover all.  
It's a high pitch of Grace to be humbled unto the death, to mingle the dust of our noble bodies with such off-scouring and sullage, to converse with the records of rottenness. But so 'tis with a Saint, he submits his will and yields up his spirit to God: To putrify a while in the Valley of Hinnom, that by Heaven's Chemistry, he may spring up into a Tree of Life, in the Garden of Gethsemany. Wicked men fret and fume at death, and curse the Apple that poisoned nature, and some would seem to cheat death by a violent seicide, O fool, ne moriare, mori: by a choosing a violent, to avoid a natural death: by cutting off present terrors, to hasten eternal.  
But a Saint like a man in a dark Cavern under a mineral Mountain, sees light at the other end by the Eye of Faith. He goes down into this Valley leaning upon the Staff of hope, of Christ in him the hope 
c Col. 1.27.  of glory: he spies Mount Olivet, and the footsteps of Christ's Ascension. 
a Cor. 5.2  He groans to be unclothed of his filthy garments expecting change of raiment, and places to walk among Angels, 
b Zach. 3.7  that stand by and wait upon the Prince of the Covenant. He knows that his vile body, this 
c Phil. 3.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  body of humiliation, must once be a body of exaltation, and fashioned like his glorious body, who is able to subdue all things to himself, and to carve our bodies into his own image.  
Secondly, Death is a valley of shadow, a Valley of darkness. Here are Lion's Dens and Mountains of Leopards: Here be Akrabbims, ascents of Scorpions and 
d Fons Draconis prope Jerusalem.  Fountains of Dragons, and yet 
f Cant. 4.8.  the holy Spouse will go hand in hand with Christ, 
e 1 Cor. 15.57.  from the fleeting pleasures of this mortal Lebanon, to view and walk in the midst of these tremendous Dungeons.  
The Valley of Kidron of old likely was a dark Valley, not only for Rocks and Mountains, but pitchy shades and thence might yield a lively symbol of death: here might be Trees and Shrubs which not only shut out the healing beams of the Sun: but also by their opiate vapours and the exhaling of deadly atoms, might lull the brains asleep in the Cradle of Death: here might grow the funestous Yew, the strong-scented Box, that makes the head to fume, the melancholy Cypress, the soporous Juniper with the Fir: here the dark greene's of deadly nightshade, the gross Savin and Dulcamara might entwine together, and cover many an Asp, many a Cockatrice, and a Basilisk; and plump them with their direful poisons.  
Does a Saint fear to trace these Regions and to measure the Land of his Captivity? No! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, who gives him victory 
e 1 Cor. 15.57.  His feet are shod with Gospel promises: the Iron and Brazen 
a Deut. 33.  shoes of happy Asher fence him from the stings of these 
b Haseraphim. Num. 21.6.  Seraphims, these fiery Serpents: he shall tread upon the Lion and Adder, the young Lion and the Dragon shall he trample under foot: 
c Ps. 91.13  nay, he shrinks not, though let down into this Den of Lions: seeing the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is with his daniel's.  
And yet darkness, this Egyptian darkness carries a load of fear and sadness upon its back, it exhales and breathes out terror from every dim hole within the Valley: behind every bush lurks a glaring Leopard; from the cloven of every Rock the young Dragons hisse out fire, and belch venom upon a carnal man. He that's alive to sin, may tremble to die to nature, and shrink out and stream to think of the old Serpent sliding through the marrow of his backbone and upbraid him with bitter scoffs about the forbidden fruit. O ye Sons of Men how long will ye love 
d Ps. 2.2.  vanity and forget your latter end? The length of their love to vanity keeps pace with the line of Life; they turn not from it, till they turn into it, & become vanity itself, & their place know them no more.  
In time of some rowzing Sickness the Bell of Eternity tolls dolefully in their Ears: then they say, By and by Lord, we'll come to worship, to repent and amend: but if a good Crisis lengthen the hopes of life; their gyant-promises sink into Dwarss, and their By and by lengthens out its Tenor through many a morrow till the last hour approaches▪ and then the day of invitation from divine grace, turns into a day of provocation to the divine anger: he that swears in his 
e Heb. 6.17  love to the Heirs of promise for their strong consolation, will 
f Heb. 3.11  swore in his wrath to the Children of disobedience that delay repentance, and harden their hearts at the voice of God, they shall never enter into his rest.  
Alas! what's the life of man? but a 
g Jam. 4.14.  vapour appearing for a little while and then vanisheth away: Man walks in a vain h shadow while he lives, even the shadow of a vapour; 
e Job 8.9.  every wind puffs it away and man is not: a short lived vapour, that lives to be, but lives no longer no sooner in being, but it flies away, and who can gather it: what's all time from the Sun's first motion, till he turns to sackcloth; but a perishing cut out of the bosom of Eternity: scarce worth the name of a point or a moment to it. And, what then are the few and evil days of man's life upon earth, like a spark gives a snap and perishes; but when he dies, the shadows of a dark, of a long 
a Jer. 6.4.  evening, are stretched upon him.  
How wholesome is it to meditate under these shadows: By these things 
b Is. 33.16▪  men live, and in all these is the life of our spirit: let's catch these vapours by the hand of contemplation, and distil some spiritual Cordials.  
Is life so 
c Job 7.7▪  vain a meteor? O vainer soul to build castles upon it: here's 
d Heb. 11.10.  no City that hath foundations: that's in heaven, men trade, and buy, and build, and plant, as if Noah's second flood of fire and brimstone would never come. All former ages are wrapped up in the short breath of a history, and yet most men live, as if they thought their forefathers were by the Art of Magic stepped aside in a mist, and the story of death but a Poet's fable. But as 
e Dion. Cass. l. 53. p. V 34.  Tiberius said of Scaurus, that revived an old Tragedy against the Emperor, he himself should be Ajax. Thou look'st upon Death only as the Tragical Theme of some sickly overstudied Minister, till thou become the Tragedy itself, and be inveloped in eternal darkness: to which the shadow of death is but the shadow of missery.  
What makes night but the shadow of the earth? and what's death but the shadow of the grave? every night is the shadow of death, and every sleep in the bed is next of kin to that in the dust: and should raise up the holy seed of meditation to his brother. While man lives, he walks in a shadow, and when he dies he lies down in it: A carnal man dies once, and riseth to judgement: but after that, to a second death, and never rises more. A Saint indeed steps down into this first Valley, but walks through it to glory. The Vale of Kidron was also called the Valley of Tophet, and the Valley of 
a Gehenna.  Gehennon, the Valley of Hell. From the Valley of the grave wicked men sink into the bottom of Hell: But a Saint ascends from Kidron to Olivet.  
Thirdly, Death is a Saints walk in this shady Valley. King David might, but Saint David would fear no evil; though he trod this dismal path. Christ is gone before 
b Act. 2.29  the Patriarch, and hath left behind him the lustre of his footsteps to enlighten David's feet in the 
c Ps. 16.11  path to life. 'Twas not his royal Diadem could dazzle the eyes of Death, and fright him attaching his Ermine Robes, or guard him from appalement at the wan looks of Death: Sceptres as well as Sheephooks lie snapped in that Valley: Purple and Sackcloth are a like begrimed with the soil of the grave: the Worm's Tablecloth is spread with the fine Linen of Egypt, no less than the coursest Woollen, not greatness but goodness, not highness but holiness, gains Letters of safe conduct through this Valley. All pass through it, but a Saint walks through it to the Mountains of Spices,  
Fourthly, Death is a night-walk through this shady Valley: a Saint is to pass, not to stay there: 'tis a night-walk, and there he must walk till the bright morning springs. So many Suns must roll over his body till the Resurrection. Then he that 
d Dan. 12.2.  slept in the dust of the earth, shall awake to everlasting life. When his mouldering Clay being well digested in the sepulchral urn, shall attain maturity: it shall then shine forth a diaphanous, splendid and glorious body. The sleep of the ancient Heroe-Saints for some thousands of years, shall seem but as the sleep of one night: Wicked men's souls may be terrified with dreams and visions of horror in that dismal night; but a Saint sleeps quiet and sound, and with Christ's dead body shall he arise: he tosses, 
e Ifay 26.19.  he tumbles not in this bed of Roses: 'tis but one fast sleep to a labouring and resting Saint; the worm shall suck the nerves of the wicked, and feed 
f Job 25.20.  sweetly on him; but a Saint feeds sweetly on death. 'Tis but his refreshment from all the sorrows and toil of his heart & hands, that he found under the Sun, and his works follow him to glory.  
Saints indeed are noctam bulones, night walkers in this Valley; but 'tis not the fruit of undigested Suppers on the world's Dainties, but as a happy pleasure in the bosom of Christ. The separate Soul watches his lovely bedfellow and sings (a requiem, an Epithalamium) a Song of Love towards it Marriage-morning. Nay Angels in shining garments sit at the head and feet of a Saints grave. When holy David 
a Ps. 8.3  considered God's Heavens the work of his fingers, the Moon and the Stars which he had ordained: he considers Man too, that God should remember him, and the Son of Man that he should visit him, what's Man to a Star, to the Sun, to the Heavens? yet a Saints of more value to God then numerous Stars or the manifold Orbs of Heaven. Was not David now on the Roof of his House by night gazing on that spangled Canopy, and pondering on the greatness of the Stars, their motion, lustre and influence? May not a Saint thus meditate upon the night-watches of the grave and look up to the 
b Gen. 15.5  Stars as so many promises, 
c Ps. 89.37  and faithful witnesses in Heaven? When he views the Zodiac, he traces the course of the Sun of righteousness: he looks upon the Milky Way, as the future path of his glorified feet. He counts what if each Saint shall have a Star for his Kingdom; and yet, that all the Stars are but the paintings of the outhouses of that eternal Palace, wherein he shall dwell with God: When his Father's face shall visit him with the dayspring from on high, and the bright morning Star shall glitter upon the Eastern-Mountains of the Resurrection, and proclaim the Suns arising to an eternal Jubilee.   

CHAP. III. Of the persons walking in the Valley of Death.  
IN this Valley of Kidron, David and Jonathans' little Lad must gather up the mortal arrows together. Princes and Skullions must do their homage alike in Death's Kitchen: There's the homely House, the Straw hovel appointed 
a Job 30.  for all living: There be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
b Diodor. Sic. l. 1. c. 51  the 
e Camden in Glamorganshire.  eternales domus, those smoky and fulsome Huts, about which (the leves animae) the separate Ghosts do keep their residence: here the sprightly Satyrs tread their measures, and paint green circles in the Elysian Fields, till the blushing dawn of eternity. 
d Ps. 22.29.  None can keep alive his soul from death, nor ransom his 
e Job 13.6  lamp from darkness. The martial Commander creeps under his Bed 
f Sueton in Coleg. c. 51.  with Caligula, at the r●●●ing of this Thunderbolt: no Marble Palaces cau dazzle the eyes or daunt the approaches of Death: no iron bars can repel his force: his aquafortis burns all afunder: he stands not aghast at the pale and wan looks of quivering Princes; but like a giant flustered with the wine of blood looks terrible on the proud Nimrods' of the World. King's Edicts, that Death be not whispered in their Courts are sullied on waste Paper, they but daub their Royal Parchments with fond flourishes. Their strongest Towers are but the spinstry of Spiderwebs. Death's too great a Flesh-fly to be catcht in such Tiffany Walls, he'll hum in their ears with hateful buzzing, will they, nill they: There's no Canon or Decree against him can stand inviolable Should Medes and Persians twist Laws as strong as Cables, this Samson snaps them asunder like raw Flax or twined threads. If all Justinians pandects were crammed with severe penalties, that death presume not to touch an Emperor or be rude with his Lady or Children, he'll send a Phocas to find them out, and hale them to his Slaughter-house. The Captains of their Guard with their Halberdiers, fling down their Arms and cry craven. This old Leviathan 
g Job 41.29.  counts their Darts as Stubble, and laughs to scorn the shaking of their Spears. When this storm rises, this furious blast, be takes down the top-gallants, and the Flags of Admirals, he cuts their Masts by the Board, the wisest Pilot he flings overboard, no Anchor holds, they run adrift and are shattered upon the Rocks.  
The cunning Lawyer with all his shirks and quirks, and Writs of Error cant hook out a Habeas Corpus from this unbribed Barr. Death has too subtle a Pate to be overmatcht; he has Precedents and ruled Cases and Records as high as Adam: There's no Chancery refuge or Appeal from the Club-law of this Kings-Bench; he's Lord Chief-Justice, and Jailor, he's Sheriff and Executioner.  
But what says Hipocrates with his Coan Aphorisms, and Galen with his long wound Method? Can't he open a Vein in the Arm of this raging Adversary, that his Sword may fall, and the Galenture of his fury abate against Mankind? Is there no enchanted Potion, nor amorous Cup can lull him asleep? O Physicians! Are there no Recipes in all your Dispensatories against the crack of Heartstrings? Must his deadly Ague shake both you and your Patients into the Grave? Must his dropsy drown you, his Fever burn you to Ashes, his Consumption emaciate and waste you to Skelitons, and set up your Bones in his Anatomy School? What is there no Antidote, no Treacle against the needle-teeths of this black Adder? No! he turns a deaf ear to all your Siren-Lectures. This Serpent 
a Eccles. 10 11.  will by't for all your enchantments: Such babblers are no better,  
But alas! for this day of darkness 
b Irel. 2.2 , this gloomy morning, that's spread upon the Mountains, Can we tract no comfort in this thick Fog of Ignorance? Are there no Trees of Life to be found in Lebanon? Alas! is Eden lost? Is that Tree free among the dead? did the venomous breath of the old Serpent whither it? did he hack it down? did he pluck it up by the roots? Are there no sprouts from its chips, nor no healing atoms that flew from its wounds into other shrubs or plants? Is there no drug in Arabia, no balm in Gilead, no Spice in India can revive a languishing mortal? What, no Etherial Spirits, nor irradiating Sulfurs, nor Mineral tinctures, nor Elixirs of Life to cure this stroke? Won't potable Gold snatch back the flying Spirit, and entreat that noble guest to stay a while within its old Cloister new plastered and gilded with this restorative? Won't the limpid Alcahest make the blood volatile, and circulate it nimbly against the cold congealing blast of death? Won't the great red-powder cure it? Then farewell all their empty notions, and unpracticable maxims, their clogging Syrups & ill digesting Powders: their life-exhausting blood-lets, and their cold mortal Juleps? O vain man!  — Nullis mors est medicabilis herbis. 
No Plant in nature's garden springs  
To heal or suage these deadly stings  
Use the Physician, that's a duty: trust not in him, for that's a sin. Good Asa had this mournful title upon his 
a 2 Chron. 16.12, 13.  Tomb that he sought not to the Lord, but to the Physicians, and slept with his Fathers. Though the skilfulst Physician, and the holiest Saint do meet together; yet both should count upon a last day, a last hour, and a last moment, that they cannot pass. 
b Isay 3.2.  The mighty man, and man of war, the Captain of Fifty, the honourable, the Counsellor, the cunning Artificer, and the eloquent Orator, Death takes them all by the hand and leads them into this gloomy Valley. He reuerences not the grey hairs, he rises not up to the milk-white brow of the grave and ancient, nor lays down his crooked Sith at the foot of aged and hoary head: he strains no courtesies with the weaker sex, nor gives it the upper hand; the pitiful cries of tender Infants pierce not his Adamantine breast: This tearlesse Moloch hugs them mortally in his brazen arms, he hath Urns proportioned to all their Ashes, and Graves of every size.  
But what though riches and honour, though sweet natures & virtuous minds prevail for no reprivall? Must holy bones also see corruption? Can't Faith & Prayer wrestle a fall with this mighty King of terrors. No, no though the wicked twice fall under the dint of this Goliahs' Sword: yet 'tis appointed for all 
a Heb. 9.17.  ence to die, and after that to Judgement: For as by one man sin entered into the world, 
b Ro. 5.12.  and Death by sin; So death passeth upon all men. for that all have sinned: Faithful Abraham must lie down in the Cave of Machpeloh. Patiented Job after all his Arabian Tragedies must act one Scene more, and say to Corruption, 
c Job 17.14  thou art my Father, to the Worm, thou art my Mother and Sister: Strong Samson must fall by this Jawbone in the Vineyards of Zorah, and meek Moses though he die in a 
d Deut. 32.50.  Mountain, must walk down this deep 
e c. 34.6.  Valley of Abarim: Wise Solomon by all his prudent and politic maxims of Government, can't tame and rule this ferocious Behemoth, nor tie this wild Bull at his Figtree: But his sage breath must out at the door of his lips, he returns to his earth, 
f Ps. 146.4.  and that very day his thoughts and his reasons of State must perish: All his skill in Botanics could not extract such (an ens primum, or) a quintessence from his Cedars in Lebanon, to prolong his life a moment beyond the appointed 
g Job 14.5.  months, and the bounds which he could not pass. No, nor holy Paul could not strengthen the stakes of his Tabernacle or keep its curtains from trembling, but an East wind from the Roman wilderness h smites it down to the ground, 
Act. 18.3  and all his i skill in Tent-work could not raise it: He therefore counts upon his house with God, not made with hands, 
k 2 Cor. 5. ●.  eternal in the Heavens, and groans earnestly to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of Life.  
Q. But why must Saints die? hath not Christ paid a ransom to purchase them from death. Must Daniel the man of desires be led into this second Captivity? Must John the beloved Disciple, though he scape the boiling Oil, and rocky Patmos, come down to his Tomb at Ephesus, and walk in this six-foot Valley; yes, even he that lay in the bosom of Christ, must also sleep in the bosom of the grave.  
A. 1 To this may be replied, 
1 Downam of Justify, p. 6. Edit. fol. Lond. 1639.  That Justification is a continued act of divine grace (terminative & quoad 1 nos) in respect to us, & it lasts from our first conversion to the declarative sentence of absolution at the day of Judgement, Indeed in respect to God (who is actus purissimus) a most pure and absolute act and sits down without any succession of times, in the glorious noon of Eternity, our justification admits no degrees. It is not instilled into us drop by drop in respect to him: but so soon as a man doth truly believe, he stands truly and perfectly righteous in the sight of God. The Covenant of Grace is ratified (simul & semel) together and at once, at the Throne of God in the name and virtue of Christ's righteousness, so soon as ever we truly believe; but 'tis applied, manifested and completed to us, in the successive methods of effectual vocation, sanctification and final redemption at the great day. For while we continue sinners, we have continual need of justifying grace. David as to fresh Commissions stood in need of 
a Ps. 51.7.  purging with Hyssop from his leprous sins to receive an atonement, Lev 14.6, 19 and to have the Seal of the 
b Ps. 32.5.  forgiveness of the iniquity of his sin, upon his acknowledgement and confession: For as to us, God is not said to remit those sins, that are not yet committed, but such 
c Rom. 3.25  as are past. We are taught therefore by our Lord to pray 
d Mat. 6.11, 12. Act. 5.31.  every day, forgive us our trespasses. We sin daily, and must confess daily, and pray daily for repentance and pardon. Yea God himself, in that Evangelicall promise by Esay, assures us. 
e Isay 43.25  I even I (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, delens) am blotting out your transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember your fins, to comfort us against tentations about daily infirmities: Do we sin every day? and is the truth not in him? nay, does he make him a liar, that saith 
f 1 Joh. 1.10.8.2.1.  he hath no sin? then we have need of a daily Advocate to plead for us at the right hand of the Father, a high Priest that 
g Heb. 7.24  continueth evir, and 
h V 25.  liveth ●v●● to 
i Heb. 9, 24  appear in the presence of God, and to make intercession for us. By virtue whereof he 
k Joh. 14.2, 3.  prepares the heavenly Mansions in the Temple of Glory for us, and us for them. Then, he will come again and receive us unto himself, that where he is, we may be with him, and behold his glory. And when this Prince of life, the Judge of quick and dead, shall appear, he will pronounce that final justifying and glorifying sentence 
l Mat. 25.34. , Come ye blessed of my Father, (
m Ps. 32.1 2.  for blessed are they indeed to whom the Lord than imputeth not iniquity) come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. Then shall our justification be complete in all its points at that joyful declaration of Christ upon his Tribunal in Judgement: No marvel then, 
a Rom. 8.10, 11.  If the bodies even of Saints shall die: 'Tis because of sin; though the spirit be life, because of righteousness. But then shall all our sins be finally blotted our, and cast behind his back in the 
b Mic. 7.19  depths of the Sea, when those times of 
b Act. 3.19.20.21.  refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord: when he shall send Jesus Christ at the great Restitution, whereof he hath spoken by all his holy Prophets since the world began: Then shall Onesiphorus according to the prayer of Paul 
c 2 Tim. 1.18.  find mercy in that day at the hand of Christ. That day of full 
d Eph. 1.14 and 4.30.  Redemption hath not yet appeared, when the 
e Mat. 13.43.  righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father with everlasting joy upon their heads.  
