A Christian Directory, Part 2: Christian Economics

by Richard Baxter

FOOTNOTE

[125] In Augustine's speech to the people of Hippo, for Eradius his succession, he saith, In infantia speratur pueritia, et in pueritia speratur adolescentia, in adolescentia speratur juventus, in juventute speratur gravitas, et in gravitate speratur senectus: utrum contingat incertum est; est tamen quod speretur. Senectus autem aliam ætatem quam speret, non habet. Vid. Papor. Massor. in vita Cœlesti. fol. 58.

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CHAPTER XXX.
DIRECTIONS FOR THE SICK.

Though the chief part of our preparation for death be in the time of health, and it is a work for which the longest life is not too long; yet because the folly of unconverted sinners is so great, as to forget what they were born for till they see death at hand, and because there is a special preparation necessary for the best, I shall here lay down some directions for the sick. And I shall reduce them to these four heads: 1. What must be done to make death safe to us, that it may be our passage to heaven and not to hell. 2. What must be done to make sickness profitable to us. 3. What must be done to make death comfortable to us, that we may die in peace and joy. 4. What must be done to make our sickness profitable to others about us.

Tit. 1. Directions for a Safe Death, to secure our Salvation.

The directions of this sort are especially necessary to the unconverted, impenitent sinner; yet needful also to the godly themselves; and therefore I shall distinctly speak to both.

I. Directions for an Unconverted Sinner in his Sickness.

It is a very dreadful case to be found by sickness in an unconverted state. There is so great a work to be done, and so little time to do it in, and soul and body so unfit and undisposed for it, and the misery so great (even everlasting torment) that will follow so certainly and so quickly if it be undone, that one would think it should overwhelm the understanding and heart of any man with astonishment and horror, to foresee such a condition in the time of his health; much more to find himself in it in his sickness. And though one would think that the near approach of death, and the nearness of another world, should be irresistibly powerful to convert a sinner, so that few or none should die unconverted, however they lived; yet Scripture and sad experience declare the contrary, that most men die, as well as live, in an unsanctified and miserable state. For, 1. A life of sin doth usually settle a man in ignorance or unbelief, or both; so that sickness findeth him in such a dungeon of darkness, that he is but lost and confounded in his fears, and knoweth not whither he is going, nor what he hath to do. 2. And also sin woefully hardeneth the heart, and the long-resisted Spirit of God forsaketh them, and giveth them over to themselves in sickness, who would not be ruled and sanctified by him in their health: and such remain like blocks or beasts even to the last. 3. And the nature of sickness and approaching death doth tend more to affright than to renew the soul; and rather to breed fear and trouble than love. And though grief and fear be good preparatives and helps, yet it is the love of God and holiness in which the soul's regeneration and renovation doth consist; and there is no more holiness than there is love and willingness. And many a one that is affrighted into strong repentings, and cries, and prayers, and promises, and seem to themselves and others to be converted, do yet either die in their sins and misery, or return to their unholy lives when they recover, being utter strangers to that true repentance which reneweth the heart, as sad experience doth too often testify. 4. And many poor sinners finding that they have so short a time, do end it in mere amazement and terror, not knowing how to compose their thoughts, to examine their hearts and lives, nor to exercise faith in Christ, nor to follow any directions that are given them; but lie in trembling and astonishment, wholly taken up with the fears of death, much worse than a beast that is going to be butchered. 5. And the very pains of the body do so divert or hinder the thoughts of many, that they can scarce mind any spiritual things, with such a composedness as is necessary to so great a work. 6. And the greatest number being partly confounded in ignorance, and partly withheld by backwardness and undisposedness, and partly disheartened by thinking it impossible to become new creatures, and get a regenerate, heavenly heart on such a sudden, do force themselves to hope that they shall be saved without it, and that though they are sinners, yet that kind of repentance which they have, will serve the turn and be accepted, and God will be more merciful than to damn them. And this false hope they think they are necessitated to take up. For there is but two other ways to be taken: the one is, utterly to despair; and both Scripture, and reason, and nature itself are against that: the other way is, to be truly converted and won to the love of God and heaven by a lively faith in Jesus Christ; and they have no such faith; and to this they are strange and undisposed, and think it impossible to be done. And if they must have no hopes but upon such terms as these, they think they shall have none at all. Or else if they hear that there is no other hope, and that none but the holy can be saved, they will force themselves to hope that they have all this, and that they are truly converted, and become new creatures, and do love God and holiness above all: not because indeed it is so, but because they would have it so, for fear of being damned. And instead of finding that they are void of faith, and love, and holiness, and labouring to get a renewed soul, they think it a nearer way to make themselves believe that it is so already: and thus in their presumption, self-deceiving, and false hopes, they linger out that little time that is left them to be converted in, till death open their eyes, and hell do undeceive them. 7. And the same devil, and wicked men his instruments, that kept them in health from true repentance, will be as diligent to keep them from it in their sickness; and will be loth to lose all at the last cast, which they had been winning all the time before. And if the devil can but keep them in his power, till sickness come and take them up with pain and fear, he will hope to keep them a few days longer, till he have finished that which he had begun and carried on so far. And if there be here and there one, that will be held no longer by false hopes and presumption, he will at last think to take them off by desperation, and make them believe that there is no remedy.