A. 2 Again, Death was decreed and determined of God to seize upon fallen sinners in all it kinds, and yet we never find that doleful sentence repealed as to temporal dissolution, in any promise. 
f Joh. 11.25.  I am the Resurrection and the Life, says Christ: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Yea, our blessed Lord in his Sermon at Capernaum, no less 
g Joh. 6.  than four terms, comforts his Disciples with the Doctrine of the Resurrection: not, that they should not die, but that he would raise them up at the last day. Nay, even to John himself Jesus 
h Joh. 21.23.  said not, that he should not die, But if I will, that he tarry till I come, what's that to thee Peter. No! both holy Peter and holy John, Death is ordained as a means to purge and cleanse their bodies from the soil and filth of sin, and to fit those sanctified Vessels for the life of glory.  
A. 3 Saints therefore must look upon death with no other aspect, then as the greatest bodily affliction, which shall or can befall them, and that it hath the same ingrediency, though in a deeper measure with all the bitter Cups of trial, which the Father is pleased to put into their hands. They have one common reason, and one common end to make them partakers of his holiness. Sickness of the holiness of Grace; and Death of the holiness of Glory.  
But are not Saints the members of Christ's body? Is the head glorified and must the Members pass this State of exinanition? Must believers die? Yes! and good reason too! Should not the members be conformable to their head? Ought Christ to have 
a Luk. 24.20.  suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? Hath the Father made 
b Heb. 2.10  the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings, and will he not the same way bring many sons to glory? Shall this Highpriest after the order of Melchizedek, drink 
c Ps. 110.7  of the Brook of Kidron in the way to Olivet, before he lift up the head in a glorious Ascension? And shall Saints, the inferior Levites think much to taste it? Zebedees', Children do but taste a few drops at the bottom of 
d Mat. 20.22, 23.  the Cup of Kidrons' water, Christ hath drunk it off. Saints do but sip of 
e Num. 5.27, etc.  these bitter waters, not for satssfaction but submission to the Law: they shall not cause their thighs to rot, but conceive to glory. What's fabled of the Unicorn that he takes away the poison by dipping his horn in the waters before the Beasts of the Forests do drink after him: Is true of our Lord, he hath sweetened these waters of Marah with this Tree of Life, for true Israelites to pledge him. His holy body washed the waters of Jordan by his Baptism, and healed the waters of Kidron by his Passion. Christ that pure prolific 
f Joh. 12 24  Corn of Wheat fell into the ground, and died and bringeth forth much fruit: The grave is made fertile by his death; that Saints lying by his dead body may be impregnated and spring up in a green Resurrection, and grow ripe to the harvest of glory, They are implanted into the 
g Rom. 6.5.  similitude of his death, and shall be raised in the likeness of his Resurrection, As that heavenly grain did rise; so shall Saints sprout upon his stalk, without Chaff for the Garner of Paradise.  
A. 4 A. 4. Again, Saints die, not only in conformity to their head, but to magnify the glory of divine Grace in Salvation by the New-Covenant. Christ takes away the radical and fundamental guilt of sin, but not the total in being thereof during this Life. None shall go to heaven by the law of perfection, according to the tenor of the first Covenant. None shall boast of 
h Eph. 2.8, 9 Tit. 3.5.  work or merit: for by grace are we saved. None shall climb to heaven but by 
i Gen. 28.11, 12. Joh. 1.51.  jacob's Ladder, whose foot is fixed upon the son of man. We are saved by grace to 
k Rom. 3.27  exclude boasting we are saved 
l Act. 15.11  by faith, that Christ may be 
m Phil. 1.20.  magnified whether in life or death: we are saved 
n Tit. 3.4, 7.  by mercy, that the kindness and love of God our Saviour may appear: we are not born, but made heirs according to the hope of eternal life: Nay, we are saved by 
a Rom. 8.24  hope, and with patience we wait for it: Were we perfect here; our faith would be clambering into vision, and our hope into fruition, our resting, waiting, panting frame would be swallowed up in preliminary enjoyments of heaven: our love would cast out all fear and torment, and ride triumphant before resurrection, to the capitol of glory: But God hath an eye to that new and living way of salvation paved with the precious blood of the second Covenant: wherefore, though Christ be 
b Ro. 10.4.  the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth: yet he restores us not in this life to the beauty and perfection of holiness; So that, if sin remain in a Saint, death must needs be its issue: For sin when 'tis finished, 
c Jam. 1.16  bringeth forth death: Though death in all its circumstances be not the proper 
d Ro. 6.23.  wages of sin unto a Saint, because Christ hath satisfied and made us free from the Law 
e Rev. 8.2.  of sin and of death: Though death be not the 
f Ib. c. 6.22  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the stipendiary supper of a believer, yet 'tis the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the four sauce, wherewith the remnants and leave of original, and the too great improvement thereof in actual sins and infirmities are disht up: Warm Bernard starts this question, If Christ have delivered us, 
g Bern. ad milit. Templ. f. 98. a. Ed. Pari 517.  [Utquid adhuc morimur & non statim immortalitate vestimur? Sane, ut Dei veritas impleatur, etc.] Why do we yet die and are not presently clothed with immortality? Verily, that the truth of God might be fulfilled: For, because God loveth mercy and truth, its necessary that man should die, because God had foredoomed it: but yet that he should also rise from the dead, lest God should seem to forget his mercy: So than though Death Lords it not over a Saint perpetually, yet it remains a while upon us, because of the truth of God. Even as Sin, though it reign not in our mortal bodies, yet is it not totally taken from us. Thus Bernard lays the burden of a Saints death, upon the primitive fall, the curse of God, the veracity of his threaten and fulfilling of that word to Adam, in the day thou catest thereof, thou shalt die: and a little before, [Adae delictum merito contrahimus; quoviam cum peccavit, in ipso eramus & ex ejus carne per carnis concupisentiam genite sumus. We are deservedly involved in Adam's guilt, because we all sinned in him: for when he sinned, we were in him, and were begotten of his flesh by carnal concupiscence.] And is not this the very Doctrine of Paul? 
a Ro. 5.11.  As by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: This is the guilt that carries those that have not sinned after 
b V 14.  the similitude of Adam's transgression into the grave. Yea Infants, & Embryo's, such as never saw the light, from one dark grave to another.  
Insomuch, That though the second and glorious Covenant of free grace, be 
c Ps. 89.37  established as the Moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven: yet it receives not its full accomplishment in all its promises, till the Saints set down in the bosom of Christ after the great Tribunal: and 'tis not any the least impair or reflection upon the divine justice on this side the resurrection, to visit the Saints transgressions with this Rod, and their iniquity with these stripes: 
d 1 Cor. 11.30.  For this cause, says Paul (treating of some violations respecting our Lord's Supper) many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep.  
Wherefore, though the guilt of sin be removed by justification, through the merit of Christ, and the dominion of sin by sanctification through the Spirit: yet the total remainders of original or actual sin are not stubed out of the heart: but some fibres and strings will stick behind in the best, during this present life: In like manner, though 
e 1 Cor. 15.55, etc.  the sting of death, its venom and poison be pulled out by the death of Christ: yet our mortality is not abolished. Although our Lord hath brought 
f 2 Tim. 1.10.  life and immortality to light through the Gospel, in its revelation and consignation to every believer; yet not as to its complete fruition till the day of Christ. Then shall this mortal put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up in victory, and then, shall we render eternal thanks to the Father, for giving us this victory 
g 1 Cor. 15.57.  through our Lord Jesus Christ. For reign he must, till this last enemy also be put under his feet: To conquer over death by rising, brings more honour to God, then to keep our foot from the grave: or else Divine Wisdom would not run that course. One's th' effect of powerful manutenency. But the other of creating omnipotency. Hence, as Christ the Natural, so shall Saints be declared the Adopted sons of God, 
a Rom. 1.4  with power by the resurrection from the dead, by reason of which union God will also raise them up like their glorious and mystical head 
b Act. 2.24  by losing the pains of death, it being impossible for them likewise to be held by it, For Christ being risen from the dead, is become 
c 1 Cor. 15.20.  the first fruits of them that sleep: Our blessed Lord risen at the Passe-over, and they shall rise at the day of Pentecost: He risen as the head, they as members, all in their own order shall rise to glory.  
Obj. But some may say, Did not Enoch and Elias leap over this Valley of death into heaven?  
Ans. True! but their translation moved upon the wheels of transmutation equivalent to death: as they also, who are found alive at the coming of Christ. Though they pass not through the strainer of the grave, yet they undergo. the percolation of a change. As the heavens shall 
d Ps. 102.26.  perish when they be changed and pass 
e 2 Pet. 3.10.  away with a great noise, and the Elements melt with fervent heat: nevertheless we look for new heavens, and a new earth, not in substance, but in quality. Even so Elijah, though riding to heaven in a chariot of fire, and the living 
f 2 Cor. 15.51. 1 Thes. 4.17  Saints at our Lords coming in a chariot of air, yet are all by a marvellous change [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] 
Heb. 11.5  translated to the vision of God.   

CHAP. VI Of the Formidable evils in the Valley of Death.  
AS in a Landscape let us take a quick prospect of those fatal and tremendous evils, which cock their Helmets, and make bare their Gorgon faces at the entrance, in the passage, and the utmost end of this direful Valley.  
1. At the Entrance, when these brazen gates flee open: The soul bewitching comforts, to which we must bid [a longum vale] an eternal farewell, and those wracking pains which must be felt, not on a Palate of Ivory, but a Bed of Iron, in which, this Giant Procrustes tortures all he catches: must needs shoot barbed arrows into the Livers of all impenitent sinners.  
The Philosopher teaches, 
h Aristot. Rhet. l. 7. c. 14.  [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,] that change is the sweetest of all things: It must be in things to the better, or equal at least in goodness to precedent enjoyments; else 'tis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the bitterest of all. To have been fair, strong, healthful, rich, and happy, sharpness the edge of present misery, & cuts the deeper. Is not this a dead fly in the box of ointment, a gourd in the pot, a snake in the grass, that poisons the joy of all thy comforts? Must the amorous smiles of all thy sinful pleasures corrupt into doleful howl? Here's the parting style, when the sweet embraces of the dearest conjugal relations must surrender up to mortal gripe: Here livid, and fainty kisses must take leave of pretty children his own bowels, [& pignora chara nepotes,] those choice pledges of a man's survival unto himself: The friend that's nearer than a brother, must now shake hands and look back to little purpose, at this dolesome and dark good-night. His fine houses and fair possessions, his fruitful orchards of his own planting and his pleasant gardens, with all its rills and fishponds, his flowery meadows and beautiful prospects, his gameful parks and woody forests, his dutiful and toiling tenants must all come to his bedside and shake their heads, and with dry eyes, bid good-even to their old foolish rent-wracking covetous Landlord: Then all these flashy, thorny joys that made so great a crackling under his pot, having shot some splinters in his eyes, and more in's heart will leave him in thick darkness: Then all his false parasites and trencher-guests, for a sorry ring (else hardly) will march with him to the pits side, and forsake his memory when closed in a cold stone.  
Besides 'twill gawl him to the heart in that hour, to think what a feather cap fool 
a Eccles. 2.19.  he leaves for his heir: that will turn upon his left heel, and twit the miser, when he sees his chests all lined with gold, and sorrow for nothing but that he shall never more have so true a drudge: Then out goes the young Ruffian with the fork upon his shoulder, to France and Venice to learn carriage among Whores, Banditoes and riotous persons, till penury forces his belly to fellow common with 
a Luk. 15.30, 16.  Swine and quatrell with hogs for their husks, and at length can hardly crawl home to the Surgeon's Shop: Are not these sweet Flowers for his memory to smell to? And a sovereign Cordial against the assaults of Death?  
But were this all, 'Twere no match for a Roman Spirit? No, no! proud worldlings before departure often conflict with fearful torments, Agags 
b 1 Sam. 15 32.  bitterness of death arrests their souls and make their Spirits stagger: The 
c Ps. 18.4 & 116.3  pains of Death and of Hell get hold upon them: These deadly sorrows switch them with such smart lashes [Ut se sentiant mori] as to leave lingering pains with strong and biding Convulsions. Like Tiherius that cruel Tyrant: when tormenting of Asinius Gallus, told him, he was not yet reconciled, and therefore would not permit him to die, [
d Dion .. Cass. in Tiber. p.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,] That he might count life a punishment, and death a great benefaction Like the stroke of these 
c Rev. 9.6.  Scorpions when men shall seek death but not find it, and shall desire to die, but Death shall flee from them: So sharp and pungent are these envenomed shafts, 
f Job 7.15.  that the soul chooses Strangling and death rather than life: They are called, 
g Act. 2.24 12.  the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the pains of death, the acute pains of a woman in travel: when God shall 
h Job 33.19.  chasten men with pains upon their Beds, and the multitude of their bones with strong pain: when every bone shall have its pang; and every pang from the strong arm of God: oh! how dreadful to fall into the hands 
i Heb. 10.31.  of the living God: They are pains indeed which God calls pains, when the soul shall be torn and rend from its beloved twin; oh, the tendons crack and the nerves with startling dolour snap in sunder. We read of one, but sick of the Palsy, and yet 
k Mat. 8.6  grievously tormented. When the Lord smites persons 
l Deut. 28.22.  with Consumptions, Fevers, Inflammations and extreme burn: oh, what toss and tumblings and pine with wearisome hours: when torn and grinded by the Stone or wracked by the gout; what tongue can express their miseries? For a Herod to be eaten up of 
a Act. 12▪ 23.  Worms and such little wretches to pull a Prince piece-meal, and to run away unquestioned: For Jehorams 
b 2 Chron. 21.19.  bowels to fall out by reason of his sickness, and poison his Courtiers: For Asa to lie howling of the Gout, and make all Jerusalem ring with his roaring: Should not these tidings of three miserable Monarches, cool the fury and tame the madness of the Bedlam Hector's of our age. To ruminate upon these terrors of death, these painful throws, when men pour out their souls in dreadful agonies methinks should take them a peg lower and put their carrier in sin to a pause: They who taste of the Cup of Death, find it more bitter than Wormwood, more venomous than the poison of Asps all squeezed into it: Such as are under the ghastly view of Death, behold a griefly & fearful Monster, that scares the bloody Heroes and vainglorious Gallants into exquisite horrors.  
— Obriguere comae & vox faucibus haesit. Their hait stands an end, and their tongue falters with amazing fears It has a direful sting, more horrid than a Scorpion or a Dragon. This Cup unless sweetened with a lively sense of a gracious promise there's no laying of your lips to it: This fiery flying Serpent, unless eased of his sting: there's no dallying with it in their bosoms for foolhardy sinners: Well might 
c Sueton. in Cas. c. 87.  Caesar wish a sudden, and Augustus 
d Id. in Aug. c. 99  an easy Death, who had beheld many astonishing spectacles in their long and bloody wars: which might pierce hearts of Adamant, and melt the most brawny and flinty breast, and run down the most stoical Apathies into Rivers of mournful Sympathies and compassions: Methinks, it should awaken snorting formalists to admit into the Hall of Conscience the Echoes of the roaring Elegies of such who die (as the historian phrases) 
e Id. in Cas. c. 88  non morte sua, not a natural but a violent death; when this Lion rampant rends the Soul from the body, as he would the 
f Hos. 13.8.  Caul of a Kid's heart: When death shall meet them as a Bear bereft of her Whelps, or an evening Wolf that hath lurked close in 
g Ps. 104.20.  her Den all the day long of a sinner's life, and comes forth barking at night and sharp set for her prey: Then they are forced to drink deep of the wine of violence and to sup up the Cup of the avenger. Then they 
a Job 15.33  shake off their unripe Grapes as the Vine and cast off their Flower as the Olive.  
But alas! the pains of natural or the pangs of violent death, are but the stinging of Gnats or Fleabites to a scorched conscience and inflamed by the wrath of God: When men come to die and have trifled away precious hours with Rattles and childish Baubles, and the silly jingling Hobby-horses of Court or Country: and at that turning point of Eternity have forgotten to make their peace with God: then Conscience rouses up like a Giant refreshed with the wine of Sodom, and the Grapes of Gomorrah. When the grinning Furies lashed the goatish Soul of Tiberius for all his Villainies within the dark and dismal Dungeon of his unclean breast: Oh! who would not tremble to think of those goring wounds, those secret and invisible tortures, which wracked his Soul and stretched his tormenting imaginations upon the Devil's tenterhooks. See, how 
a Tacit. An nal. l. 5. p. 107. Edit. Basil. 1544  Tacitus breaks forth upon the Theme, Si recludantur Tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus & ictus,] had we Casements into the hearts of Tyrants: the dreadful marks of the Steel whips of Conscience would appear with bloody gashes: And as 
b Dio. in Nerone l. 63.  Dion the Historian speaking of the horrors of Nero, near the time of his death, for the assasination of his Mother and other brutish crimes: says, that if a Whelp did but howl, or a Hen cackle, or the arm of a Tree creak by a strong wind, [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,] he was in a woeful anguish: Oh, how the wires of Megaerae fetched blood and gobbets at every stroke, from his Soul: When God shall pour the scalding Lead of his wrath into these fresh wounds, when the Law thunders from Mount Sinai, and the lightnings of Paran glitter about him, Then 
c Hab. 3.16.  their bellies tremble, their lips quiver at the voice, and rottenness enters into their bones: When sin comes home to the Soul on a deathbed, and accosts him as the Soldier did 
d Pollio in Mario p. 538. Ed. Lug. B.  Marius the Blacksmith, and Triduan Emperor, (Hic est gladius, quem ipse fecisti.) Here's the Sword of thine own hammering and shaking it in the face of a sinner, cries, look how it shines, 'tis thine own furbishing.  
Then woe to him, who hath enlarged his desire as Hell, and increased that, which is not his: and laden himself with thick clay: Then fain would he vomit up his sweet morsels: but no Emetic of the shop can help him, no Squills, no Roots in Nicander can fetch them up: Then they abhor to remember, what they cannot forget, and the eyes of their fancy are as quick and venomous as a Bafilisk. Then with their robberies of Peter they would pay off Paul: and for their defrauding of Ministers would give tenfold Tithes, and with the ruins of old abbeys, and Manors by oppression & depopulations of Villages, that they may 
a Isa. 5.8.  be alone in the midst of the earth, in all haste they patch up Chappells, Schoolls and Work-houses.  
But God hates the Sacrifices of dying and putrilaginous bodies: the Incense that oppressors offer, proves the savour of death unto death; he counts the sighs of their fleeting Spirits, like the steams of rancid dunghills, which the fire of Hell sends up: not the beams of his countenance, who is now departed. No warning pieces before could alarm them. No blazing Comets could awaken or startle them: though 
b Mantil. Astrinom. l. 1. p. 27.  that of Mantilius be true in all ages.  Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether. 
Never did blazing Comets shine in vain,  
But famine pale, plague or fierce wars did reign.  
But now they scud about like Eels in Thunder, and anon Death hales them with the weeds about their heads in his sweeping drag-net. Now they cry out with 
c Spartian in Hadrian p. 34 Ed. Lug. B.  Hadrian the Emperor: 
Any mula vagula blandula,  
Quae nunc abibis in loca.  
Pallidula rigida nudula.  
nec ut soles dabis jocos.  
O pretty, petty, wand'ring Soul,  
In what holes wrigglest thee?  
Stark naked, cold and crackst no more  
Thy frothy Jests with me.   
And is this all the cold comfort for these roaring Blades with a sneaking Epigram, with so deadly a neck-verse, to swing into the arms of eternal vengeance: How horrible is it, and to be trembled at, to think that Randoll the Poet (as I have heard) should cry out at death, Now Horace have at thee where ever thou art. Can we think, that vile worms when dying should spew such poison? like the Toads in 
d Helmont. t. mul. pest. p. 884.4 to.  Helmone hung up by the Heels before the fire of Hell cast out green flies and other venom, Oh! that it might make a Zenexton an antidote against the plague of the heart in astonished mortals. And have you not drenched your Souls in a sweet pickle by flinging off repentance to so late an hour. Alas! God's now gone up to his place and retired, ye have 
a Prov. 1.25, etc.  set at naught all his Counsel and would none of his reproof: Now he laughs at your calamity and mocks when your fear cometh as a desolation and your destruction as a whirlwind: when distress and auguish seizes upon you; Therefore shall ye eat the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices: 'Tis not the cold absolution of every formal Priest can daub up these Thunder struck Walls with his untempered Mortar. The foolish and cock headed Atheist, that 
b Ps. 14.1.  said in his heart there was no God and was bold and saucy to fancy what he would have, that he might revel and rant and tear it, in his blasphemous pride, and do corrupt and abominable works, gins now to be awakened out of his Frenzy-Lethargy, and runs into the clefts of the rocks and skulks in the tops of the ragged rocks, and cries to the deaf hills to fall on him, and the hardhearted mountains to cover him for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his terrible Majesty.  
The old Owl-eyed Heathens by the glimmering glances of Synideses 
d Alcin. de doct. Plat. cap. 10. Max. Tyr. c. 1. etc.  and Syntereses, the faint reflections of primitive light did grope after a Deity by the Glow-Worm candle of soft contemplation. They catcht at a little vanishing notion of the first Being by the working of their Souls in night-Visions and argued the immortality of their own Spirits and began to discern that (Divinae particula aurae) this particle of Divine light, was inspired by the Father of Lights and Spirits: 
e Ro. 1.20.  By the things that were made they stammered and spelt out lamely his Eternal Power and Godhead: But alas! the Meridian Fools of our age, that sit in the Devil's Chair of Pestilence, though taught by the glorious light of holy Scripture, will hardly come off to cry at death, with that musing Philosopher of Greece, O ens entium miserere mei. O being of beings have mercy on me. But when the grave Judge of Conscience commissioned and charged by God, sits down with his white considering Coif in his Judgment-seat upon a pale Pillow: Then their stupid Atheism (a sin greater than 
a Jam. 2.19.  Devils are guilty of) brings the Scoffer to the 
b Prov. 7.22.  correction of the Stocks; and Phineas his righteous dart sticks through his belly, and there he lies sentenced to self-tormenting horrors: Thoughts as fiery as flashes of lightning, and as keen as double edged Swords. No Turkey Cymiter pierces so deadly to the inner-most parts of the belly.  
But oh Sirs! this is not all: The Devil by his 
c Heb. 2.14  ministerial power of death, slips forth from behind the hang, all armed with firebrands. He who before like a roaring Lion yield after his prey: Now whets his Claws upon the rock of their impenitent hearts grins like a tearing Lion, and strangles for his Lionesses: Now he who secretly stirred them up to war and rapine, to slaughter and bloodshed, even the precious blood of the Saints, he who egged, and spurred them up to their mad ambition and rage; to alarum neighbour Provinces into confusions, to satiate their lust, revenge and avarice; now he springs forth with his 
d Rev. 9.17  breastplate of fire, jacinct and brimstone: and and out of his mouth flow torrents of fire and smoke and sulphur: His head is twisted about with a Crown of Snakes, and girt with a Vest and Tunick of Scarlet deep died in the blood of Souls. This Prince of the Power of the Air, the raiser of tempests, now hurries up a storm within, which no created power can calm: At his puddling he finds turbulent matter in the foul sink of their hearts, and rouses all the winds of the Compass into a dreadful Hurricane: Then the wicked Gallio's that of old waved and tushed at any thing, but Spring-Gardens and painted Faces, and pampered Paunches, 
e Ro. 13.14  and provisions for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof: That snuffed at your Counsels like the doltish blockhead, the 
f Jer. 2.24.  wild Ass in the Wilderness; Till their bellies swell big with the Tempter, in this month you shall find them crying out with the Germane Captain in those civil Wars: Six hundred Dollars for a Minister to comfort a galled Conscience. Then how the Waves break white one in the neck of another? Oh! how the wicked wretch tumbles like 
a Is. 57.20.  troubled Seas that cannot rest, and casts up mire and dirt? 'Tis dreadful to stand on the shore and see, how Leviathan makes the deep 
b Job 41.31  of their hearts to boil like a pot, the Sea of Conscience like a Pot of Ointment; he makes a path of flaming Brimstone to shine after him, and at the breaking of these waves of fire, strong sulphurous exhalations even stistle and suffocate the Spirits, One of the Roman Emperors sent to buy the Pillow of a man, that was greatly in debt, and yet could sleep sweetly: But who would not fly from the Pillow of an awakened Atheist, though stuffed and crammed with double angels: When such dismal Spirits chatter at the four corners: when he who had seduced them to all their flagitious sins, and hardened them to perseverance now appears in his colours, triumphing in the harvest of his envy, and tumbling his impenitent Proselytes, with himself into the bottomless gulf of despair.  
And now 'tis evident, Who ever formed Weapons against Heaven and prospered? Do not their Darts recoil upon their 
c Ps. 68.21  own hairy Scalps? When against every raking Oppressor, 
c Hab. 2.11  the Stone cries out of the Wall, and the Beam out of the Timber shall answer it. When 
d Isay 34.13, 14.  the Owls of the Desert shall hoop among their shattered Palaces in hideous Consort, and Satyrs shall cry to their Fellows.  
Now, woe to the ruiners of Cities by Fire, and 
d Hab. 2.12  bvilders of Towns with blood, that establish their foundations by iniquity, and cement the stones with the gore of the Innocent: That put the 
f V 15.  Bottle to the nose of their Neighbours and make them drunk, to behold their nakedness. That boast in their might 
g Is. 5.11.22.  to drink Wine, that they are men of strength to mingle strong drink, and how many they knock under Table: 
h V 23 24.  Therefore as the fire devoureth stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff; So their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust. Now, woe 
i Hab. 2.19  to him that saith to the wood of a Table, awake: and to the dumb stone of a Cross, arise: for it shall teach: These all compass themselves 
k Isay 50.11.  with sparks of their own kindling: This they shall have at the hand of the Lord: they shall lie down in sorrows.   

CHAP. V Of the State of the Dead.  
NOt only in reference to the State of Sinners before and at the point of Death: but as to their passage through the Valley of the grave, many grand horrors do occupy the thoughts of mortals: Oh! that it were to prevent, as well as foresee: what a damp 'tis to carnal Spirits, to think of their heads being no sooner laid in the cold Cavern; but Death as a Tiger or 
a Ps. 49.14  Lion greedily feeds upon them: With what a cold clamy sweat they faint away, to think of going down to the Gates of Death, and there to be locked up in a loathsome Dungeon? But here's the sweet comfort of a Saint, that Christ hath the 
b Rev. 1.18  Keys at his Girdle and will give them the 
c Ib. c. 2.28.  morning Star: They rest meekly pacified, that their blessed Lord went the same way to glory: that Ahrabam, Samuel and David; that Daniel, Paul, and John have beaten the path before them: There is but one 
d Eph. 4.5.  Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one new and living way to enter within the Veil, that former Saints 
e Herald 11.40  without us should not be made perfect.  
But how mortally do the Pulses of unsanctified persons beat, at the remembrance of the pit: How they swoon away with many a sinking qualm. The fiery thoughts of their cold entertainment among the clods, well may they scorch and shrivel up the plumes of their pride and jollity: Oh how crest-faln and blue in the lip, when this fatal guest knocks at door: The tenors of the old drunkards songs, do they not quiver and rattle in their throats with woeful howl? What Vultures of grief would knaw their heartstrings, did they dare to retire and meditate in this Charnell-house? Were they so valiant and hardy Knights as to converse with Conscience in secret? as heretofore they have met their impudent Mistresses 
f Pro. 7.9.10.  with the attire of a Harlot in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: Would they not hang the head, droop the wing and feel their Loins dissolved in trembling Palsies? Do not their countenances 
g Dan. 5.6.  change and their knees clatter together to read the writing upon the wall that their days are numbered and sinisht? How do the inhabitants of the earth, melt at the muse on their forlorn estate in that hollow and deep Vault? What! to be trodden upon by every footless worm, to be insulted upon by an ugly grub: to be bearded by a yellow Maggot, and to be kept prisoner in stinking chains of darkness by noisome rottenness? Oh! how it vexes the high spirit of a Lord, and nauseates the fine stomach of a Lady? Then's the time, when all 
a Isay 14.9.10, 11.  the Kings of the Nations will rise up from their Thrones in the grave, and pass this dolorous compliment with the proud Emperor of Babel: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy Viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.) where the Nouns in the Hebrew 
b Bochart. de animal. part. 2. col. 254.  are feminine, and the Verbs masculine: the creatures contemptible: but their feast magnificent, upon the bowels of Princes: Oh! how the woodlice, flat-worms, maw-worms, the yellow-tails, mites and wivils' carve out their morsels and rejoice together: Anon, after the feast is ended, the yellow hundred-foot takes up his Palace-royall in the skull of a King, and the proud mincing Jezabels shall have their faces once more painted and spotted with the odious excrements of a black Beetle.  
'Tis but lean comfort for haugthy & big looks which the Lord abhors, 
Pro. 6.1. & 21.4.  to be humbled into these dark holes: where their costly sepulchral Lamps shine with but a dim and blue light, to search what impudent infects dare so boldly to crawl up and down their entrails, and scorn to give account to their summons. For a living worm counts himself more honourable than a putrifying Monarch.  
Here, on this side the grave, after every meal they must have a fit of music to digest their varieties, and a sad poor fool must come in with his patches to make them merry: But he that mocketh the poor (whether in purse or parts) 
c Pro. 175.  reproacheth his Maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished,  
Their gluttonous Feasts shall have sour sauce of deaths cooking; and no Doctor can sweat away the surfeits of Conscience: When Death hath once shaken them by the shoulder into the grave, he'll call also for a lesson at his Table, and the Satyrs shall play low Funeral-Songs upon the Lure-strings of their perishing Nerves, & Dancein their courses: while they are here, they rise from their gormandizing Platters to play at Cards for whole Parks, and fling the Dice for ancient Manors: But there flaming Devils will hurl their bones about, from under the Altar, and the Chancel rails without Sacrilege and thrust their own Rapiers red hot into their bushy Pates, and make those hairy Comets to burn for warning Beacons: O then, they would fain prevail with Father Abraham to send Messengers to their 
a Luk. 16.28.  five brethren upon earth to testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment: Here after the game at Tables is ended, they hurry away with Coach and six horses in haste to hear a Sermon at the Playhouse, and are very well edified, fully instructed and takes notes of the ready way how to reach Hell speedily: But there death and his 
b Hs. 2.14.  master will handle them without Mittens, he'll force no court compliments upon them: There's a King of a fierce 
c Dan. 8.23  countenance, understanding dark say, will speak as big and as rough as they taunted to the poor, he will make them bend the knee, and do suit and service at his Court-Baron: There they shall hear the Jailor's long-winded Lecture upon a sharp and cutting Text, and can't get out of his Chapel though they sit at the lower end, he'll keep them from sleeping, and gash their memories with the keen knife of his tongue, about the many Sabbaths they profaned, and the means of Grace they contemned; how they mocked at repentance, and lolled out the tongue at preciseness; he'll gripe them with the holy examples, meek admonitions of Saints and their patiented sufferings for the truth at their barbarous hands: They'll have cold stomaches to jeer and fleer in the face of this conscience-scalding Preacher; he'll chain the blessed Bible to the Desk of their Pews; which they had laid aside like an old Almanac: Now it comes in date at this year of reckoning. he'll prove to their faces, how they have slighted the heavy judgements of the late dreadful Pestilence, the astonishing Fire, and the colour of the British Seas, crimsoned and diapered with the blood of their brethren: he'll gall them with their base ingratitude in slighting the mercies of the great God, who gave them reprieval and survival after all these dismal mementoes. But now has delivered them from 
a Jerom. 21 7.  the Pestilence, and from the Sword and from the Famine, into the hands of this dismal King of Assyria: he'll once more rub up their dull senses with sharp rebukes, about the numerous checks of conscience, and the loud calls of the spirit, which then they enjoyed, but now they may howl after, without any pity: and that which shall vex them to the heart, he'll ever be harping and grating odiously upon the same string, and jarring in their ears, and rubbing the old sore about their lost opportunities and seasons of grace: This shall be a plain and home Sermon, such as before they scoffed at: here will be no flowers of Rhetoric to set off Truth to the squeazy palate of a Sermon-sick Lady: here will be no fear to displease greatness, here's no Trencher-Chaplains to soften expressions, lest the great Churl Stomach at sound reproofs, that might save his soul; No, these days are past! here's no impatient lookings at the hourglass when the last sand drops, to be gone to dinner; here's no being glad at sleeveless errands to steal away through the crowd, and choke conscience with this flame: that a little's enough if well practised: No! here's a Preacher will hold them to it, and taunt, and twit them with the day of repentance being over, and chain them to their seats, and lock them in the stocks, as they once did the Saints in Lollards-Tower: till the Trump of the Resurrection sounds an Alarm to Judgement.  
Is this the state of wicked men's souls; while their bodies rot in the grave: when will they learn to be wise for Eternity? They must 
b Bernard de Conver. ad Clerico●.  suffocate and slay the worm of conscience, here says Bernard, that would not be bitten hereafter: Is it not better to hearken diligently to a few Sermons here, though ten hours long, though 
a Act 20.7.  Paul preach till midnight: then to be liuckt to that terrible Sermon, that shall last many hundred years long, from the day of death, till the day of judgement, and after that a second Sermon in the afternoon, which shall know no evening, but last to Eternity: when rivers of tears can't wash away guilt, nor ten thousand rivers of oil can't make thy Sacrifice flame acceptably up to heaven: O be wise while the day lasts, 
Mic. 6.7.  and do the work which the Father giveth to work: 
b Joh. 6.29.  This is the work of God, that ye believe in him, whom he hath sent.  
But if ye reject this counsel, and like foolish bvilders refuse this stone of the corner, till that fearful night shall overshadow you; then your mouldering bodies must lie by it, and be kept in that smothering prison; while your lamenting souls are agitared and hurried with these condemning and tormenting Furies: There your bodies though of ne'er so fine a 
c Job 21.26  Clay, must mix with the course allay of your once oppressed Slaves: The dust of Princes must mingle with base and mean Peasants: they and their Porters must lodge together: Lords and Beggars know no distance, and what Artist can form his Epitah, by any distinct colour, or grain in their mould? Neither can heaps of Gold bride a fancied Charon, to waft their bodies out of these gloomy regions, these Egyptian shades to any Elysiam meadows of pleasure: The searching brains of the ablest Counsellors can find no flaw in the Writ of Death, nor get any bail or mainprize from that tedious Gatehouse: Here the Skull of the acutest Thomist through length of time will all dwindle into starveling Moss while he forgets to distinguish its fit season for the Weapon salve: Alas! it won't cure the fractures made by Death's Pole-Axe: No distinctions can satisfy this cunning sophister to turn the key and release the Prisoner: But here they must all continue and abide in the state of the dead: The ingenious Artificer, can invent no clew to hand him out of this snaring maze, this winding Labyrinth: There's 
d Eccl. 9.10  no invention or judgement, no device, knowledge or wisdom in the grave whither thou goest: 'Tis by the Decree of the 
e Dan. 4.17  watchers, the time once doomed and sixth, there's no reversion: He that goes 
a Job 7.9, 10.  down into this far Country shall return no more, to his house, nor shall his place know him again: There all sit down in deep silence till the moment appointed by the high and holy One, who inhabits Eternity: Then shall the enemies of his Son's Kingdom, creep out of the dust to shame and everlasting contempt.  
But the ashes of his people, their gracious Father lays them up in the treasuries of his wakeful providence, and they shall be his in that day, that 
b Mal. 3.17.  he makes up his Jewels, when the joyful voice of Christ shall gently raise them to that blissful dawn: when (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,) the rosy fingered morn shall blush out of the East, and the Sun of Eternity shall gild their rising Temples for glory.   

CHAP. VI Of the fell Dragons at the further end of the grave.  
MEthinks the way through the dark 
c Morisans Travels, p, 113.  Grott near Naples, opening towards the sulfurous mountains of Vesuvius, and the stagnant air of Campania bears some resemblance with this close and terrible passage, through the Valley of Death: were the terrors many at the entrance, they increase and multiply at the coming forth: There's no hiding, stopping or retreating; when the Reapers are sent forth to gather the Tares 
d Mat. 13.30.  together, to bind them in bundles and to burn them to ashes: no stately Mausoleums, no Marble Tombs can detain the new-enlivened bodies, when they begin to hear the shrill Echoes of the Arch-Angels Trumpet: That acute voice which sounded so oft in the ears of Jerom, Arise ye dead and come to Judgement.  
The great doctrine of the Resurrection which vain Athenians derided, now shines forth in its glory: when the bones that were scattered at the graves mouth begin to crawl together: See, 
Ezek 37.8.  how the sinews, nerves, and muscles climb up to their proper places, and milk-white skin covers them round about: Here's an admirable spectacle of the imperial power of God: when so many millions of miracles, shall proclaim that glorious and fearful name of the Lord of Hosts: when some dust shall creep up the Banks of Rivers, and others from the depths of the Sea: when that which was mingled with common Earth, or the Sands of the Shore, the Bowels of Fishes, wild Beasts and Cannibals, shall each Atom return to the structure of their proper Bodies, and all the round Globe over, new-quickned, and living persons start up in every quarter: Methinks the Angels stand gazing at it, and trumpeting forth blessing, 
a Rev. 5.13. Clem. Alex. storm. l. 5. p. 405.  honour, glory and power to him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.  
That the ancient Heathens had some glimpses of this great point, 
b Euseb. de prepar. Evang. l. 11. c. 33. & l. 13. c. 13.  Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius out of Plato and Plutarch, and our 
c Bradward. de Caus. Dei l. 1. c. 1. sect. 39 p. 96.  Bradwardin out of Pliny, Varro, Plato and Democritus give some evidence: But whence the old Sophies lighted their Torches, and how far they improved their faint and glimmering twilight I must not enlarge: nor show, who risen no higher than Pythagoras his doctrine of transanimation, out of Porphyry and the Stoic Schools: since we have a more sure word of Prophecy, to which we do well 
d 2 Pet 1.19.  to take heed as to a light, shining in a dark place till the Daystar arise in our hearts.  
We have here to consider, with what consternation of Spirit, all wicked and ungodly men, shall lift up their heads out of the dust of Death: How bitterly shall their Souls and Bodies greet and rue the day of their sad reunion: These Simeons and Levies, former brethren in evil, now turn mutual instruments of cruelty in their habitations: Methinks the foredooming of that Tragical Dialogue should fore amuse any reasonable creature, To think, how the lamenting body shall wring its hands at the moment of the Souls reentry: when the Soul itself shall tremble and all the bells of the senses ring backward at this fatal marriage: How do the eyes gush forth with tears in that cloudy morning, and the whole day overflown 
e Pro. 27 15  with continual droppings of a soaking rain, and that with tears of blood, and flaming drops of brimstone. They who were in this life mutual tempters, shall in that life be mutual torments: O that mortals would put on Prometheus betimes and be wise beforehand, and cry out with Jacob, O my 
a Gen. 49.6.  Soul come not into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united: For both were guilty of self-murder, and that of the deepest grain, the strangling of Souls.  
But alas! were the body to rise only, that were its happiness and perfection. Resurrection in its simple notion speaks out the redintegration of nature: The form of the Soul hath a strong and vehement appetite after the material Body: It delights in union to perform the native and genuine functions of information: Alas! sinners shall not merely rise, but must all stand before the Judgement Seat of Jesus Christ, and can there be any thing more horrible to the imagination of a dying sinner, not reconciled to God, than the great and fearful Tribunal? When God 
b Eccl. 12.14.  shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil: When Death rides towards him on a meager and pale Horse; that dismays him most to spy Judgement galloping after him. 
c Heb. 9.27  It's appointed for all to die, and rhen to Judgement.  
There will a Judge sit down upon a fiery Throne of Carbuncle: who shall not 
d Isay. 11. ●●  judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears, external appearance and glittering greatness bribe's the understanding: and false witness perverts the sentence of an earthly worm: he must go (Secundum allegata & probata) according to proofs and witnesses: But here's a Judge 
e Ib. V. 3.  of quick scent in the fear of the Lord: righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness of his reins. (The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) 
f Heb. 4.12, 13.  the Word essential pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow; he is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart: There's not a creature but is manifest in his sight: All things without are naked and stripped of their vestments, and all things within are cut open by his Razor, and anatomised to the backbone and spinal marrow before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.  
The eyes of this Judge are 
g Rev. 1.14, etc.  as a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass burning in a Furnace, he treads down and burns up his enemies at once: His voice is as the sound of many waters, who can abide the day of his coming? Out of his mouth flows a sharp two-edged Sword, and his countenance is like the Sun shining in his strength. 
a Rev. 2.23  He searcheth the reins and hearts, and giveth to every one according to their works.  