And indeed it is a thing so difficult, and unlikely, to convert a sinner in all his pain and weakness at the last, that even the godly friends of such do many times even let them alone, as thinking that there is little or no hope. But this is a very sinful course: as long as there is life, there is some hope. And as long as there is hope, we must use the means. A physician will try the best remedies he hath, in the most dangerous disease which is not desperate: for when it is certain that there is no hope without them, if they do no good, they do no harm. So must we try the saving of a poor soul, while there is life and any hope; for if once death end their time and hopes, it will be then too late; and they will be out of our reach and help for ever. To those that sickness findeth in so sad a case, I shall give here but a few brief directions, because I have done it more at large in the first part and first chapter, whither I refer them.

For examination.

Direct. I. Set speedily and seriously to the judging of yourselves, as those that are going to be judged of God. And do it in the manner following. 1. Do it willingly and resolvedly, as knowing that it is now no time to remain uncertain of your everlasting state, if you can possibly get acquainted with it. Is it not time for a man to know himself, whether he be a sanctified believer or not, when he is just going to appear before his Maker, and there be judged as he is found?

2. Do it impartially; as one that is not willing to find himself deceived, as soon as death hath acquainted him with the truth. O take heed, as you love your souls, of being foolishly tender of yourselves, and resolving for fear of being troubled at your misery, to believe that you are safe, whether it be true or false. This is the way that thousands are undone by. Thinking that you are sanctified will neither prove you so, nor make you so; no more than thinking that you are well, will prove or make you well. And what good will it do you to think you are pardoned and shall be saved, for a few days longer, and then to find too late in hell that you were mistaken? Is the ease of so short a deceit worth all the pain and loss that it will cost you? Alas, poor soul! God knoweth it is not needlessly to affright thee, that we desire to convince thee of thy misery! We do not cruelly insult over thee, or desire to torment thee. But we pity thee in so sad a case: to see an unsanctified person ready to pass into another world, and to be doomed unto endless misery, and will not know it till he is there. Our principal reason of opening your danger is, because it is necessary to your escaping it: if soul diseases were like bodily diseases, which may sometimes be cured without the patient's knowing them, and the danger of them, we would never trouble you at such a time as this. But it will not be so done; you must understand your danger, if you will be saved from it: therefore be impartial with yourself if you are wise, and be truly willing to know the worst. 3. In judging yourselves, proceed by the same rule or law that God will judge you by; that is, by the word of God revealed in the gospel. For your work now is not to steal a little short-lived quiet to your consciences, but to know how God will judge your souls, and whether he will doom you to endless joy or misery: and how can you know this, but by that law or rule that God will judge you by? And certainly God will judge you by the same law or rule by which he governed you, or which he gave you to live by in the world. It will go never the better or worse there with any man, for his good or bad conceits of himself, if they were his mistakes; but just what God has said in his word that he will do with any man, that will he do with him in the day of judgment. All shall be justified whom the gospel justifieth; and all shall be condemned that it condemneth: and therefore judge yourself by it: by what signs you may know an unsanctified man, I have told you before, part i. chap. i. direct. 8. And by what signs true grace may be known, I told you before, in preparation for the sacrament. 4. If you cannot satisfy yourself about your own condition, advise with some godly, able minister, or other christian that is best acquainted with you; that knoweth how you have lived towards God and man: or at least, open all your heart and life to him that he may know it; and if he tell you that he feareth you are yet unsanctified, you have the more reason to fear the worst. But then be sure that he be not a carnal, ungodly, worldly man himself; for they that flatter and deceive themselves, are not unlike to do so by others. Such blind deceivers will daub over all, and bid you never trouble yourself; but even comfort you as they comfort themselves, and bid you believe that all is well, and it will be well; or will make you believe that some forced confession and unsound repentance will serve instead of true conversion. But a man that is going to the bar of God, should be loth to be deceived by himself, or others.