He that sits down on this Judgement Seat, 
b Rev. 4.3, etc.  is to look on, like the various and many-veined Jasper in the rare diversity of his excellent and glorious atributes and perfections: like the incarnate Sardine in taking our flesh upon him, and round about the Throne the enamouring Rainbow of the Covenant, shining like a pleasant green Emerald with all the glittering promises of the Spirit. Upon twenty four Seats encompassing this illustrious Chair of heavenly state, sit the reverend Assessors, twenty sour Elders, clothed in white Raiment and Crowns of Gold upon their Heads, according to the twenty four Orders of Priests, attending this great Prince of might, and Highpriest upon 
c Zach. 6.13.  his Throne, and between his Princely and his Priestly Dignities, the Counsel of Peace shall stand. Before him burn seven Lamps of Fire, and upon twelve Brazen Oxen stands a Sea of Glass like Crystal: He is endued with the multiformions gifts and graces of the holy Spirit: his hands are always purely washed in Innocency, and round about the Throne in this Majestical Temple-Session, angelical Cherubims full of eyes, cry night and day 
f Rev. 4.8.  [Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, 
V 5.  and is to come] and from out of the Throne proceed lightnings, and thunderings, and voices.  
At so radiant and tremendous a Spectacle, in such a glorious and orient Theatre: how can the direful persecutors of the Church look up? O how they creep to the Rocks for some hole some cleft to pity them, O Nimrod Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezar! O Nero Trojan and Dioclesian, whither will ye run from the face of the Lamb, that sits on the Throne, who with his fulgent Eyes, searches and pierces to the Centre of the Universe. O Pope of Rome and thy cursed Shavelings, It's in vain now to stand poring on 
g Bern. de Consid. ad Eugen f. 237. h.  Bernard's good monitions to thy stubborn Predecessor, Eugenius. O Bonner and Gardiner, what will become of you and your ●ccess●r● for pushing, and goring, and letting out the blood of Saints, all in the Book of Martyrs, Remember James Abbes, and the 
a Fox Martyrs Vol. 3. p. 956, etc. Ed. 1641.  Sheriff's Servant at Bury, who railing at that faithful Martyr, was struck with madness and cried out, James Abbes is the Servant of God and is saved, but I am damned, and inveighed at the Priest that brought him the Host, that he and such were the cause of his damnation.  
Is it so terrible before hand in the presentiments and preaccusations of Conscience, before that great and fearful Day of the Lord come? What will be the horror of execution, when the blood which is dried up in prisons as well as drawn forth by whips and flames, shall be weighed to a drop and a grain in the balance of this righteous Judg. So much 
b Rev. 18.7  torment and sorrow give them: Then the Beast shall be taken, and with him that false Prophet the Pope, that wrought Miracles before him: Both these shall be cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone: Then, they that 
c Rev. 14.10, etc.  worship the Beast and his Image, and received his Mark in Hand or Forehead, shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever. They shall have no rest day nor night, who adored the Beast or his Image, or received the Mark of his Name: And this brings me to the last Consideration, and that's Eternity.  
The misery of Hell (could I speak it properly) were it to end but a moment on this side Eternity, either in bliss or abatement of pain or complete annihilation: 'twere a sovereign Cordial. The memory of it would be a cooling drop day by day, upon the tongue of every Dives, to keep it from blistering into blasphemy.  
But to ponder upon this dreadful, Ever: and to champ upon it to Eternity; it's a thousand times more bitter than Wormwood, Aloes or Coloquintida. 'Tis to swallow down the wine of astonishment, and to pledge one another 
d Deut. 30.33.  with the poison of Dragons, and the cruel venom of Asps.  
I dare any wicked man in the world to run on in their follies, with any serious apprehensions of Eternity, 
Clem Alexandr. Strom. l. 1. p. 222. Edit. Lug. B.  or calm convictions of it upon their Spirits. Poor Heathens have highly asserted the Souls immortally, and common reason evinces, that there can be no communion between God and Belial, light and darkness can't associate. If the Soul be immortal, and its union to ●od be the life of the Soul? must it not (when God's absent, & absent for ever from all unholy persons) lie down in Eternal death? He that walketh in light, 
1 John 1.6, 7, etc.  dwelleth and hath fellowship with the Father, and with the Son: But he that lives and dies in darkness can never come to, or abide in Eternal Light: But must be cast out into utter darkness, where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  
I know there be such in our days, or else I should not mention it, who would fain tamper with the false doctrine of Origen, and (like his weak Disciples) would persuade themselves, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebr. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek, often note but a stated determination of time, and therefore may be so understood in this case. Poor wretches! will they hazard their all, upon a pitiful conjecture: a jejune criticism in Grammar and run foolhardy upon the pikes of divine vengeance and the thick bosses of his Bucklers, under the thin covert of a words acceptation sometimes in that sense in Scripture: when the nature of the matter, and the force of the context obliges: should you not rather deeply weigh and ponder upon those places: where the damnation of the wicked is opposed to the eternal salvation 
b Dan. 12.2 Mat. 25.46. Judas 7, 21, 22.  of the Godly. Do you believe eternal life for the Saints? and shall the wicked, who come not into a life of grace, shall they after a set race of years be raised to glory? Such as never repent, never close with Christ, never fly to the promise while here; and is there any repentance in the grave or remission of sins? O fool, twice died in grain, that darest to venture thy Soul upon the punctilio of a word. Nay, is not that very word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, used and applied to the divine 
c Rom. 16.26. Heb. 9.24.  Majesty, who inhabits eternity, and dwelleth in the inaccessible light: Nay, are there not other cogent expressions setting out the perpetuity of that estate in misery (where their word is absent: with which they play their lives at stake.) Is there not a doleful 
d Mat. 5.26. Rev. 1.18.  prison, which no man can unlock or break through, or be let forth till he pay the utmost farthing? Is there not a place where the 
a Mark 9.44, 46, 48.  worm of Conscience dies not, and the fire shall never be quenched? Are these but dry metaphors? Take heed thy Soul be not the dreadful fiery comment, that thou sink not into 
b Luk. 16.26.  that great gulf, 
c Riu. 20.3.  that bottomless-pit: If thou wilt be 
d Pro. 9.12.  wise, be wise for thyself and believe on the Son 
e Joh. 3.36.  to everlasting life, he that beliveth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.  
O Souls, will you warm your thoughts, and unfreeze your security at that fearful fire: will you open your eyes at the sight of that horrible darkness. Fire that yields, no light and flames, that are thick with darkness. O monstrous misery! A cohabitation with Devils: The Drum of the Ears even tingles, and is broken in pieces, with distracted roar of men and devils, and yet to see no body. O Souls! will you be warned by the noises of these Canons at distance? shall that insatiable thirst and gnawing worm well viewed in the glass of divine threaten provoke you to mend? Or will you stay rather, till you feel the loins of wrath in its unsupportable burden, and then cry out to late? Alas thy Conscience then at every turn will dun thy Soul, with that of Abraham to 
f Luk 16.25.  Dives O Son remember, etc. Remember the many holy Sabbaths, the precious Sermons, the earnest zeal of painful Ministers to pull thee as a firebrand out of the fire: Remember the good examples, the pious precedents, the melting admonitions, the sore afflictions and fatherly visitations of God. Remember me, thy now sweltering Conscience, that shook the often by the Collar, that scared thee to some duties, and gave thee many a warm Item of this wrath to come: Remember how thou scoffedst at puritans and mourners for sin. Remember that good spirit that cried to thee, Return, return, harden not t●y heart, harken while 'tis called to d●y. But now vain is the hope or mercy: vain to lift up the bitterest cries, thou shalt find no place for repentance in the breast of God, 
g Heb. 12.17.  no change in his mind, though thou seek it carefully with tears. The day of thy blessing is past. Now the hope of the hypocrite is cut off, ●nd swept down like a Spiders Web. Now thou hast no rest from this angry teazd Vulture, that knaws thy Liver night and day: And that which puts the bloody and circumflex accent, the abiding tone upon all thy maladies: They are Eternal, who can dwell with 
a Is. 33.14.  everlasting burn, who will set 
b Is. 27.4.  briers and thorns against him in Battle? who can enter the Lists and contend with consuming fire, when it shall devour before him and be very 
c Is. 50.3.  tempestuous round about him: when he shall show 
d Is 30.3, 31.  the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones: When the pile of Tophet shall be fire, and much wood, and the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone shall kindle it?  
These are the fiery Serpents (the Haseraphim) the Devils, the fell Dragons that gape with open mouth, that hisse with inflamed tongues, and pour out floods of venom, at the further end of the grave upon every impenitent sinner.  
O that the terror of the Lord would persuade men to take hold of his arm, to makepeace with him, and to be 
e Job 22.21.  at rest. O that I could rouse vain man from the lap of pleasure. Will ye sleep on the 
e Pro. 23.34.  top of a Mast, in such a rolling and ●umbling tempest, when every whist may toss you into the deeps of Hell? Be wise at last, if possible, and shalt off your senseless slumbers: O hard heat that tremblest not at the rattling of his Chariots, when he clotheth the necks of his Horses, with thunder against thee as in the day of Battle. That's a hard heart which is not frightd at itself, and what will be the event? Ask not me, says 
f Bern ad Eugen. f. 237. a.  Bernard, but ask Pharaoh: Be instructed by the Egyptian Carcases on the shore of the Red-sea. Will you learn to 
g Ps. 2.12.  kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way? when his wrath is kindled but a little: O when it flames all a broad, how terrible is it? The flames of London were but painted fire to this. That sucked up houses, but this 
h Mat. 10.3.  immortal Souls.  
But where's the Remedy? O kiss the Son lest he be angry: O blessed Son! O gracious Saviour, that's 
a I. 2.12.  angry, if he be not kissed; and grieved if he be not loved: He loves 
b Pro. 8.17▪ 36.  them that love him: and complains, that they wrong their own Souls, and love death, that hate him.  
Vile Sinners! we are angry with him because he calls for love, who needs not care for't: let's be angry with ourselves, because we give it not: He's angry with sinners, that Sinners kiss him not. 
V 3.  Such as cast away the cords of his Laws, he casts about them the cords of his love. And must such sinners kiss him? yes! they kiss the creatures, why not him? he made our hearts, he loves our hearts and chides to have them. 'Tis a jealous love, no waters quench, but such as freely run into it.  
Here's loving anger and wrath in grace, he fights with kind anger, that he may embrace with love. 'Tis the heat of love that kindles his anger, but if neglected, 'twill blaze into a flame. His love hastens us with the voice of anger: that the fire of his anger consume us not: His anger calls us from his anger, but not to his anger, but to his love. His mouth checks us that we may kiss it, and his heart is moved for us, that we may move into it: when anger warns, 'tis loving anger: but love too long abused kindles the flame of wrath. If so much love in this holy anger to bring us to him: what manner of love in those blessed kisses, when we come. Let's then love his anger and kiss his love: For happy are all they that put their trust in him. 
Ps. 2.12.   
You that are living, harken to his anger that ye may never feel it, lay this love to heart, and consider its latter end. This love will gather the Saints together, and set apart the godly, the kind 
c Ps. 4.3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benignus.  in heart 
d Ps. 50.4.  that love him, for himself: For such have made an everlasting covenant of Salt with him by sacrifice.   

CHAP. VII. Of a Saints Comforts, against all the Evils in Death ..  
I Will fear no evil, says David: For thou art with me, thy crook and thy staff, they comfort me.  
Here are evils great and manifold in this Valley of Death: evils to be feared and trembled at, but not by a David. A Saint will fear no evil: what David, no evil? not the evil of loss nor the evil of sense, 
Anacephalaeosis.  not the parting from many sweet enjoyments, not the curse of the Law, thundering from Sinai, and lightning from Ebal, not the conflicts of conscience, nor the darts of Satan, not the pangs of sickness, nor the pangs of death▪ not the mouldering dust, nor unsavoury stench, not the hideous darkness, nor the tedious night of the grave, as you may perceive by the foregoing Chapters. O valiant David! when God stands by thee: what, dost thou not stagger at the doctrine; nor fear the event of thy resurrection to Judgement, not the strictness of that awful Judge, nor his doomfull sentence, nor the long face or silver hairs of Eternity? No, no! David will fear no evil, and here's his Cordial. For thou art with me: thy crook and thy staff, they comfort me.  
He fears no evil, because God is with him: He fears God, and therefore nought but God. I'll forewarn you whom ye shall fear, 
a Luk. 12.5.  says our Lord, fear him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him. The filial fear of God expels the tormenting fear of death and hell itself. Holy David with one God in his hand encounters and vanquishes every evil, and scatters the fear of evil. Let the King of Terrors muster his Forces and order his Troops in Battalia: The shadow of death to David is but the shadow of evil. Though 
b Ps. 3.6.  ten thousand Curiassiers run upon him a-tilt with envenomed and poisoned spears, 
c Ps. 4.8.  he lays him down in the bosom of God, he sleeps in peace; For thou Lord makest him to rest in safety. The 
d Job 26.11.  Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof, who keeps a Saint in his arms. he'll scourge the black Tents of 
e Hab. 3.7. Mat. 27.54.  Cushan with affliction, and the pale Curtains of this Land of Midian, like the Soldiers at our Lord's Sepulchre, shall tremble to detain a Saint in the grave; For he that keepeth Israel 
f Ps. 121.3.  shall neither slumber nor sleep: he'll awaken him in due time in the resurrection morning, to enter the Courts of Glory.  
David says not: I shall not die, and therefore I will not fear: But though I die, I will not fear, for thou art with me. Be the waters of Kidron never so deep: the fire of Tophets' Valley never so quick and furious: 
g Ps. 40.2.  the pit of Moloch never so dark and obscure: God hath secured my heart from fear, because he is with me: 
a Isay 43.2.  The waters shall not drown, nor the fire burn, nor the pit swallow. The power and wisdom, the mercy and truth of God encircle the faith of a Saint, he dies 
b Heb. 11.13.  kissing and embracing the promises, and like good old Simeon taking Christ in his arms: he tunes his Swan-like 
c L k. 2.28 29.  Sonner, and sings himself asleep at the mouth of the grave.  
Thou art with me: For thou art mine. A God in Covenant guides to death and receives to glory. Other friends take leave at death: Here's a friend like Ruth 
d Ruth 1.16.  goes through with the● to Canaan: Others shake hands at the grave, they weep with Orpah and departed: This friend takes thy spirit into his 
e Luk. 23.46.  hands immediately, and keeps thy body in his privy 
f Is. 26 20.  chamber of presence. God is the God of Abraham even in the grave. God 
g Mat. 22.32.  is not the God of the dead, but of the living: God is the God of whole Abraham, therefore Abraham is alive to God, his immortal soul is alive with God: his precious dust is alive to God: and therefore Abraham's body shall arise to glory: 'Tis in his keeping, who keepeth all the 
h Ps, 34.20.  bones of his Saints, not one of them is broken: and to morrow (I mean at the resurrection of the just) all their 
i Ps. 35, 10.  bones shall say, Lord who is like unto thee? joseph's bones are embalmed for heaven, and lie in a more magnificent Tomb then Egyptian Pyramids, and 
k Gen. 50.25. Exod. 3.19. Josh. 24.32. Heb. 11.22.  follow the Ark to Canaan. Does the Father take care of his children's bones? what chest do they sleep in? with 
l Is. 26.19.  my dead body, says Christ, in the Cedar Chest of the Covenant. What? do they sleep in the arms of his own beloved Son? yes, they 
m 1 Thes. 4.14.  sleep in Jesus, and shall rise with Jesus: They are baptised into his death, 
n V 14.  and buried in his grave, and brought in the clouds together with him. The same new Tomb, the same Fine Linen, the same Spices, the same Angels for a Saviour, and for his Saints. Little did Joseph of Arimathea, think that he embalmed the whole body mystical of Christ, and wrapped the Saints together with him in the same 
o Joh. 20 7  Napkin, but so he did, by reason of their communion with him.  
But does the Father and the Son likewise take such heavenly care of dying Simeons? and is the Spirit of Grace at a distance from the bodies of Saints, which are his p Temples? No such matter! though there were not a stone of these Temples lying upon another, yet the Spirit will rear them up. The Spirit of God is at work in the grave of a Saint: If the 
a 1 Cor. 6.19.  spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, well may a Saint with holy Jacob 
b Ro. 8.11.  gather up his feet into his bed and sweetly fall a sleep. For the Father keeps him, the Son lies by him, and the Spirit quickens him: All heaven will come down to the grave of a Saint, and not wake their beloved, till 
c Gen. 49.33.  the day break and the shadows flee away, then up he gets to the mountains of Myrrh and to the Hills of Frankincense. 
d Song. 6.4.   
But to follow David: its worth tracing the footsteps of David: nay the footsteps of God with David in this Valley: Therefore he fears not, for God is with him: let's listen to his Harp and learn the Ditty. Methinks I hear five principal Songs of spiritual consolation for a dying Saint.  
An Experimental feeling of the divine presence. For thou art with me: David has it and David feels it, and therefore speaks it: 'Tis his safety to have it, his joy to feel it, and his love to speak it; the having of God at death carries us to heaven safely; the feeling it, wings us thither, and makes us sing of it to others, when we are flying.  
A holy Appeal to God in Prayer, David must now be supposed upon his knees, praying, harping, singing, for thou art with me: All the joyful Prayers of a Saint end with Songs, and the Songs with this Epiphonema; this burden, shall I call it? No! this Diapsalma, this Selah, this Diapason, this Close upon all the Strings, For thou art with me.  
A Saint in Covenant, and a Saint knowing it, may die sweetly: 'tis a strong Cordial, 'twill sweat away death: For thou art with me, and what's the reason; For thou art mine; He that can prove, that God is his, may sweetly infer that God is with him. God's with none but who are his: But they that are so, and know it so, shall fear no evil: For God makes them 
d Act. 2.28  full of joy with his countenance.  
Divine Relation is a Saints Sanctuary. Fly to this holy Tower and thou art safe. The Lords 
a Ps. 23.1.  my shepherd, I shall not want a full Table, trickling Oil, a running Cup are David's portion. Such a child that hath a God to his Father, 
V 5  fears no want. Such a Lamb, that hath a God to his Shepherd, fears no evil. His crook and his staff shall comfort him: Here's green Pastures and pleasant Rivers in the very Valley of Death.  
Faith's prospect of Heaven transports a Saint, He sees Death's Valley: but 'tis a Gilded Vale. 'Tis a narrow Valley, he leaps it over with his Shepherd's staff: Faiths eyes are strong and its legs nimble: He takes his rise from the promise, and no sooner dies, but is over Kidron: At death carnal men's eyes are dim, no spectacle, no optic Glass can help them to spy Jerusalem. A Saint like Moses hath 
b Deut. 34.7.  strong eyes, nor is his natural moisture fled. He stands upon the Pisgah of his own Tomb, and sees cross the whole Land of Canaan, to the utmost, 
c V 2.  even the Mediterranean Sea. Others at death, how feeble are 
d Eccl. 12.3  the knees of their Souls? their hands the keepers of their house tremble, and their thigh-bones the strong men bow themselves. But the feeblest of the inhabitants of Zion, (I speak of such as stand [in specula visionis 
e Zach. 12.8 ] in the watchtower of Faith, and look through the glass of assurance) they shall be as David in that day, and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them: As David! but why as David? Sure, strong was the faith and piercing the eye of David, that saw glory so clearly through all the thick Fogs & Mists of the Valley: 'Twas God was with him that cleared his eyes, and pointed with his hands as he did to Moses, and 
f Deut. 34.1, 4.  caused him to see it. But neither Moses nor Aaron must enter, to show that the ceremonial no nor the moral Law can't waft us over the Brook to Canaan. But David, the Prince of the new Covenant, he shall tread down the Canaanites, and on his head shall his Crown flourish: David the Subject had Daved the 
g Ps. 84.3.  King with him: David the Servant had David the Son: the Son of Jesse had the Son of God for 
h Ps. 110.1.  his Lord and Captain. And whose Faith shall not flower by Christ's watering? and whose fear shall not whither at his presence: who fears death when this Shepherd sustains? who fears his arriving to Heaven, if a God, if a God in Covenant, if my God and my Father lead me. Thou art now with me, says David, I'll not fear, for shortly I shall be with thee: Gods with us here: but we are with him in heaven: here drops of Heaven slide into us, there we shall swim in heaven's Ocean: Here a little of the oil of joy trickles into our hearts from 
a Ps. 133.2.  the head of Christ: there we shall 
b Mat. 25.21.  enter into the fullness of our Lord and Master's joy: here it enters into us, and there we enter into it. But still by virtue of his presence, thou art with me, and the vigour of his conduct, thou shalt lead me: Thou art with me to bring me to thee: Thy Crook and thy Staff they comfort me, and why? For they protect and guide me to thy holy Hill, and to thy Tabernacles. Thou wilt show me the path of life: At 
c Ps. 16.11.  thy tied hand are pleasures for evermore: of all these five, I hope to treat in their order; If God permit.   