For humiliation and repentance.

Direct. II. If by a due examination you find yourself unsanctified, bethink you seriously of your case, both what you have done, and what a condition you are in, till you are truly humbled, and willing of any conditions that God shall offer you for your deliverance. Consider how foolishly you have done, how rebelliously, how unthankfully, to forsake your God, and forget your souls, and lose all your time, and abuse all God's mercies, and leave undone the work that you were made, and preserved, and redeemed for! Alas, did you never know till now that you must die? and that you had all your time to make preparation for an endless life which followeth death? Were you never warned by minister, or friend? Were you never told of the necessity of a holy, heavenly life; and of a regenerate, sanctified state, till now? O what could you have done more unwisely, or wickedly, than to cast away a life that eternal life so much depended on; and to refuse your Saviour, and his grace and mercies, till your last extremity? Is this the time to look after a new birth, and to begin your life, when you are at the end of it? O what have you done to delay so great a work till now! And now if you die before you are regenerate, you are lost for ever. O humble your souls before the Lord! Lament your folly; and presently condemn yourselves before him, and make out to him for mercy while there is hope.

For faith in Christ.

Direct. III. When you are humbled for your sin and misery, and willing of mercy upon any terms, believe that yet your case is not remediless, but that Jesus Christ hath given himself to God, a sacrifice for your sins, and is so sure and all-sufficient a Saviour, that yet nothing can hinder you from pardon and salvation, but your own impenitence and unbelief. Come to him therefore as the Saviour of souls, that he may teach you the will of God, and reconcile you to his Father, and pardon your sins, and renew you by his Spirit, and acquaint you with his Father's love, and save you from damnation, and make you heirs of life eternal. For all this may yet possibly be done, as short as your time is like to be: and it will yet be long of you, if it be not done. The covenant of grace doth promise pardon and salvation to every penitent believer whenever they truly turn to God, without excepting any hour, or any person, in all the world. Nothing but an unbelieving, hardened heart, resisting his grace, and unwilling to be holy, can deprive you of pardon and salvation, even at the last. It was a most foolish wickedness of you to put it off till now: but yet for all that, if you are not yet saved, it shall not be long of Christ, but you: yet he doth freely offer you his mercy, and he will be your Lord and Saviour if you will not refuse him: yet the match shall not break on his part: see that it break not on your part, and you shall be saved. Know therefore what he is, as God and man, and what a blessed work he hath undertaken, to redeem a sinful, miserable world; and what he hath already done for us, in his life and doctrine, in his death and sufferings, by his resurrection and his covenant of grace, and what he is now doing at his Father's right hand, in making intercession for penitent believers, and what an endless glory he is preparing for them, and how he will save to the uttermost all that come to God by him. O yet let your heart even leap for joy, that you have an all-sufficient, willing, gracious Saviour, whose grace aboundeth more than sin aboundeth. If the devils and poor damned souls in hell were yet but in your case, and had your offers and your hopes, how glad do you imagine they would be! Cast yourselves therefore in faith and confidence upon this Saviour; trust your souls upon his sacrifice and merit, for the pardon of your sins, and peace with God; beg of him yet the renewing grace of his Spirit; be willing to be made holy, and a new creature, and to live a holy life if you should survive; resolve to be wholly ruled by him; and give up yourself absolutely to him as your Saviour, to be justified, and sanctified, and saved by him, and then trust in him for everlasting happiness! O happy soul, if yet you can do thus, without deceit.

For a new heart, and the love of God, and a resolution for a holy, obedient life.

Direct. IV. Believe now and consider what God is and will be to your soul, and what love he hath showed to you by Christ, and what endless joy and glory you may have with him in heaven for ever, notwithstanding all the sins that you have done: and think what the world and the flesh have done for you, in comparison of God: think of this till you fall in love with God, and till your hearts and hopes are set on heaven, and turned from this world and flesh, and till you feel yourself in love with holiness, and till you are firmly resolved in the strength of Christ to live a holy life, if God recover you: and then you are truly sanctified, and shall be saved if you die in this condition. Take heed that you take not a repentance and good purposes which come from nothing but fear, to be sufficient; if you recover, all this may die again, when your fear is over: you are not sanctified, nor hath God your hearts, till your love be to him: that which you do through fear alone, you had rather not do if you might be excused; and therefore your hearts are still against it. When the feeling of God's unspeakable love in Christ, doth melt and overcome your hearts; when the infinite goodness of God himself, and his mercies to your souls and bodies, do make you take him as more lovely and desirable than all the world; when you so believe the heavenly joys above, as to desire them more than earthly pleasures; when you love God better than worldly prosperity, and when a life of such love and holiness seemeth better to you, than all the merriments of sinners, and you had rather be a saint, than the most prosperous of the ungodly, and are firmly resolved for a holy life, if God recover you, then are you indeed in a state of grace, and not till then: this must be your case, or you are undone for ever. And therefore meditate on the love of Christ, and the goodness of God, and the joys of heaven, and the happiness of saints, and the misery of worldlings and ungodly men; meditate on these till your eyes be opened, and your hearts be touched with a holy love, and heaven and holiness be the very things that you desire above all; and then you may boldly go to God, and believe that all your sins are pardoned; and it is not bare terror, but these believing thoughts of God, and heaven, and Christ, and love, that must change your hearts and do the work.

These four directions truly practised, will yet set you on safe ground, as sad and dangerous as your condition is; but it is not the hearing of them, or the bare approbation of them, that will serve the turn. To find out your sinful, miserable state, and to be truly humbled for it, and to discern the remedy which you have in Christ, and penitently and believingly to enter into his covenant, and to see that your happiness is wholly in the love and fruition of God, and to believe the glory prepared for the saints, and to prefer it before all the prosperity of the world, and love it, and set your hearts upon it, and to resolve on a holy life if you should recover, forsaking this deceitful world and flesh; all this is a work that is not so easily done as mentioned, and requireth your more serious, fixed thoughts; and indeed had been fitter for your youthful vigour, than for a painful, weak, distempered state. But necessity is upon you; it must needs be yet done, and thoroughly and sincerely done, or you are lost for ever. And therefore do it as well as you can, and see that your hearts do not trifle and deceive you. In some respect you have greater helps than ever you had before; you cannot now keep up your hard-heartedness and security, by looking at death as a great way off. You have now fuller experience, than ever you had before, what the flesh and all its pleasures will come to, and what good your sinful sports, and recreations, and merriments will do you; and what all the riches, and greatness, and gallantry, and honours of the world are worth, and what they will do for you in the day of your necessity. You stand so near another world, and must so quickly appear before the Lord, that methinks a dead and senseless heart should no longer be able to make you slight your God, your Saviour, and your endless life: and one would think that the flesh, and world, should never be able to deceive you any more. O happy soul, if yet at last you are not only frightened into an unsound repentance, but can hate all sin, and love the Lord, and trust in Christ, and give up yourself entirely to him, and set your heart upon that blessed life, where you may see and love him perfectly for ever!