CHAP. VIII. Experimental feelings of the Divine presence, choice Comforts to a Saint at Death.  
THou hast made known unto me the ways of life: and what follows? Thou 
d Act. 2.28.  shalt make me full of joy from thy countenance. God's face darts one beam of light on the path of a Saint, to shine upon his way to glory: another beam (and that's of joy) upon the heart of a Saint, to oil his motion. And all but beams: yet warming beams and experienced beams to hasten him to the Sun it . A Saint has now but beams of joy, and blessed be God for beams, and such beams as direct and attract to the Sun itself, to that Sun of joy, to that fullness of joy in his countenance: Saints look unto him and their 
c Ps. 34, 5.  faces are enlightened, our looking to God makes us look like him and the nearer to him, the more we are like him God's countenance is of a changing and transforming nature: When God looked upon Moses but through a chink: how did his face shine, how lovely was it, as well as glorious? God smiles on a Saint in love, and a Saint reflects upon God with joy.  
But Saints have not only good looks from God, but free entertainment. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his Names sake: oh! how the cool Etesian gales from the rivers of the spirit in ordinances revive and refresh a Saint: The experience of present mercies dispels the fears of future evils: I will fear no evil for thou art with me: God never forsakes a soul in covenant, never withdraws his real (though sometimes his visible) communion. I foresaw the Lord always 
a Act. 2. 2● 27.  before my face: therefore my heart rejoices &c. because thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave. By nature Gods not with us: but when once the day spring from on high doth visit us, grace never sets in an evening, whether we sleep or wake we are still with God.  
Here's the point, to know aright; that God is with us: and we with him. Whether we have walked with God and he with us. If Enoch walk with God then God will take him: He that walks with God, pleases God: 
b Gen. 5.24.  The Septuagint render the Hebrew word for walking, by pleasing God, and the Spirit of God delights in the word [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] and uses the same 
c Heb. 11.5.  when treating of Enoch in the New Testament to show what pleasure God takes in them, that walk with him.  
If we walk with God, we have fellowship and communion with him. God 
d 1 Joh. 1.6, 7.  is light, and if we walk in light we walk with him: Light is holiness: and a holy person walks in light and dwells in God: let's not spot our garments, and we shall walk with him in white 
e Rev. 3.4.  The fine linen of holiness alas, what Saint doth keep it clean: we must wash it daily in the Laver of the Spirit, or else no company for a holy God: The best of our linen is but course and yellow: it's well if it be sincere and true: but than it shall shine with rays of glorious light, and be laced and beautified with admirable gifts: The Queen 
f Ps. 45.14.  shall be brought unto him in raiment of needlework at the wedding day. Now 'tis soiled with many a drop and many a foul spot: but then as pure as God would have it. Now, the more's the pity, 'tis patched and ragged: many a Saint is out at heels in his holiness, he walks disorderly and uncomely. But then we shall have new Coats fine linen, clean and white, Rev. 19, 8. and change of Raiment from our elder brother. Benjamin 
a Gen. 45.22.  shall be fine indeed, when he sits at the Table of the Ruler of Canaan: 'Tis holiness fits us for Table communion in heaven: 'tis porch communion in grace that brings us near it: hast thou never walked with God in the porch? thou shalt never sit down at the 
b Luk. 22.30.  Table of Christ and drink the new wine of the Kingdom.  
Again, As God walks in the light of holiness: he walks also in the holy Place of his Temple, God delights in his Ordinances, in his pure worship: We walk with God, when our hearts are in communion with him in Ordinances. His paths are in the Sanctuary there's his 
e Lam. 2.1.  footstool and there his go: He 
d Rev. 2.1.  walks among the golden Candlesticks: In the Temple all talk of his glory, while he sits at the Table of grace, and the 
c Song. 1.11  Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof; There he hath 
f Ps 133.3.  commanded the blessing and life for evermore.  
Walking, in Scripture when applied to God in communion with Saints, is expressed three several ways: Before God, with God, and after God.  
To walk before God (among others) one special sense is, (that we are now upon) to walk in pure and holy worship. Coming up to the Temple is called a coming up 
g 1 King. 14 9  before God, our appearing, 
h Ps. 56.13.  sitting, 
i 1 Sam. 2.30, 35. Ps. 100.2, etc. Ezek. 33.31.  walking and abiding before him. h And Jerohoam is branded on the account of false worship, that he cast God behind his back. As God commands his people, they shall have no other Gods before him; So he forbids any other worship than he hath instituted, to serve himself with: For he is 
k Exod. 20.5.  a jealous God: his eyes do see quickly 
l Exod. 32.8. , and his jealousy will 
m Dent. 29.18, 20.  smoak fiercely against such a man and all the curses in the Book shall lie upon him, and the Lord will blot his name from under heaven. Bold and saucy is that silly worm that presumes to chalk out a worship for the living God.  
To walk with God, is to walk in his ways, in his statutes and commandments to do them: to eye his directions, to feel and turn about with every guide of his hand. We must 
n Ps. 119.  choose his precepts for our way, and we shall have him for company: and is the way so holy, and our God so holy? then blessed is the man: that's holy and undefiled in such a way, 
Ps. 119.1.  and in such heavenly company. The 
a Hos. 14.9.  ways of the Lord are right: the just shall walk in them: but transgressors shall fall therein. Every holy duty is a rock of offence, and a stone of stumbling to a carnal heart, he trips and stumbles and falls and rises no more: But an upright heart, and an upright way, meet pleasantly with an 
b Ps. 25.8.  upright Lord, that teaches sinners in the way, and guideth the week in judgement: 
c Pro. 11.20.  Such as are upright in the way, are his delight, he takes pleasure in the path and person.  
To walk 
d Deut. 13.4  after God, is to choose God for our Captain and Leader: to make him our example, precedent and conduct. The Israelites followed the cloud of God's presence by day, and the pillar of Fire by night, in the howling Wilderness of Arabia, till they came to Canaan. When the 
e Num. 9.17.  cloud was taken up, than Israel journied, and where the cloud abode, there they pitched their Tents: Saints must be imitators 
f Deu. 1.36 Josh. 14.8, 9  of Caleb and Joshuah, to follow the cloud of the divine presence fully: and this is the Church's prayer 
g Ps. 80.2.  before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseth stir up the Ark of thy Strength, march before us to lead and save us: A holy and perfect God goes before, and a holy and perfect People follow after: Be 
h Mat. 5.48  ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect: be ye holy in all manner of conversation; For 'tis written 
i Pet. 1.15, 16.  be ye holy as I am holy: Not to come up to it, but to come after it; not to equal but to eye and imitate. O perfect copy! the more a Saint looks at it, the more he mends his hand: O the rare strokes in this pattern of holiness! that enamours the eye to behold, and quickens the hand to imitate: As he is, so are we 
k 1 Job. 4, 17.  in this world: as he walked 
l 1 Joh. 2.6  so ought we: So should we Lord! and by thy heavenly conduct so would we: Let Saints consider, how Christ walked: how obediently to the Father, how tenderly to the brethren, how mortified to the world's vanities. When thy thoughts are tempering, or thy tongue upon the string: thy hand or thy foot hastening to action: stop one moment, consider, would Christ do this, 
m Eph. 5.1.  and be followers of God as dear children.  
Thirdly, As God walks in holiness, and in the Sanctuary of Ordinances: So he delights to walk among a holy People: he 
n Zeph. 3.17  rejoices over them with joy, he rests in his love, and joys over them with singing: When Zion shines in holiness, she shall be a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal Diadem in the hand of her God: She shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor her land desolate: But her own name shall be 
a Isa. 62.4.  Hephzi-bah and her Lands name Beulah: For the Lord delighteth in her, and her land shall be married. The joy and delight of God is in a people like himself, with such he will dwell, rejoice over them, 
b 2 Cor. 6.16, 16.  above the joy of harvest, and walk in them for ever. 
c Pro. 8.17.  I love them that love me, says Wisdom, and who seeks me early shall find me: Love sets the heart a seeking and the more we love him, we seek the earlier. I sought yea 
d Song. 3.1.  by night, him whom my soul loved. Night-searchers are Christ-finders, a holy heart seeks a holy Saviour, and a holy Lord delights to be found by it: Christ absents, not for want of love to us, but to inflame our love to him: he loves 
e Song 2.9, 14.  to stand behind the wall, and to hear our moaning after him; to look out at the 
e 2.9.  window of heaven, and taketh pleasure to see our wander about to find him, and sends 
f Isa. 30. 2●  his holy spirit to whisper to us, where he is.  
Art thou like Christ? Dost thou delight in 
g Song 2.14  hearing the voice, and seeing the face and changing breaths in conversing with Saints? Does the blood of David run in thy Veins? Does thy goodness, thy kindess, extend to Saints on earth, to those 
h Ps. 16.2, 3  excellent ones, more excellent 
i Prov. 12.26.  than their neighbour? Is thy delight in these Princes of the daughters of Zion, these 
k Ps. 45.16.  Princes in all the Earth. God calls Zion his Hephzi-bah my delight is in her: Dost thou call the Suns of Zion, thy Hephzibam? My delights in them. So David did, 
l Ps. 16.3.  Col-Hephzibam, All my delights in them. All his delight: All his time and all his parts, all his estate, and all his affections are spent with God and Saints: With his good will, he could spend all his days in the Courts of God's house and society of Israelites, that come up to worship. Art thou one of these? then all these are thine: because thou art Christ's, thy heart's in them, and one day in their company is a little heaven: For what makes heaven? 
Ps. 84.7.  but a purer and a longer communion with God and Saints. Why did David so long and pant to dwell in God's house? that he calls it, his 
n Ps 27.4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  one thing, his one, his only, his darling, his choice petition? chief! to 
a Ps. 27, 4.  behold the amenities, the pleasantnesses, the beauties of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple, to taste the 
b 36.8.  fatness of his house, the fat sacrifices of the peace-offerrings with God. God had his part and the Priest his, and the Saint his. In 
c Leu. 7.14.15, etc.  the old Sacrifices all the fat 
d C. 3.16.  was the Lords: but in the spiritual sacrifices, all the 
e Isa. 25.6. Ps. 63.5.  fat is a Saints at the Gospel's mountain: when the cloth is spread for the feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, when the wine's mingled, and 
f Pro. 9.2.  the rable's furnished, and Wisdom cries, 
g Song 5.1.  Eat O friends and drink abundantly O beloved.  
But this is not all, (yet more than all besides) though David love God above all, seeks him before all, and loves Zion for finding God there: yet the Saints he loves too, and therefore delights to go to Zion to meet the multitude, that kept holy feasts in 
h Ps. 42.4.  the courts of God. [Hamon 
i Turba tripudians.  chogag,] To rejoice with the multitude of dancers, and hear the joyful 
k Ps. 89.15  sound: where they are still 
l Ps. 84.4.  praising him and 
m Ps. 145.11, 12.  talking of his power: They sing of his righteousness, his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his Kingdom.  
Whereas the man that pleads his name in Zion Court-roll; he that's 
n Ps. 87.5, 7  born there, delights to be there among the Singers and Players on Instruments: he loves the Songs of Zion; For all his Springs are in Zion, and stream from the God of Zion: Would you sinned a Saint or would you find yourself to be so? look in the Courts of Zion: in pure Ordinances with a pure God do all true Saints converse. Dost thou inquire for the 
o Song 1.7, 8.  footsteps of the flocks of his companions. Perhaps the Father's flock, the little chosen flock of Christ, is with his son Moses, some faithful Shepherd in the 
p Exod. 3.1, 2.  backside of a Desert coming to the mountain of God, and there see Visions of the flaming Bush and the Angel of the Covenant in it? Dost thou delight where Christ does feed, though in secret and retired corners, and holdest communion with Saints there? 'Tis not glittering pomp of outward services that takes the heart of a Saint: that's the mark of a Roman strumpet. 
Joh. 420 2 King 16.11. Altar amascenum.  To worship in spirit and truth: not in gaudy Gerizims or stately Samaritan Temples, not to burn incense on Altars like those of Damascus: but in naked and plain simplicity of the Gospel lies the beauty and glory and ornament of the true Church. Divine institutions: not a tittle beyond them of men's invention, please a holy heart. A true Convert always inquires after purity of worship; like the woman 
a Joh 4.20.  of Samaria, when Christ was working upon her heart, is very inquisitive and busy about the truth of worship and Christ as ready and clear in answers. Art thou a walker with God? thou walkest then and conversest with him, and with holy Saints in holy worship.  
But is thy delight in vain Companions: that's an ill token. Dost thou fancy and relish 
b Mat. 15.9.  vain worship, and settest in the assemblies of superstitious Zealots. It's a bad omen of a carnal heart, and an ignorant head. A man's company shows his morals: and a Saints, his graces. Where our treasure is, there our heart and love, and communion lies. A vain habit and a vain gesture, and vain discourse with vain and trifling spirits are the Sign-Posts, that hang out from an empty and a vain heart. Dost thou bowl away thy time, shoot away thy seasons, and bet away thy precious hours among the wasters of the day of grace? I fear thy profession is rotten at core. David argues his integrity before God, in not having sat 
c Ps. 26.4.  with vain persons. nor having gone in with dissemblers or 
d 35.16.  with hypocrital mockers in Feasts. But that he was a Companion 
a Ps. 119.63.  of all such as feared the Lord and kept his Precepts. Sheep do not use to company with hogs, and lie down in the mire together, you never saw Doves feeding upon Carrion with Crows and Ravens. Such, whom thou perceivest by a spiritual instinct and expectest to sing with thee in heaven; do thou company with, pray, hear, confer and converse with, here upon earth? I need not bid thee: If gracious, the magnetisme, the Loadstone of holiness will draw and allure thee. The perfume of that precious ointment, its fragrant aromatical smell, will attract thy society by a spiritual naturality. Those that are 
c 1 Joh 4.7.  born of God love the Brethren.  
To issue this: If thou findest inward solace and pleasure: 

1. In a holy conversation.  
2. In pure Ordinances. And  
3. In gracious Saints: It's evident, thou walkest hand in hand with God: And by experience thou shalt feel both warmth, conduct and sustentation from that holy hand.   He infuses lively spirits for motion, directs thee in a strait way to the Land of uprightness, and upholds thee from dashing thy foot against any stone of stumbling; For thou lovest his Law, 
a Psal. 119 165.  and nothing which God does to thee, shall offend thee.  
These tokens plainly manifest, that God is with thee: but dost thou feel it? Canst thou say it from an in war warmth influenced into thy Soul, by sitting under the 
b Ps. 91.4.  Feathers of the Almighty, under the wings of the Cherubims in his holy Oracle? Art rhou warmed by Ordinances, and inflamed in thy affections to God, and through a holy, cherishing, vital heat? Canst say with David, thou art with me? then humbly infer I will fear no evil. He that walks in 
c Ps. 89.15  the light of God's face, and under the warmth of his wings: no evil frights him, no Lion in the way turns him aside from the paths of holiness. A righteous man under the sense of the flow in upon him, of the righteousness of Christ, is as bold as a Lion, and makes all the beasts of the forest tremble. He plays with that huge 
d Job 41.2.5.  Leviathan of Death, as with a Bird, and boreas his jaw with a thorn: The head of this 
e Ps. 74.14.  Crocodile, is meat for his Soul in the wilderness: he spreads a banquet for his companions, and parts him among his spiritual merchants: he makes a gain of death, and feeds upon the Destroyer. For 
f 1. Cor. 3.21.  death is his, because he is Christ's and Christ is Gods. He carries the 
g Rev. 2.17.  white stone of absolution in his bosom, and fears not the day of Judgement. Christ is 
h Gal. 1.16.  revealed in him and so shall his glory. The 
i Col. 1.27. Eph. 3.17.  dwelling of Christ in his heart by faith, is not only the bode of glory, but roots and grounds him in love, and enlarges his Soul to comprehehend with all Saints the interminable bounds, the unmeasurable dimensions, the unintelligible knowledge of the love of Christ, till he be filled with all the fullness of God. Though as yet he sees not Christ by the eye of sense: yet he is enamoured with him by the eye of love from the optic nerve of Faith, and 
k 1 Pet. 1.8  rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory. A Saint cannot conceive the greatness of Christ's love nor utter the exuberancy of his own joy. As the love of Christ flows in: so his joy swells, overflows and tides it into the bosom of Christ: He is as full of heaven as he can hold and is ready to take his Phoenix-flight upon the wing of an ecstasy into Paradise.  
But where's the Saint, that enjoys such heavenly feelings of the presence of God? Did we search our experiments to feel our feelings, and taste our tastings of God? More would find the Well and drink the waters of assurance,  Ut nemo in sese tentet descendere, nemo! 
Will no man dive into his breast,  
To seek the face of such a guest?  
Hast thou a Well of living waters within thee and ne'er a Bucket? A Fountain, and ne'er a Basin of Meditation: Be a worthy Soldier of Gideon, 
a Judg. 7.5, 6.  lap with the hand of Faith 
b Bochart. de animal. parti col. 674.  hasten and conquer the Midian of tentation: O how it strengthens the nerves, inspirits, and puts a new life in the sinews of these Champions of valour to fight the Lords Battles: A sense, a taste of the waters of divine love makes a conquering Saint: Like Samson at death, slays all his Philistines, destroys their God and their Temple together: What the touch of God upon the heart is, may be better felt then expressed, and what ye can express, none understands but he that feels: None hear these Unison strokes, but Virgin-Souls that have learned 
b Rev. 14.3  the Song of the Lamb: No stranger intermedles with a 
c Prov. 14 10.  Saints bitterness at first conversion. nor the sweet fruit of joy in assurance: These spices grow in the 
d Song 4 12  enclosed garden, bitter are they in the root and taste at first: but send forth a fragrant scent when pounded in the Mortar of Meditation: These waters flow from a Fountain sealed, like the head of Nilus, but at length by their nitrous streams impregnate all the champion plains of the Soul with fertile and teeming joys: A Saint distils them into Spirits of consolation and then like an expert Chemist circulates all his duties and graces in the closed glass of experience at the Sun of God's countenance into an oil of joy. 'Tis etherial and volatile, and comforts all that mourn: ' I is fragrant wine and highly balsamical fit for a sick beloved: it 
e Song 7.9  goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep, to speak.  
The love of God is a glorious object, seen by the eyes of the Soul turned inward: Experience is like the crystalline humour, through which, and Meditation is like the tunica 
a Spigel. Anat. fol. p. 301. & Bartholin. 80. p. 351 Ed Lug. B. 1651.  retina, the Network-Coat of the Eye, upon which the various kinds and species of divine love are clearly discerned: Like as the curious varieties of all manner of objects are brought into darkened rooms by convex glasses: So 'tis with a Saint in the private room of contemplation when his glass is placed in the roof of his Soul, and all worldly objects are shut out, a heavenly heart lets in only the admirable things that come from above. All that's in Heaven flows in, and paints the Chambers of the Soul like Solomon's Temple within, and adorns a holy heart in lively colours with Palm-Trees and Cherubims: The Queen is all glorious 
b Psal. 45.13.  within: Her clothing of wrought Gold from the Isle of Ophir, her garments of Phrygian Needlework: But all these ornaments beautify the heart within: The King's 
c Song 7.5.  Galleries, within the Soul, are hung with the Arras of Grace, and Tapestry Stories of God's love from Election to Salvation, from Heaven to Heaven: Lift up your heads ye everlasting 
d Ps. 24.9.  doors, that the King of glory may enter, and there 
e Song 7.12  receive his loves.  
Naked innocency and godly simplicity, holy integrity and unblameable purity of life, are a Saints outward ornaments, the choicest lustre, and radiancy shines in the presence Chamber: The Soul that has it, beholds it with unsatiable delight, enjoys it, and is even inebriated and scarce itself, with the pleasant draughts of this cordial Nectar: It drinks abundantly of this holy anodyne to assuage its sorrows: The joys of Heaven poured in from the golden cup of assurance is a choice opiative against death: It perverts not, but exalts the intellectuals and translates a Saint in a trance to glory.  
Hast thou then any spiritual senses, & are they f exercised to discern both good and evil: 
Heb. 5.14  Canst thou taste the bitter evil of death in the forbidden fruit, and cure that mortal gust with the 
g Rev. 2.7.  Tree of Life, in the midst of the Paradise of God: 
Eph. 1.21, 2.  Hath the h Head of Principalities and Powers, commanded away the Cherubims with their flaming Swords from the gates of Eden: Has the Prince of Life called thee to feed upon that i medicinal fruit, 
Rev. 22.2  to live for ever? Has thy Soul relished the sweetness of the water of the crystalline River of Life? Does it flow so fast upon thy Palate with its unspeakable varieties and admirable changes of all manner of delicious tastes, that thy spiritual sancy is uncapable to keep pace with, much less to unfold and express its pleasure: Here are sweet waters stolen from heaven, that the world knows not, and hidden Manna that even many disciples 
a Joh. 4.32  taste not: The waters come down from the 
b Rev. 22.1  throne of God and of the Lamb: They spring from the Fountain of the Father's divine election, and his eternal Covenant with the Lamb, and run between the Banks of the Incarnation and Passion in crystal streams: Hast thou tasted 
c 1 Pet. 2. ●  that the Lord is gracious? Tell me, O Soul, is he not sweet? And so sweet, that thy tongue can't hold but passionately invite others to come 
d Psal. 34.8  taste, and see: Is not the Manna, the 
c Joh. 6.35.  Bread of Life, which Christ gives, suited to every desire and longing appetition of a Saints Palate? Is not his 
f Song 2.3.  fruit sweet to thy taste? Do not the Apples comfort thee, when thou eatest them under his shadow with great delight? To them that believe he is 
g 1 Pet, 2.7. h. 3.  precious, says Peter, If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious: A gracious Lord is a precious Lord, and a tasted Lord is a sweet Lord: Speak true, O Soul, didst ever taste so choice a sweetness, or lay thy lips to such 
i Song 6.11  Pomegranates as grew in this garden: The 
k Song 7.12 & 2.13.  flower of the Vine by its smell allures, by its taste captivates the senses and even overcomes the spirits of a Saint: It's said of the spicy mountains of Arobia the happy, that the gatherers are often bereaved of their spirits by the strong emanation of those fragrant shrubs: Truly Saints, (when walking in the mountains of Canaan the heavenly, I mean of assurance) need the spice of support against the powerful efflux of the spice of joy: The Soul before it finds Christ, is sick of love and when he's found, is sick of joy: I mean, while here below. till we are purified by vision, it can scarce well bear the flow in of assurance: We must have our visions of the Angel of the Covenant like Jacob, 
a Gen. 32.26.  only by dawnlight, glittering noon enjoyments are for heaven: These old Bottles are readyto burst with the new wine of the Kingdom▪ We could not bear the strength of this wine: If the King should often bring us into these Cellars & therefore he keeps the Key, & opens & shuts it at his pleasure: and possibly therefore God is pleased to nourish Saints but with drops of these high Tinctures of glory, full draughts might swell us with pride, and inflame us with fevers of censure again meek walkers: Jacohs Peniels must halt upon shrunk sinews. 
b Gen. 32.32.  And Paul's Revelations must be humbled by Satan's buffets: 'Tis not only the surges of grief, but rivers of joy that may overwhelm the spi As Gerson speaks of a devout woman that breathed out her Soul in the strength of these enjoyments: 
Vol. 3. p. 64. b.  Therefore 'tis, that here we must live by tastes and tastes only: the full banquet's kept to last, the first fruits first, than the harvest; first the bunch of Eschol, and then the Vintage of Canaan: first the watersh wine of Cana, and then the miraculous wine of Christ's glorious Kingdom: Admirable grace it is, that God drops down tastes and lets fall crumbs from the Table of the Spirits of the Just made perfect: And is a taste so pleasant, so delectable, then what's the fullness: Hast thou a mouth that tastes and savours the things of God? Though it stay the stomnck, yet it whets the appetite for glory: The ear trieth words and the mouth tasteth meat, says 
a Job 34.3.  Elihu: but 'tis the heart that ponders judgement: Heavens dainties call for a pondering spirit to dwell upon the relish and a circumspect frame, that we be not wanton: I have heard of thee, says Job, 
b Job 42.5  by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seethe thee (and may we say) my soul tasteth thee: Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes: Abhorrency of self and complacency in God, are tokens of divine tastings, feelings, seings, enjoy: The nearer we draw to those holy embraces, the more lovely doth God appear and more vile ourselves: Nothing else pleases that Soul which hath had a ravishing relish of God: Now nothing less than God, now nothing longer, nothing like him: Not ourselves, our sins humble us, our graces are imperfect: Not Angels: Mary weeps for all she 
c Job. 20.12 13.  talks with shining Angels, 'tis not them she cries for: nor can their white garments dry up her tears, or their radiant shining faces raise the least umbrage of a smile, while her Lord is absent: The burden is, they have taken away my Lord, and where is he? But a word from Christ clear her eyes and cheers her spirit: She knows his voice (when Christ will have it so) before she sees him: She saw a seeming gardener and asks for Christ: but now she sees the true Vine, and tastes his love, she hears his voice and sees his face, and nothing now will serve but 
d V 17.  touching: The more we hear and see of Christ, the nearer, fuller, sweeter, are our approaches to him. The Soul's never satiated on this side heaven: This feast presents heavenly Viands genuine & apposite to a gracious palate: They are not of a cloying, clogging temper, and there ever comes in flowing upon the heart fresh, new, and sweet issue from Christ: Such rare pieces of prospect entertain the Soul in this transfiguring mountain: that it peeps and pries, and piers in at the keyhole of the Chamber of Heaven, and can do nothing but lie at the posts of wisdom and cry with the ancient, plus de te Domine, Mother e of thee Lord  
But on the other side, where are the hearts of besotted worldings: The eyes of a 
a Prov. 17.24.  fool, says Solomon are in the ends of the Earth, rolling and rambling about upon vain objects: But wisdom is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the very face of him that ●ath understanding, he sees such beauty in the face of wisdom: that he shuts his eyes to the world, and opens them only to heaven.  
A wand'ring eye is the sign of an unsatisfied fool, that want learn wisdom from a Solomon: Though God gave him more riches, (If Villalpandus countaright, then ever any of the Roman Emperors had) and all manner of enjoyments and an exquisite heart to dive to the bottom of the visible Creation: Every one that girds himself to run Solomon's race a new, counts that Prince a fool, but proves himself to be so: God commanded Solomon to write a Book on purpose to save our labour, to quench our drought, to excuse our oil, and to set up his Herculean Pillars: On the one side he graves, all is vanity: on the other, ne plus ultra, sail no further: For now there's no terra incognita, no more land, nor continent, nor Isle to be discovered: hear the conclusion of the 
b Eccl, 12 13  whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandment, for this is the whole of man,  
Solomon's Ships of speculation went round the world and brings tidings of more gold for covetous wretches, and more Apes and Peacocks for curious and weak fancies, but no new thing under the Sun: The old pleasures indeed shall waft home new toils, & new vexations, but no satisfaction to a judicious Soul: A wise man therefore fixes his eyes upon divine wisdom and daily contemplates the ribs of Solomon's Ship laid up in the dock at Eziongaber, shattered with its sore travels, and learns the great prudence to stay at home, to study his own heart, and to ponder the paths of understanding. Alas! then may we not pity, deluded, bewitched, entangled mortals, that still hunt their game, and follow the hot scent through the wilderness and forest of this world: Oh! how they puff and pant, and sweat and leap hedge and ditch after the deep throated hounds of their boundless desires to catch a shadow: It's a plain sign they know little and have tasted nothing of God to hunt so fiercely after smoke and vapour.  
I will not say 'tis unlawful to hunt wild Beasts for the food of man, or to make room and preserve his safety: But this I'll say, to take pleasure in setting the creatures at variance, to make a sport of the fruit of sin, to make that a recreation, which God has made a curse, is the sign of one that walks contrary to God: I read of no godly man but of four other hunters in Scripture, Nimrod, and Esau, and Ishmael, and the cruel hunter of souls, and I am sure they are wild and bad companions: But there are a world of huntsmen that pursue the pleasures of sin, and the gains of unrighteous Mammon, and oh how these ignes fatui, these inflamed meteors lead thousands into the bogs of eternal darkness: And as the ancient Heathens sang of huntsmen,— Nec praeda quam caede magis etc. Nunc hominum nunc bella gerunt vio lenta ferarum: That eager hunters of Beasts in times of peace were usually bloody hunters of men, in time of war.  
That man has no communion with God, whose Soul is immersed and drowned in sensual pleasures: Such as walk in the vanity of their minds, 
a Eph. 4 18  are alienated from the life of God; such have little honour or love for God, that forsake the fountain of living waters, and suck the mud of the broken Cisterns of the Creature: Their Souls are as earthy as their objects, and their spirits as base as their pleasures: But remember, that to lay up thy Soul in thy Barns, to tie it in thy Bags, to lodge it in thy Parks, to pack it in thy Warehouse, or stove it in thy Ship: These are dangerous places to look for it: when the world is in a light flame.  
Shall I commend unto thee, O man, a gainful Trade and a pleasant Chase: The first is to lay out all thy Stock for the Pearl of price: The second is to fall in company with David, and 
a Ps. 63.8  follow hard after God, and never leave him till thou get a blessing, As 
b Ps. 42.1  the Hart panteth after the water-brooks; so panteth my soul after thee, O God, Here's a hunted hart turns hunter himself: Sin hunts a Saint, and he pants for God, and at length meets with lovely Venison, but 'tis in the Sanctuary, savoury meat that his soul loves, he tastes it and blesses his darling before he dies: He feeds upon a Kid of the flock takes the Cup of Salvation and Praises, saying, thou hast dealt bountifully with me, 
c Ps. 116.7.  Return, O my Soul, unto thy rest: He has no rest upon earth, no rest but in God, and therefore return, O my soul, unto thy God: He looks upon the whole earth, as Tohu vabohu, without form and void, 
d Gen. 1.2  and all the fullness thereof to be but emptiness, the roating of the seas to sound forth their shallowness, and all the starry heavens to be like 
e Stellae nebulosae.  vanishing clouds: Unless he feel the warmth of the spirit of God moving upon the waters of his soul.  
If thou hast indeed had spiritual feelings of God, thy Soul's warmed, thy thirst to the world slaked, to God inflamed, thy hot inquisition and pursuit of the creature cooled and checked: Fools gather Cockleshells and Pebbles, when there lies before them a mine of Gold or a rock of Diamonds: And here's the vast difference between the possessors of worldly, and the inheritors of heavenly treasures. Those make the man covetous of an evil, 
e Hab. 2.9  covetousness to his house, the other ennobles the mind with a communicative generosity: And there's reason for't, though no reason for sin, yet there's a reason to be rendered why the sinner acts so: For the first loses by his hoarding, and the other gains by his spreading: The graces of the spirit in the soul as well as in the whole Church, are a fountain of gardens, 
f Song. 4.15.  a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon: They are not wells penned up, but overflowing: Come, says David, and I'll tell you what 
g Ps. 66.16.  God hath done for my soul: Experience in these Visions is like sailing upon an Ocean, that hath an infinite round: no diving to the bottom, no kenning of a shore: There's always a terra incognita, an unknown land in heavenly mysteries, and the more we discover, it yields more various and excellent pleasures: New fruits, new tastes, new paradises, new gardens of delight, new songs and new joys for ever: The Songs of the Lamb will be new 
a Rev. 14.3  to all eternity: Here, in this life the soul hoists up sails from the port of conversion, on the waters of Merom, the bitter waves of repentance, mourning and tentation for sin; then spreads them upon the Sea of Galilee in sweet communion with Christ and his holy disciples in the ship, then passes the dead sea without danger, and at length with a prosperous gale falls into the vast Ocean of eternal glory.  
But to reentrench: he that feels, what God is to his soul, is in wardly filled with a sense, what he will be: Death is no more able to amuse a holy soul inbosomed with God, and seasoned with experiences of his love then the Carcase of the Lion was to fright Sampsons' Parents: nay, it fed them with life-honey dropping from the hony-comb.  
Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest, and choicest reflections upon his love, and the fear of death will vanish: Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties: this will make way for secret communion and sweetly increase it: The more frequent and humbly familiar, you are with God in holy reverence: the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul, and enlarge it for glory: our 
a Ps 90.8.  secret sins, says Moses, are in the light, in the broad day light of thy countenance. Let's consider a he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love, let's be as tender to avoid his displeasure, as we would be joyful in the beams of his face: let's 
b Ps 63 6.  remember him upon our beds, and meditate on him in the night watches: Let's 
c Ps. 4.4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  commune with our own hearts and be still, that we may commune with his and be joyful. Silete, vacate, be still from all passions and hurries: give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears. The more our Souls are wrapped up in this communion, the more they die to the world and live to God. Our life is a vapour to dying mortals: but death is a vapour to a living, to a lively Saint.  
But now let me end with a caution that's mixed with a Cordial: A very holy Saint may set in a cloud, and arrive at the haven in a storm. God's tied to believers by promise to save them: but not to carry them in 
a Song 3.9.  Solomon's Chariot of the wood of Lebanon, into Heaven. Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm; Thou art with me, and therefore, I'll fear no evil. When the Soul from feeling can cheer up its spirits, that God is with it: It fears not, who's against it. God for secret reasons 
b Luk. 24.16.  may hold the eyes of some disciples, that they may not know him: to show that all, from grace to glory, is from free love, and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant, nor assurance to discern our adherence. The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works, the peace of God that passeth all understanding, 
c Col. 3.15  to rule in our hearts; and the joys of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain. All our springs are in Zion, and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat. Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Christians, If meek and humble, may enjoy greater Visions, than many gracious, holy, and sweetly gifted Ministers. 'Tis not always the strength of Grace: but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance. A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni: When two experienced Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile, and not see him nor taste him till the evening, till the 
c Luk. 24 29.  Supper of Glory. But yet 'tis rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions. The pure in heart shall see him in the Glass of assurance, as well as behold him hereafter face to face.   

CHAP. IX. Holy Appeals to God in Prayer, great Comforts against Death.  
DAvid was now at Prayer, applying and appealing to God, at owning and appropriating work; telling God, that he was with him. Did not God know that he was with David? Yet! but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it. A Saint must tell God that he feels it, not to satisfy him as unacquainted with it. (For the Lord fills the Soul with himself, and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning.) But because God delights to hear, that we thankfully own and acknowledge it. Thou art with me, David speaks it upon his knees, and with his Harp in his hands he sings it. This Lesson, Lord I learned of thee, wilt thou please to hear it. Thou art with me, in me: and thou within me comest unto thyself. I am full of thee, and therefore my Soul overflows to thee. Thy love is a fire, which hath inflamed my heart: and 
a Excellens sensibile laedit sensum.  being penned it preys upon my spirits: let it have it's holy vent into thy bosom. It multiplies upon itself, and out it must; wilt thou accept it? For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection, and touch every tone with a flame of love: as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar. Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne, winged with that love from whence it came.  
Prayer, what is it, but a flight of the Soul from itself to God? A Soul affected with divine love hath Doves eyes, its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples, unto the holy Oracle within the Veil.  
'Tis in Prayer, that David pours out his Soul and sings, Thou art with me: he says not, thou wilt be with me: but infers, that God would be with him, because he was so: and therefore I shall fear no evil. This God is our God 
a Ps. 48.14  for ever and ever: he will be our guide unto death, and through death: and after 
b Ps. 73.24  death, receive us to glory. Faith carries the foot of prayer, [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] 
b Rev. 14.6.  into the midst of Heaven, as with Angels wings. And as the Lord said to Joshua, so may we say to praying Saints, 
a Josh. 1.3.  every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that hath he given you, the good land is before you, go in and possess it.  
When we pray, we enter the Court of Heaven, where the Lord 
b Exod. 24.10. Ezek. 1.26.  sits on a Saphire Throne, embellished with the morning Stars and the Rainbow of the Covenant round about him, and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him.  
We are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray: Our Father which art in Heaven: as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assumed into Heaven. The Father sees us at all times: but in prayer we do [Sistere nos coram] present our Souls to be seen by him. Should our hearts be in heaven, when our souls are in prayer: what heavenly hearts become so heavenly a presence as God's, and so heavenly a choir as the Angels round about him. Let's pray, that his will be done, as it is in heaven: that we be like a kind of earthly Angels: that in all our prayers, our wills may be hallowed into his, 
d 1 Joh. 5.14.  as when we shall come to heaven. Then, if we ask any thing e according to his will, he heareth us. To have our wills, the best way is to have his holy will to be ours, and then we may pray with reverence, as Luther said, Let our will be done, 
Gerson de Mendicitate f. 760.  for our will is become thine. Ne tradas me voluntati meae, O give me not up to mine own will, but to thine. The will of God is 
e 1 Thes. 4.3.  our sanctification, and a Saints renewed will delights in the holiness of God. Here's a union of wills in the communion of holiness. For both 
f Heb. 2.11  he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one. 
g Joh. 17.23.  I in them as our Lord in his heavenly prayer, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.  
Receive we such a Kingdom, 
h Heb. 12 28.  let us serve him with reverence. Nothing renders us more revenent in our services then an inward sense of the divine holiness that sills his essence, and is the lustre of his Kingdom. This argument of the divine holiness to put us in a reverend frame, is often pleaded in Scripture. Thou art 
h Ps. 22.3.  holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, Thou dwellest in the Temple, where they are still praising thee, and therefore they serve and praise thee because thou art holy, What services are the Cherubims continually engaged in, but crying Holy, 
a Rev. 4.8.  Holy, Holy, before the Throne. Ye shall 
b Leu. 19.30,  reverence my sanctuary (my holy place) I am the Lord. Holiness is the attractive of Reverence from a holy heart: The nearer we approach to a holy God, the more awful impressions are stamped upon a holy Soul. I will be 
c Leu. 10.3  sanstified in them that draw nigh me (saith the Lord) and before all the people I will be glorified. Drawing nigh to him commands sanctity in us, and the more we sanctify his name by our holy addresses, the more we glorify him. He is 
d Exod. 15.11.  glorious in his holiness, and therefore fearful in his praises. The rays of glory round about his holiness, (that none can behold and live) should imprint submissive through filial fear upon our spirits in his praises and services. It's true, that God is to be feared, as to the matter of his praises: his dreadful acts upon his Egyptian enemies: yet when his wrathful judgements have sunk the Chariots as lead in the deep waters: still a holy fear should tune the e Timbrels and measure the Dances of his People in praise, 
〈◊〉 2● 21.  Serve the Lord with 
f Ps. 2.11.  fear and rejoice with trembling, we serve him acceptably, when we attend his presence not with slavish but 
g Heb. 12. ●8.  godly fear: and when we rejoice in his goodness, and tremble at his greatness; our heavenly joy defends us from the base terrors of bondage and our holy fear from luxuriant wantonness. Nay, when 
h Phil. 2.3.  we work out our Salvation in the Vineyard of the promises: we must sweat at it with a Sonlike fear, knowing that our work is not worth our penny: & with due trembling being assured, that when the Lord 
i Ps. 36.6.  preserveth one, and lets another perish, yet his righteousness is like the great mountains, and his Judgements are a great deep.  
O but say some, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 
k 2 Cor. 3.17  liberty. Again, we have access with 
l Eph. 3.12.  bolnesse by the faith of him. Again, we are invited to come boldly 
m Heb. 4.16  to the Throne of Grace: and Again, we have 
n Heb. 10.19.  boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus. Truly some Translators seem a little too bold with the greek word, and make other Christians thereby too bold with the thing unless the word [boldness] be taken in a very reverend sense: it might better be translated by liberty or freedom, that is, from a spirit of bondage. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notation and acceptation of the word in greek Authors and in its opposition to straightness and pentnesse of spirit in our addresses to God, most properly signifies the speaking out the mind of a man fully with enlargedness of heart, and fluency of expression. 'Tis an encouraging word, to allure drooping, and to incite and raise desponding weak believers; not to spur on audacious, irreverent and presumptuous spirits. Improbe audes irrumpere in osculum oris, si nec pedibus cum lachrymis, 
Gerson de mystic. Theolog. Tom. 3. p. 66 2.  etc. Says Gerson, thou art wickedly audacious, to rush into the kisses of his mouth, that hast not first washed his feet with thy tears. I know, God calls us to a more sweet and heavenly familiarity with himself under the Gospel, 
Rev. 4.10  then when under the ancient pedagogy of the Law. But let's not be saucy and put on our Hats in the Court. Moses was commanded not to draw too nigh the flaming bush, and to put off his shoes, and so was Joshua, Jos. 5. all to signify the danger of too much prying curiosity and the necessity of a holy reverence in the presence of God. a Behold how the twenty four Elders fall down before him in worship, and cast their golden Crowns before the Throne. Let's remember that we are but 
o Ps. 73.22.  Behemoths great beasts before him; But dust and ashes still, worms and no men, less than the least of his mercies: nay, when in heaven we are but glorified dust and sparkling ashes, but spiritual flesh▪ but atoms and less than nothing, to stand before God. The very heavens are impure in his sight, and he charges his Angels with folly. When they cry, Holy, Holy. before him, they cover their faces and may justly cry out with Lepers, unclean, 
b Leu. 13.49.  unclean. Their created holiness, considering its infinite deficiency from Gods, is like folly and pollution, and their lips uncircumcised before his unfadomable beauty, inaccessible light and Angel-confounding holiness. And did they not suck in streaming rays of holiness from beholding his face continually, and drink in rivers of divine dignation, to make and accept them as worthy? they could never be able or fit to fly before his Throne, or to be employed in the messages of his services. 