Of late repentance.

Quest. But will so late repentance serve the turn, for one that hath been so long ungodly?

Answ. Yes, if it be sincere: but there is all the doubt; and that is it that your salvation now dependeth on.

Quest. But how may I know whether it be sincere?

Answ. 1. If you be not only frighted into it, but your very heart, and will, and love are changed. 2. If it extend both to the end, and the necessary means: so that you love God and the joys of heaven, above all earthly prosperity and pleasure; and also you had rather be perfectly holy, than live in all the delights of sin. And if you hate every known sin, and love the holy ways and servants of God, and this unfeignedly: this is a true change. 3. And if this repentance and change be such as will hold, if God should recover you, and would show itself in a new, and holy, and self-denying life; which certainly it will do, if it come not only from fear, but from love: but if you renounce the world, and the flesh, against your wills, because you know there is no remedy; and if you bid farewell to your worldly, sinful pleasures, not because you love God better, but because you cannot keep them, though you would; and if you take not God and heaven as your best, but only for better than hell; but not as better than worldly prosperity, which yet you would choose, if you had your choice; this kind of repentance will never save you; and if you should recover, it would vanish away, and come to nothing, as soon as your fears of death are over, and you are returned to your worldly delights again. Though now in your extremity you cry out never so confidently, Oh I had rather have heaven than earth, and I had rather have Christ and holiness, than all the pleasures and prosperity of sinners; yet if it be not from a renewed, sanctified heart, that had rather be such indeed, but from mere necessity and fear and against the habit of your hearts and wills; this is but such a repentance as Judas had, that is neither sincere at present, nor if you recover, will hold you to a holy life.

II. Directions to the Sanctified, for a safe Departure.

When the soul is truly converted and sanctified, the principal business is despatched, that is necessary to a safe departure: but yet I cannot say that there is no more to be done. They were godly persons that were exhorted, 2 Pet. i. 10, "to give diligence to make their calling and election sure;" which being (as the Greek importeth) not only to make it known or certain, but to make it firm, doth signify more than barely to discern it. These following duties are yet further necessary.

Direct. I. Satisfy not yourselves that once you found yourselves sincere; but if your understandings be clear and free, renew the trial; and if you are insufficient for it of yourself, make use of the help of a faithful, judicious minister or friend. For when a man is going to the bar of God, it concerneth him to make all as sure as possibly he can.

Direct. II. Review your lives, and renew your universal repentance, for all the sins that ever you committed; and also let your particular repentance extend to every particular sin which you remember, but especially repent of your most aggravated, soul-wounding sins. For if your repentance be universal and true, it will also be particular; and you will be specially humbled for your special sins: and search deep, and see that none escape you. And think not that you are not called to repent of them, or ask forgiveness, because you have repented of them long ago, and received a pardon: for this is a thing to be done even to the last.

Direct. III. Renew your faith in Jesus Christ, and cast your souls upon his merits and mediation. Satisfy not yourselves that you have a habit of faith, and that formerly you did believe; but fly to your trusty rock and refuge, and continue the exercise of your faith, and again give up your souls to Christ.

Direct. IV. Make it your chief work to stir up in your hearts the love of God, and a desire to live with Christ in glory. Let those comforting and encouraging objects which are the instruments of this, be still in your thoughts: and if you can do this, it will be the surest proof of your title to the crown.

Direct. V. If you have wronged any by word or deed, be sure that you do your best to right them, and make them satisfaction; and if you have fallen out with any, be reconciled to them. Leave not other men's goods to your heirs or executors: restore what you have wrongfully gotten, before you leave your legacies to any. Confess your faults where you can do no more; and ask those forgiveness whom you have injured; and leave not men's names, or estates, or souls, under the effects of your former wrongs, so far as you are able to make them reparation.