Ps. ●3. 22.  Eternity is insufficient for the highest of finite beings to praise an infinite essence, and that unsearchable abyss of holiness, glory and Majesty. O then what's man? That God should visit him, when we consider the impurity of the heavens, and its celestial inhabitants: Nay, what's man? That God should suffer him to peep and mutter out of the dust before him.  
Well however: come near, but humbly, and we may come freely: come we reverently, and what grace we feel within us, we may appeal with, before him. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me (says David) 
a Ps. 26 2. Ure rene●.  try my reins and my heart, search me, O God, and 
b Ps. 139. ●3  know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. Sat as a refiner upon me, melt away the dross of my impure affections, that my Soul may appear like glittering gold seven times purged by the fire of thy love. Nay, Lord (thus David appeals) thou 
c V 1.  hast searched and known me, and oh how precious are thy 
d V 17.  thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. Thy thoughts of me, and my thoughts of thee, how precious to me, O God? how great is the sum of them? Thy thoughts of electing love, of justifying and sanctifying grace. Nay, thou hast thoughts for 
e 2 Sam. 7.19.  a great while to come. A great while indeed, for they are thoughts of eternal 
f Jer. 31.3.  love. Thy thoughts in number transcend the sands on the Seashore, the hairs of my head, and the stars of heaven. Archimedes may number the sands, Spigelius the hairs, and Hipparchus the visible stars: But who can expend thoughts commensurate to the love of God. The circle of his love cannot be squared, nor its cubick root extracted. We may study and pray 
g Eph, 3.18  to comprehend with all Saints the glorious love of God in Christ: But still it passeth knowledge, and surmounts our numbers. Well might David when waking, 
h Ps. 139.18.  be still with God. In the morning watches, when his Soul was freshest, his thoughts warmest, his parts quickest: while the yet-remaining darkness presented no diverting objects to his eyes, and the deep silence of the night distracted not his audience with various clamours: Then David hath his Songs in the night, 
Ps. 30.29.  as in the holy Solemnities: Then does he meditate on the divine love and remember God 
i Ps. 63.6.  upon his Bed. His wonderful works and the thoughts of God concerning him, he professes they could not be reckoned up in order before him. Though he was still with God, searching and following after him, yet 
l Joh 11.7.  could not find out the Almighty to perfection. But yet the holy man holds fast his confidence, For thou art with me, and I with thee. God with us, keeps us with him. Do our desires and affections hast after him, they'll bring in the food of assurance, that he is ours. (Talem illum invenies, says Gerson, 
a Gerson de Mendicitate spiritual, f. 75. a. Op. 3. part.  qualis & tu fueris in tuis desideriis.] Our spiritual desires longing and panting after God, interpret and manifest the gracious motions of the divine love to us. The more we seek him, the sweeter we find him: and the more we trust him, the more he loves us. Let us with David in all our straits make to him as our rock, our refuge, our strong Castle, our Fortress, our City of Defence and Munition of Rocks, b our Waters shall never fail, and our bread shall be sure. 
is. 33.6.   
Appeals to God.  
To Appeal to the Majesty of Heaven is a matter of most important moment, because of his omniscience, omnipresence, his exactness in justice and judgement. If our hearts 
c 1 Joh. 3.10.  condemn us, God is greater and knoweth all things: but if our heart acquit us, then have we confidence towards God: yea 
d And 4.17  in the day of Judgement. To be scalded with condemnation from conscience and from God too, is double judgement, and our heart's condemnation is but the harbinger to Gods. Conscience is but the Prison till execution, and if the earthly Prison be so noisome and dismal, what's the eternal? It behoves all therefore, that dare appeal to God, to examine and try their hearts with impartial strictness, before they turn about their faces to heaven. David spends the largest part of an excellent Psalm in choice ruminations upon the divine attributes and the works of God, on his former experiences and deep meditations upon the all-searching eye of God, before he dares to make an essay of a reverend 
e Ps. 139.23  appeal unto him. Holy Paul makes small account of being judged by the Church, or by moral men, or his own conscience in comparison with 
f 1 Cor. 4.3, 4.  divine judgement. Our heart is 
g Jer. 17.9  deceitful above all things, who can know it. But the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him 
h 1 Sam. 2.3,  actions are weighed. The balances of the Sanctuary will turn at a grain of the least action, yea, at the thousandth part of a thought. His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his piercing and searching eye, enters the innermost parts of the belly, His eyes do behold, his eyelids 
i Ps. 11.4.  try the children of men. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explorabunt.] They search into the hearts and pry into the reins of men. The Lord sits (in specula aeternitatis) upon the watchtower of glorious Majesty and discerns all the secrer recesses and caverns of the hearts of Men and Angels. The Metaphor seems to be taken from Soldiers that stand upon the guard on a high Tower to observe and ken the approaching enemy. When men do (connivere oculis) even close their eyes, and make as it were a small portion of a Tube with their eyelids to exclude the light and discern objects the clearer, or like refiners that look narrowly into the Crucible or Cople to discern, when the melted Gold gathers into a clear and pure circle and hath cast out all its dross. All this, is to show with what niceness and accurateness the Lord doth pierce into the hearts of men. When we consider the excellency of the searcher, the curiosity of his observation, that nothing escapes the Eagle eye of his Omnisciency: when we ponder upon the purity of his Judgement and the equity of his tremendous tribunal, who should not fear before him and tremble at his imperial Majesty? For who can stand If he do but 
a Ps. 143.2  enter into Judgement? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne veniat] let him not come toward the work, says the Psalmist, unless we can stand before him: To impose upon men, is base hypocrisy: but to impose upon the Maker and searcher of hearts is cursed Atheism, abominable impudence, 
b Ps. 14.1, 2, 4.  and corrupt folly of the works of iniquity.  
When we enter our appeals before God, we imply his all-searching providence, his avenging hand, his acquitting justice, his pardoning grace, the resurrection of the dead, and the dreadful Judgment-Seat of Christ. ' Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, upon this account 
c Act. 24.16 2 Cor. 5.2  says Paul, we exercise ourselves, in having a conscience void of offence in the sight of God: that the 
d Ps. 19 14  meditation of our heart may be acceptable in his sight, our Strength and our Redeemer.  
As to the matter of our appeals in prayer, there are but four cases, whereof I would treat in respect to our comforts at death. 
Isa. 33.16   

Section 1.  
Our first Appeal may be about the integrity and sincerity of our hearts. Not that we have escaped all outward sins, or performed all inward duties, or can absolve ourselves from 
a Ps. 19, 12.  secret faults, or are purely cleansed from all the stains of hypocrisy: But that the bend of the heart is to God, that the constant pointing of the needle of our love is to heaven: that we approve no sin, not the least intumescence, fermentation or rising of an evil thought without actual combat or at least a serious, inward habitual displicency of heart against it, springing from that radical hatred, which is in us through grace against the least concupiscence. Though when we 
b Rom. 7.22.  would do good, evil be present with us: yet there is a crystal fountain of delight in the Law of God, bubbling from the inward man, that cleanses and carries away the very soil of our thoughts. This holiness of heart & conformity of will to the Law of God flows from the grace that dwelleth in us. Thou art with me, says David A holy God makes the heart holy, & the heart of a Saint by the light of holiness, sees God, & a holy God to be with it. In 
c Ps. 36.9.  thy light, we do see light, the light of grace, and we shall see light, even the light of glory.  
Many infirmities are and will lurk in the choicest of Saints: The Ivy of sin will shoot its roots and fibres into the joints and cracks of our Mud-walls: but when these fall, that shall whither. A Saint is always hacking at the boughs of actual and stubbing at the root of original sin. His sincerity makes him to lay about him and though he can't appeal, Lord I have no sin: yet thus he can, Lord be merciful to me a sinner: 
d Ps. 51.9.  Hid thy face from my sins: the face of thy justice, the face of thine anger, and look upon the 
e Ps. 84. ●  face of thine anointed within the vail: 
f Ps. 55.1  hid not thyself from my supplications: 
g Ps. 119.19.  hid not thy commandments from me: O 
h Ps. 69.17.  hid not thy face from thy Servant. I am 
i Ps. 119.94  thine, Lord save me, for I have sought thy Precepts. I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not 
k Ps. 18.21  wickedly departed from my God. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] I have not dealt so wickedly, as to go away from God and his holy ways, through the tentation of any wickedness. Not as if there were any departure from God, that were not wicked: but I have not committed so great a wickedness, as to fall away from the ways of God. His Judgements 
a Ps. 18.22.  were before my face, and I did not put away his Statutes from me. Neither his Statutes in respect to purity of worship nor his judgements, that is, his judicial Law in respect to moral obedience. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to the cleanness of my hands, in his 
b V 24.  eye sight. To wash our hands in the Laver of the Sanctuary before his eyes, because he sees them: not because men see their impurity. David would not rake in any foul dunghill of sin, or pollute his fingers with the pitch of bribery or the sanies, the ulcerous matter of any corruption, because God saw him, Nay I was upright 
c V 23  before him and have kept myself from mine iniquity. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have guarded, watched and strictly observed myself as to mine own iniquity, whatever it were, ambition, lying or any fruits of a sanguine complexion, Canst thou thus appeal to God in Prayer, that thou keepest thine eye upon God, and that the eyeing of his face guards thy heart from sin? Thou may'st then cheerfully infer, that God is with thee, that he will enlighten the lamp of thy Soul with the light of his love and thus lift up thy Soul with David. The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness, and though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for thou wilt be my guide to glory.   

Section 2.  
A second Appeal may flow from a retrospect, a reflection on a well spent life. He that hath faithfully appealed about the sincerity of his heart, may doubtless reap his Sheaves with joy from the Harvest of a holy life. For out of the abundance of the heart 
d Mat. 12.34.  the mouth speaketh, the hand worketh, and the foot runneth. In whose hearts are the 
a Ps. 84.5.  ways of them that pass through the Valley of Bacah, up to the Temple of Beracah. Such as have Gods holy ways in their hearts, want not feet to walk and run in them: when the heart is in the foot, it runs nimbly like a Roe or a young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether. They go from strongth to strength, till they all appear before him in Zion. Thy law is in 
b Ps. 40.7, 8  my heart, that's the root of obedience, and therefore lo I come to thee. When the heart believes, the 
c Rom. 10.10.  mouth confesses unto Salvation: when the heart is fixed, settled and calmed from carnal fears, than 
d Ps. 57.7. & 108.1.  the tongue praises, the harp warbles, and the ten-stringed Instruments of the Soul make the Temple-Marbles to ring aloud of his glory. When the heart bubbles up with a good matter, 
e Ps. 45.1  than the tongue becomes the pen of a ready writer. The body alas, is but the 
f Rom. 6.13.  weapon, the organ and altar of the soul. When some persons are impeached of an ungodly life, they retort: let every one answer for himself, their hearts are good and that they are no hypocrites. But can hearts be good? when lives be naught, or can lives be unholy, when hearts be gracious? Such as the vein is, such will the metal prove, that's melted from it: as the fountain, such is the stream; as the root, such the fruit: like star, like influence: The Pleyades will soften with showers, and Orion will bind with frost: The cause and its effects are of the same blood and kindred: Out 
g Pro. 4.23  of the heart are the issues of life natural, carnal and spiritual.  
Whoever can look back on a well ordered conversation, to him, shall be shown 
h ●s. 50.23.  the Salvation of God. He that hath his Quiver full of holy works may shoot at this enemy (Death,) in the gates. The ungodly cannot 
i Ps, 1.5.  stand in Judgement: but he that delights in the Law of the Lord, whatever he doth, shall prosper: when holiness hath taken root in the heart, it blossoms and flowers in peace of conscience, and joy of the Spirit, and brings forth pleasant fruits in the conversation and goodly spices in the hour of death. Like the Psalmist in his affliction, so a Saint at death, comforts himself with the holy Songs he had warbled in his youth. The end of the wicked is to be cut off, 
Ps. 77.6  and 
a Prov. 14 32.  he is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous, (he that hath walked uprightly) hath hope in his death. Mark the perfect, and behold the upright: for the 
b Ps. 37.37  end of that man is peace. He'll give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold: If there be any choicer thing than grace and glory (and truly that's God himself) he'll keep back nothing. From whom? from such as walk 
c Ps, 84.11  uprightly. He'll show 
d Ps. 16.11 Ps. 23 3  the path of Life, but 'tis to such, as first have been lead by him in the paths of righteousness.  
Happy man, that can unfeignedly and skilfully tune Hezekiahs' Song: Remember 
e Isay 38.3.  now, (now at the point of death) O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. Integrity of hearr and the goodness of his do are his double appeal at the appearance of death. Though the good, we have done, be very little, yet if that little fruit grow from a sanctified root, God graciously accepts it, because 'tis of his own planting. As David spoke of his royal preparations for the Temple: So must we of all our graces, duties, services. 
f 1 Chron. 29 14.  All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. Do any fragrant spices perfume the air of a Saints discourse? Or any pleasant fruits garnish the garden of a Saints life? We must invite, as the Spouse doth, Let 
g Song 4.16  my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. The trees of righteousness are 
h Isai. 61.3.  of his planting, that he may be glorified, like the Trees of Lign-Aloes, like the Cedars of Lebanon, which the Lord hath planted and not man, Numb. 24.6. and Psal. 104.16. 
i Phil. 2.13  To will and to do: to think and to act: the heart's integrity and the life's sanctity, are all from his good pleasure. Whoso can enter his appeal at the throne of grace, with the testimony of his conscience, that 
k 2 Cor. 1.12.  in simplicity and godly sincerity, he hath had his conversation in this world, may rejoice at the remembrance of the day of the Lord Jesus, and long for its approach.   

Section 3.  
A third Appeal concerns our love to God. Optics teach us, that lines and rays of light, come from all parts of a luminous body, and traverse, and cut one another at innumerable angles, but some are central from the midst. All the affections are but emanations & beamings from the heart and will; but love is the cardinal & central ray. What we love, that sets all the wheels of the Soul in motion. Love's the commandress of all our forces▪ It 
a Ps, 86.11  unites all the powers under its banner, and leads all the squadrons of the soul into the fortress of God's name. The Soul before acquaintance with God, was like a bird wand'ring from its nest, but now she hath found where to lay her 
a Ps. 84.3  young, even all its unfledged desires, upon thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.  
The Soul that's in love with God, loves him only; thirsts, pants, cries after him, (Whom 
b Ps. 73.25  have I in heaven but thee, and none upon earth do I desire beside thee.) Are there no Saints there, no Angels there? Yes, but they move in the stated inferior Orbs both of their own essence and his affection, he mounts higher, and the glory of the Sun of God's countenance eclipses all these Stars, that a Saint sees none in heaven to love like God. All these he loves in the order of his ascension to the bosom of God. A Saint passes by the Angels, ascending and descending on jacob's Ladder, till he comes to the embraces of the 
c Gen. 28.12, 13.  Lord above, at the top of all. [Non aliud tanquam illum, (as 
d Bernard. f. 94. b.  Bernard heavenly) non aliud praeter illum, non aliud post illum.] A Saint loves none like him, none besides him; none, after he hath tasted of his loveliness. And again, [Nec pro illo aliud, nec cum illo aliud, ne● ab illo ad aliud convertamur.] The Soul embraces none in stead of him, none in competition with him, neither turns about from him, to any besides him. 
Bern. p. 77. b.  Bonum est magis in camino habere te mecum quam esse sine te vel in coelo. It's better to be with thee in a Furnace, then in Heaven without thee. A Saint loves heaven for God, not God for heaven. Heaven is heaven because God is there, and where ever God is, that place is a Saints heaven. As a faithful Spouse is not taken with the Jewels, Bracelets and Earrings, but the lovely person that gives them. 'Tis not the place but the person, not the Palace but the Prince: not the glorious Throne, but the Father of Mercies upon it. God loved first and kindled these holy flames and whither do they tower, but upward into the element of love within his bosom. O let my prayer, says David, 
a Ps. 141.2 Dirigatur instar co●um●●,  be directed as incense. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] the love of my heart like a pillar of incense. No incense was fragrant to God, but what smoked in the fire, that first came down from heaven; no love but that which first flashed from God. O let our love stream strait upright into heaven in perfumy and spicy pillars, not waved by i'll blasts of the world's tentations. The Torch of our affections was first kindled from 
b Ezec. 10.6  between the wheels of the chariot of Cherubims and it lights our winged feet into the Chamber of Presence. We have none in heaven to love, and none in earth to desire but God: Here upon earth there's nothing  but God: In heaven there are things , but nothing so lovely as God. He is the only, prime, and ultimate object of the Souls satiety, Harken to this, 
c Ps. 45.10  O daughter, consider his lovely and beautiful glory, incline thine ear and forget thy father's house, The memorable relish of the song of divine love enchants the Soul with a holy forgerfulness of old terrene relations. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty. O Queen of Zion, forget thy black Egyptian Father and all his tawny-moor Princes, of the adust race of Cham. Run to the arms of thy Solomon, desire him upon earth, and love none besides him in heaven, and he will greatly desire thy beauty: Thy beauty? a Alas! 'tis his beauty that shines upon thee: First thy beloved is thine, and then thou art his; he plants his Lilies and then feeds among them.  
But let's descend a little and try the pretended love of mortals by these higher than Lydian touchstones: Dost thou love any thing in the world, more than God, above God, beyond God, without God, and not in order to him? How then can 
d 1 Joh. 3 17.  the love of the Father dwell in you? Dost thou love him more than these and yet spendest so little time in communion? Communion manifests where a man's heart is: and the measure of Communion is the Standard of our love. We would fain have a sense of his love, and yet watch not for the presence of his person: When Christ knocks, do our Souls melt within us? When he cries, 
a Song 5.2  Open to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, do the everlasting doors fly abroad at the voice of the King of Glory? Love and Kingdoms abhor Rivals. Do I not hate them that hate thee, says David, 
b Ps. 139.21  yea with perfection of hatred [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] Thine enemies are enemies to me. Canst thou love carnal friends and vain persons, their frothy jests and squandring of precious hours with vain news, the sinful pleasures, the Soul-choaking and strangling profits of the cheat and grand Imposture of the 
c Ezek. 28.18.  Tyrian traffic of the world? And yet darest say, that thou lovest God: Thou art a liar, and the truth 
d 1 Joh. 2 15.  is not in thee. Vain distinctions will taste like wormwood and gall, and wine 
e Mark. 15 23.  of myrrh, when thou appealest at Death: He that spends his time, his strength and brains 
f Joh. 6.27  for meat that perisheth: 
g 1 Cor. 6 13.  the belly that hides it, must perish with it; But living bread and living water that comes down from heaven, nourishes our love to the donor, and nurses up fair countenances to stand before the King of Glory.  
There's many an empty headed talker that wears in his Cap, the airy plume of profession, and yet locks up his pennies in chests of flint. The hammer of judgements, the fire of divine wrath, will scarce melt down a few drops to comfort a brother's bowels, & then 'tis tinctured with the bitter fears of the ruin of his family: or at least, that he shall not raise it to the dignity of his ancestors. The Axe of the sorest affliction can hardly hue off a few scattering chips to warm a poor brother's Cottage. They keep 
h Deut. 26.13. Jos. 6.19.24.  hallowed things in their house without fear of Achans curse. They hid in their Tents things that should be devoted to the Sanctuary. This sinks many a fair estate, 'tis a worm at the root, because they consecrate not of their gain to the Lord of the whole earth. O ye of no faith, 
Mic. 4.13  is this your false love? If faith work by love, & love be a fruit of faith, and love to a Brother be the token of love to God? Where's your faith or love to God or Brother.  
But here's not all: I am ashamed of the converses of Christians. Dost thou love God and talk'st all day of the world? 