Direct. VI. Be still taken up in your duty to God, even that which he now calleth you to, that you may not be found idle, or in the sins of omission; but may be most holy and fruitful at the last. Though sickness call you not to all the same duties, which were incumbent on you in your health; yet think not therefore, that there is no duty at all expected from the sick. Every season and state hath its peculiar duties, (and its peculiar mercies,) which it much concerneth us to know. I shall anon tell you more particularly what they are.

Direct. VII. Be specially fortified and vigilant against the most dangerous temptations of Satan, by which he useth to assault the sick. Pray now especially, that God would not lead you into temptation, but deliver you from the evil one: for in your weakness you may be less fit to wrestle with them, than at another time. O beg of God, that as he hath upheld you, and preserved you till now, he would not forsake you at last in your extremity.[126] Particularly,

Tempt. I. One of the most dangerous temptations of the enemy is, To take the advantage of a christian's bodily weakness, to shake his faith, and question his foundations, and call him to dispute over his principles again, Whether the soul be immortal? and there be a heaven, and a hell? and whether Christ be the Son of God, and the Scriptures be God's word? &c. As if this had never been questioned, and scanned, and resolved before! It is a great deal of advantage that Satan expecteth by this malicious course. If he could, he would draw you from Christ to infidelity; but Christ prayeth for you, that your faith may not fail: if he cannot do this, he would at least weaken your faith, and hereby weaken every grace: and he would hereby divert you from the more needful thoughts, which are suitable to your present state; and he would hereby distract you, and destroy your comforts, and draw you in your perplexities to dishonour God. Away therefore with these blasphemous and unseasonable motions; cast them from you, with abhorrence and disdain: it is no time now to be questioning your foundations; you have done this more seasonably, when you were in a fitter case. A pained, languishing body, and a disturbed, discomposed mind, is unfit upon a surprise, to go back and dispute over all our principles. Tell Satan, you owe him not so much service, nor will you so cast away those few hours and thoughts, for which you have so much better work. You have the witness in yourselves, even the Spirit, and image, and seal of God. You have been converted and renewed by the power of that word, which he would have you question; and you have found it to be owned by the Spirit of grace, who hath made it mighty to pull down the strongest holds of sin. Tell Satan, you will not gratify him so much, as to turn your holy, heavenly desires, into a wrangling with him about those truths which you have so often proved. You will not question now, the being of that God who hath maintained you so long, and witnessed his being and goodness to you by a life of mercies; nor will you now question the being or truth of him that hath redeemed you, or of the Spirit or word that hath sanctified, guided, comforted, and confirmed you. If he tell you, that you must prove all things, tell him, that this is not now to do; you have long proved the truth and goodness of your God, the mercy of your Saviour, and the power of his holy Spirit and word. It is now your work to live upon that word, and fetch your hopes and comforts from it, and not to question it.

Tempt. II. Another dangerous temptation of Satan is, When he would persuade you to despair, by causing you to misunderstand the tenor of the gospel, or by thinking too narrowly and unworthily of God's mercy, or of the satisfaction of Christ. But because this temptation doth usually tend more to discomfort the soul, than to damn it, I shall speak more to it under tit. 3.

Tempt. III. Another dangerous temptation is, When Satan would draw you to overlook your sins, and overvalue your graces, and be proud of your good works; and so lay too much of your comfort upon yourselves, and lose the sense of your need of Christ, or usurp any part of his office or his honour. I shall afterward show you how far you must look at any thing in yourselves: but certainly, that which lifteth you up in pride, or encroacheth on Christ's office, or would draw you to undervalue him, is not of God. Therefore keep humble, in the sense of your sinfulness and unworthiness, and cast away every motion which would carry you away from Christ, and make yourselves, and your works, and righteousness, as a saviour to yourselves.