Baineson the Ephes. p. 201.  Holy Baines gives it as a notable character of a carnal heart, whose conference is cold and careless, and for the most parr about unnecessary and curious Arguments: As, whether we shall know one another in heaven or not? Whether Hell be in the Air, in the Earth or where it is? or like some of the hollow hearted and Sickbrained Schoolmen, 
1 Tim. 6.4.  of what mettle the Trumpet of the Archangel is made, whether Gold or Silver? Such have hot heads, but cold hearts; they are branded by the Apostle Paul, as proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions & strife of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, rail, evil surmisings, perverse dispute of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, you shall hear them lavish out many impertinent words about idle controversies, tending to jangling and mere vanity: Differences about some Historical matters, and doubts about reconciling seeming varieties in the Scriptures: these things shall awaken their drowsy minds, tip their tongues with some discourse, that they may seem pious and cheat conscience smoothly: Alas! at the hour of death, conscience will show itself to be no fool: but will call all these things to mind with deadly horror.  
What we love, we love to talk off: You may fetch out the hearts of Lovers by talking of what they love, though otherwise prudent persons. Love gilds the tongue with eloquence: It makes the dumb to speak as Codrus his mute Son, when the Father's life lay at stake. Love is a native, an overflowing Orator: When it gluts the tongue with its fullness, that it cannot utter: than it proclaims the heart by blushes: and casts forth itself at the windows of the eyes by quick and nimble glances: It's 
a Song 8.5  as strong as death: many waters can't quench it, nor floods drown it; It contemns Gold and all the Substance of thy House. Is thy love sincerely inflamed to God? A Kingdom, a World, a Heaven can't buy or bribe off thy heart from God.  
Methinks, when I stand and muse upon Soul-sick mortals, as they run up and down the streets of London, and strike fire upon the stones, and kick up the dirt, and justle, and quarrel for haste. To see them reel about the lanes and alleys, like drunkards intoxicated with the venomous cup of profit, while their 
b Job 3●. 5.  foot hasteth to deceit: oh what a dirty heaven have these bemired wretches? what a pitiful molehill do these giddy pismires huddle about and scarce deserve at last, to taste of the Parthian banquet with Crassus, to have molten Gold, but Kennel filth poured down their Throats, with this Epitaph, Satia te stercore quod sitisti: be filled with the mire, for which thou hast thirsted. Oh, how greatly should we pity and mourn over the fallen estate of man: when we behold such woeful spectacles of decayed reason, so far from rational actors, that they rather sustain the distracted person at Athens. For though they say not, yet by their deportments, seem to wish that all the Ships in the Thames were theirs, that all the Wharves, Cranes, Warehouses and their Stowage, were all theirs: As if the Lord had set 
a Job 34.13  the world in their hearts, not to contemplate his wisdom in its beautiful structure, but to adore it as a God. They spend their spirits in heaping of clay, and compass themselves with thick clods of the earth: Most men's lives are exhausted in playing for glistering Counters, & he is counted wisest that lurcheth most: Though Solomon the wisest of all mortals determineth by the guide of God's spirit, that bread is not to 
b Eccl. 9.11  the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all: But yet in all ages among the depraved, and frothy spirits of the herd of this vain world: Riches and not wisdom advances to honour, and the raw unsavoury, undigested blattering of rich misers are licked up by fools like themselves, as if they were Delphian Oracles. But oh lamentable state of the fallen children of Adam to grind out their days with sorrow and to pour out the strength of their nerves and sinews in digging and delving for coloured dust: That rational men the Princes of the world, ordained to dominion over all the visible creation, should embrace dunghills, and cage up their Souls in a bag, and sport to see those immortal beings to hop up and down in their Pockets: Into so forlorn an estate are such noble creatures degenerated, that their precious seasons are melted away between the comb and the Looking-glass. How many mean men's patrimonies do some wear at their Ears, and about their necks in Jewels? How many pounds do they squander in trifles? while the necessities of the precious members of Christ call aloud for relief: Does God threaten by Zephany 
c Zeph. 1.8  to punish Princes, and Kings children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel? Does Paul command in the name of the Lord that women adorn 
a 1 Tim. 2.9  themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety: not with broidered hair, or Gold, or pearls, or costly array? Does the Apostle Peter enjoin that wives be adorned, not 
b 1 Pet. 3.3  with plaited hair, and wearing of gold and putting on of apparel, i. e. costly attire? Does the Lord so highly complain 
c Isay 3.16  of the haughty daughters of Zion, that walked with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they went, and making a tinkling with their feet; That therefore he would smite them with scabs, & stinks, with rents, baldness, sackcloth and burning instead of beauty, and that the 
d V 26.  desolation of the Captivity should be their portion? And dare the sinful Minions and proud Peacocks of our age, not only rob the creatures but their own families, to brave and brazen it in the very face of heaven and defiance of his holy word: why so much expense to paint frail clay and gild a potter's vessel, or which is worse to feed the lust of the eye, and to add fuel to the lust of pride? We may say to them as the Prophet, why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? 
1 Job. 2.16  Did they dismiss their Bibles, divorce their consciences and forsake all assemblies of worship: they would not put religion to so great a shame, not so highly inflame their account for the great day.  
But alas, 
Jer. 2.33  the love of vanity and conformity, to the trifling and apish fashions of this world is not only the sin and sickness of the weaker sex, while they seem even to puzzle Satan to invent new ones to starch up their pride & folly: but even men are effeminated and lost, and drunk with & drowned in sensuality, luxury and madness. But what, have the fore-spoken-of worldlings no pretences? And these followers of fashions no cloaks of excuse to cover their shame? Yes, having sewed on the Fig-leaves of a religious dress, and taken up a form of godliness, do secretly scorn your pity, and justify their being worldly, to prevent being 
e 1 Tim. 5.8  infidels: and think they may be covetous by authority to provide for their families. The other under the pretext of handsomeness, decency and comportment to their youth, rank and quality, hid the vanity and pride of their naughty spirits: Both sorts have Christ often in their mouths for Salvation, but too much hate his government; they'll seem to keep Sabbaths with some devotion, but wish the New-moon over to set out Corn: They'll hast to Church but 'tis to learn fashions, and pry into others garbs, and not their own hearts: They'll turn to proofs in their Bibles, perhaps writ Sermons, and fling 'em at their heels, chop up a few customary Prayers in their Families, to stop the convictions of conscience, and talk (pro forma) for custom and company sake of the state of the Church and matters at a distance. But sirs this will not do the business of working out Salvation, and making your calling and election sure. O vain men, where are your hearts, and where your affections? Let every one that 
a 2 Tim. 2.19.  nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] from injustice and undue scraping up the unrighteous Mammon. It's observed, that through the whole Bible, no Saint is branded with the sin of covetousness. Indeed our Lord hath forewarned his disciples to 
b Luk. 12.15.  take heed and beware of covetousness, and otherwhere, to 
c Luk. 21.34.  beware lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this world. and so that day come upon them at unawares. If our Lord so strictly enjoin it upon his disciples, how much more on us, upon whom the perilous ends of the world are come. It seems, there be greedy gluttons, that that gorge in the world till they surfeit and guzzling drunkards, that swallow it down to shameful spewing. If disciples are so severely admonished of sitting too long at the world's Table, what need have others to be roused from their sumptuous fare, lest with Dives, they fall sick of their Venison, and be summoned and carried from their suppers into d torments? 
● Luk. 16 ●3.  How earnestly should men be charged in our days not to make haste to be rich, lest they fall 
e 1 Tim. 6.9  into the tentation and snare of the Devil: not to trust in 
f V 17.  uncertain riches but the living God. Most men's riches are their 
g Pro. 10.15 & 18.11  strong Castles, and they answer the poor 
h 2 Ch. 18 23.  roughly at their gates. They trust in the Mauzzims, these munitions, these Temples of Plutus. They pull at b●gs of iniquity 
i Isay 5.18  with cords of vanity, and hale at twisted cheats, as it were with Cart roaps: So they be subtle enough to avoid the censure of men and the penalties of humane laws: the judgement of God breaks no squares in their conscience. They are like earnest mariners that tug and sweat, and are even sick, at the Capstang to weigh up Anchor and hoist Sail for new voyages. They put all the bloodhounds of their sagacious thoughts upon the hot scent of a good bargain, and if it mount away like 
a Prov. 23.5  an Eagle toward heaven, they load it with many a secret curse, and tie bitter banns to its talons, till the flying 
b Zach. 5.4.  roll return and enter into the house of these thiefs and swearers, to consume the timber and the stones thereof. We may complain with Bernard [
c B●●n. ad fratr. sec. ●. f. 93. b.  Citius ad mortem properant, quam nos ad vitam.] Their 
d Prov. 5.5  steps take hold of hell, and hasten faster to the chambers of death, than others to the house of wisdom. Surely, deluded mortals conceit that the world is of short continuance, and like 
e Rev. 12 12.  Satan come to it with such raging appetites as if they had but a short season Are not these men far from leaving their Ships and Nets to follow Christ? they seem to pray him to stay a while, till they have caught the fish of profit and honour. They put off repentance till grey hairs and proffer sacrifices of threescore year old, when they are rich enough to believe with a bag of gold by their sides, and have fortified faith with the security of a great purchase against all the issues of Providence: Then they'll promise to build a fair Alms-house, and cut their Coat of Arms upon the Frontispiece for a good Example.  
I know there be many Gallios', 
f Act. 18.17.  that care for none of these things: of Felix his temper: that appoint 
g Ch. 24.25.  Paul a more convenient season. They count them sour & cynical that warned them of death and the wrath to come, but oh, how sour do themselves look when the fear of death assaults them, and conscience bites like an Adder for scorning former advice about circumspect walking and redeeming of precious time. But O fool, is it not better to be pricked with the goad of wisdom, to hear rather, verba pungentia quam palpantia? smarting and searching words to Salvation, then sinoath and oily words to lamnation, that Sermon that pricks not but delights the hearer, is not the word of wisdom. Hierom. in Eccles. 12.11. p. S 3, T. 7, Is it not safer to hear this Bell now ring in thine ear, then in Hell? Is it not more convenient to hear Paul preaching in his chain? then for thee to tremble in thy chains; for the dreadful sentence at the Tribunal of Christ. Then, hoarding up of riches will not profit in that day of wrath, nor fine fashions ward off the stroke of Christ's iron rod, Ps. 2. Will griping gains or soft raiment, lay up a good foundation for the time to come? Can men die with any safe reflections of comfort upon the actings of sin? Can such appeal to God at death, that they sincerely love him, when they love 
h Jam. 4.4.  his enemies so profusely? Let not these frothy things be entertained by such, as would fain die peaceably. Would ye sleep in the bosom of Christ happily, then walk in his eye holily. Live in the love of God, and you may appeal safely at death, and long for his Salvation. I have 
a Gen. 49.18  waited for thy salvation O Lord, says dying Jacob. But how comes in this pious ejaculation of Jacob, (may some say) at his blessing of Dan? unless the holy Patriarch in the midst of other matters at the benediction of his children, should seem to have fallen suddenly into a trance of joy through a quick glance upon his former waiting, and that now he saw this glorious salvation near at hand. Others when they are curvetting upon their winged Coursers after worldly games and pleasures, Dan's Serpent of judgement and the Adder of Death bites their heels in the path, and the riders fall backward. Then oh how earnest they are for dying the death of the righteous? Alas the Time's now past, for such to long for that salvation on any good grounds, who by faith and prayer never waited for it: But in jacob's glass we may see the frame of a Saints heart, and the heavenly strain of his song at death, who in the midst of the compiling his will and testament concerning that, which his soul loved and had long expected, he breaks forth in the ecstasy of a joyful appeal, now when he sees it approaching. Lord, this is what I wait for, this my soul longs and hankers after to en●●●●▪ 
a Pnbliul. in Hodaep. Hierosol. l. 1. vid. p●●ef. ad P●●●veli. peregran. Hie●osol * 3. edit. Antwerp. 1614  A● it's reported of a Jerusalem Pilgrim being at Mount Olivet, that in the midst of his kisses of Christ's supposed soot prints, between devour sobs and sighs and tears he expired his last breath. When the Soul cries out with David: Now Lord 
b Ps 39.7  what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Or as Simeon: Lord Now 
c Luk 2.29  let thy servant departed in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] thy ordained and my beloved Saviour with his salvations. Now my hope thus long deferred shall sprout up into a Tree of Life, and feed my soul with the pleasant fruits of thy salvation: This Rock of the Covenant shall pour out the crystal streams from the Throne of God and the Lamb. Jacob and Simeon sing the same new song of the Lamb, and fall asleep sweetly in the same arms. Their love to Christ bubbled up into warm appeals: the sails of their joy were swelled with fresh gales of the spirit, while they steer under the top-gallant of assurance into the haven of enjoyment: They lie down on the pitch of Nebo, on the very peak of Pisgah in a beautiful view of the delicious Landscape of the fat valleys, and the rivers of milk and honey that run among the mountains of Canaan. They begin to cast away the glass, and see more immediately: to resolve the riddle, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Cor. 13.12.  and expound it by vision.  
When Saints, like Peter can passionately pour out their Souls into the breast of Christ, 
a Joh. 21.17  Lord thou, who knowest all things, knowest that I love thee: this contestation this blessed appeal will keep Peter from ever sinking in the mortal sea of Tiberias: and hold up the chin of a Saint through the greatest floods, and billows of tentation, yea, of death itself, and waft them safely into the bosom of Christ triumphing.   

Section 4.  
The fourth and last appeal is about the presence of God with us. I have spoken already to the sense of divine communion in a former chapter, and shall now only treat in brief about our appeal concerning it: David had a sense of it, that was his comfort and conquest, but now he declares it, that's his triumph Lord thou hast been with me, and thou knowest it, and my soul knows it and I sensibly feel, that thou art still with me. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] Tu mecum; Thou with me, says the Hebrew, restraining the divine presence to no certain time. Thou standest with me, by me, on my side; I will fear no evil. The Lord stood by Paul in a tempest, and said, 
c Act. 27.24  fear not Paul, and Paul's all in a calm: The Syrteses or quicksands of Lybia, the Euroclydons or most furious winds, the rolling mountains of water fright not his faith: When Sun, Moon and Stars are mantled in Stygian darkness for many days: while others wish for day, Paul enjoys it. No dangers terrify a Saint, when God is present: The King of Terrors is subject to the King of Saints, and gives up the keys of his Castle to this Lord Paramount and lays down the Mace at his Feet. Si fractus illabatur orbis, etc. Though mountains be hurried into the heart 
d Ps. 46.3.  of the Sea, the waters roar and the great hills shake with the swelling thereof: yet a Saint drinks of a river that makes glad the City of God, and glides with its silver streams along the banks of his Soul. A Saint 
a Ps. 143.5  remembers the days of old, meditates on all his works, and muses on the work of his hands. He recounts his sweet songs in the night, his pleasant touches on the harp, when the spirit of God was pleased to sing in consort. I Remember, says the Psalmist, the 
b Ps. 77.10  years of the right hand of the most High, when his candle shined upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness. The secret of God was upon my Tabernacle, when 
c Job 29 3. etc.  I washed my steps in butter, and the rocks poured me out rivers of oil. He that hath enlarged my Soul 
d Ps. 4.1.  in distress, he that hath 
e 2 Cor. 1.10  delivered, doth and will deliver. Christ is the root of his faith, experience like a heavenly dew makes it spread and flower in appeals to heaven and grow within the firmament: Nay all a Saints graces are like the Misseltoe, have no root of their own, but in the true vine, their sap & life is from Christ, and experience sucks it out. Thou hast been with me, and continually with me, and therefore I will not fear. I was cast upon thee 
f Ps. 22.10.  from the womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Thou art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my trust from my youth. By thee 
g Ps. 71.6  I have been held up from the womb, thou art he that tookest me out of my mother's bowels, my praise shall be continually of thee. Cast me not off in my 
h V 9  old age. forsake me not when my strength faileth. Thou 
i V 20  shalt quicken me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth. See how David's feeling communions did wing his soul up into heaven and keep it there. The Lark is a lively emblem of a Saint always singing while mounting to heaven: and then silent in a gracious sadness when by any tentation drawn down to the world.  
Behold in David, how experience feeds upon God and drinks out of God and then like a Dove lifts up ' its eyes to heaven in appeals of praise, under the sense of divine veracity, love and mercy. O my Soul, thou hast Doves eyes, eyes like the spirit, when thou raisest up thy wings in heavenly praise and thankfulness. Appeals are the fruit of gratitude, and oh how comely is this for Saints. Bernard 
f Bern. f. 89 b.  says, 'tis clemency in God to deny ungrateful men their petitions, that they may not fall under heavier condemnations for their frequent ingratitudes. Let us then sing forth his glory and make every mercy to sound upon the Harp and Viol. My lips says the Prophet 
g V 22.  shall greatly rejoice, when I sing unto thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. He Hath heard my voice, I 
a Ps. 116.1, 2.  will call upon him as long as I live. He hath been with me and he will be with me, and David tells this, not to the sons of men nor to his own soul only, but to God himself. When David and his Harp are alone, and the singer of Zion is planting his heavenly thoughts into the melodious strings, O the Shushannims, the Lily tunes that David plays, 'twould ravish one's Soul to lay an ear to the keyhole. To hear an other Saint flowing forth in appeals It dissolves our Souls into rivers of pleasure: but for our own Souls to be swimming in these Sanctuary waters: O ecstasy of joy! The Soul by appeals dives into the Ocean of love and appears not, till the resurrection. The life of such a Saint is hid with God in Christ, and at his appearing and kingdom shall break forth in orient and radiant lustre. It builds none of Peter's Tabernacles in the mount of present Vision, it longs for fullness, and looks upon Tabor as but a small petty step to glory, and under the sweet manifestations of its future communion, cries out, when dying with that 
b Mr. Newman of New-England.  holy Saint of late: Angels do your office.  
Was God with a Saint in electing love before a Saint was? Is God with a Saint in the breathe & sealings of his spirit before a Saint clearly sees himself with God, and shall such stand amused at death? What's Death to a Saint? It neither separates from God, nor Christ nor the Spirit, nor Angels, nor Saints, nor Heaven, nor Glory. 'Tis a friend to a Saint, one of the Guard-Chamber to the King of Heaven, turns the key and hands us into his presence. A Saint like Androdus (in Gellius) hath picked the thorn out of the foot of this Lion, and behold how tamely he walks by his side, till the morning of Triumph. Is God with a Saint and can he say so? because he feels so; The grave, which is like the darkness of Egypt to others, it may be felt: gives the light of Goshen to a Saint, since Christ hath left a path light and a luminous glittering print of his footsteps in it, when he passed through it. A Saint draws its enlightened air into the lungs of meditation for his nourishment. God's with him, and a Saint sees him, tastes him, feels him and therefore 
c Act. 2.26  his heart rejoices, his tongue is glad, and his flesh rests in hope. It was said of Lazarus, 
d Joh. 11.3  Behold he whom thou lovest, is sick, and it may be said of every departing Saint: Behold he whom thou lovest, is dead. No! says Christ, this damsell-soul 
e Mar. 5▪ 39  is not dead, but sleepeth, and my bosom shall warm it, till it wake and minister to me. The vigour of Christ shall cherish the body of a Saint▪ (as Elisha did the Shunamites child) and raise it to a glorious life, when the Sun of assurance shines glitteringly at the evening of his life in the face of an appealing Saint, his Soul may presage joyfully, that such a ruddy 
a Mat. 16.2  evening is the certain token of a radiant and illustrious day, to follow the bright morning of his resurrection. A day wherein the Captain of our Salvation, our victorious and triumphant Joshua will lead the Armies of Israel into the land of Canaan, and command the Sun of glory to stand still for ever in the noon of Eternity, and that permanent happiness never to know an evening. O then haste my beloved and come away, 
a Song 8.14  be like a young Roe or a Hart upon the Mountains of Spices. Thou 
b Rev. 22.16.  Root, thou Offspring of David, thou bright and Morning Star that shinest in that ruddy dawning, haste thine appearance.  
The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth say, come. come quickly, Amen, Even so come, Lord Jesus.    
FINIS.   

The Errata.  
PAge 9, line 34, shrink read screik, p. 1, l. 21, Noah's second, r. the second Noah's p. 12. l. 30. attaching r. from attaching, p. 32, l. 8, sharpness r. sharpens, p. 42, l. 5, sticks r. strikes, p. 69. l. 1, pangs r. pains, p. 85. l. 7. whereas r. where's, p. 88 l. 34, bided r. bope, p. 94, l. 24, again r. against, p. 94, l. 29, spi r. spirit, p. 97, l. 22. oil r. toil, p. 108, l. 21, through r. though, p. 123, (put in this note in the margin) at the words, a Optics teach us, ᵃ Vittellon optic. l. 2. Theorem. 17. p. 67. edit. Basil. fol. 1572.