Tempt. IV. Another perilous temptation is, By causing the thoughts of death and the grave, and your doubts and fears about the world to come, to overcome the love of God, and (not only the comforts, but also) the desires and willingness of your hearts, to be with Christ. It will abate your love to God and heaven, to think on them with too much estrangedness and terror. The directions under tit. 3. will help you against this temptation.

Tempt. V. Another dangerous temptation is fetched from the remnants of your worldly-mindedness; when your dignity, or honour, your house, or lands, your relations and friends, or your pleasures and contentments, are so sweet to you, that you are loth to leave them; and the thoughts of death are grievous to you, because it taketh you from that which you over-love; and God and heaven are the less desired, because you are loth to leave the world. Watch carefully against this great temptation; observe how it seeketh the very destruction of your grace and souls; and how it fighteth against your love to God and heaven, and would undo all that Christ and his Spirit have been doing so long. Observe what a root of matter it findeth in yourselves; and therefore be the more humbled under it. Learn now what the world is, and how little the accommodations of the flesh are worth, when you perceive what the end of all must be. Would you never die? would you enjoy your worldly things for ever? Had you rather have them, than to live with Christ in the heavenly glory of the New Jerusalem? If you had, it is your grievous sin and folly; and yet you know that it is a desire that you can never hope to attain. Die you must, whether you will or not! What is it, then, that you would stay for? Is it till the world be grown less pleasant to you, and your love and minds be weaned from it? When should that rather be than now? And what should more effectually do it, than this dying condition that you are in? It is time for you to spit out these unwholesome pleasures; and now to look up to the true, the holy, the unmeasurable, everlasting pleasures.

Tit. 2. Directions how to Profit by our Sickness.

Whether it shall please God to recover you or not, it is no small benefit which you may get by his visitation, if you do your part, and faithfully improve it, according to these directions following.

Direct. I. If you hear God's call to a closer trial of your hearts, concerning the sincerity of your conversion, and thereby are brought to a more exact examination, and come to a truer acquaintance with your state, (be it good or bad,) the benefit may be exceeding great. For if it be good, you may be much comforted, and confirmed, and fitted to give thanks and praise to God; and if it be bad, you may be awakened speedily to look about you, and seek for a recovery.

Direct. II. If in the review of your lives, you find out those sins which before you overlooked, or perceive the greatness of those sins which you before accounted small, the benefit may be very great; for it helps to a more deep and sound repentance, and to a stronger resolution against all sins, if you recover. And affliction is a very great help to us in this: many a man hath been ashamed and deeply humbled for that same sin, when sickness did awake him, which he could make his play-fellow before, as if there had been neither hurt nor danger in it.

Direct. III. There is many a deep corruption in the heart, which affliction openeth and discovereth, which deceitfulness hid in the time of prosperity; and the detecting of these is no small benefit to the soul. When you come to part with wealth and honour, you shall better know how much you loved them, than you could before. Mark therefore what corruptions appear in your affliction, and how the heart discloseth its deceits, that you may know what to repent of, and reform.

Direct. IV. When affliction calleth you to the use and exercise of your graces, you have a great help to be better acquainted with the strength or weakness of them. When you are called so loudly to the use of faith, and love, and patience, and heavenly-mindedness, you may better know what measure of every one of these you have, than you could when you had no such help. Mark therefore what your hearts prove in the trial, and what each grace doth show itself to be in the exercise.

Direct. V. You have a very great help now to be thoroughly acquainted with the vanity of the world, and so to mortify all affections unto the things below. Now judge of the value of wealth, and honour, of plenty, and high places. Are they a comfort to a dying man that is parting with them? Or is it any grief to a poor man when he is dying, that he did not enjoy them? Is it not easy now to rectify your errors, if ever you thought highly of these transitory things? O settle it now in your firm resolution, that if God should restore you, you would value this world at a lower rate, and set by it, and seek it, but as it deserveth.

Direct. VI. Also you have now a special help to raise your estimation of the happiness of the saints in heaven, and of the necessity and excellency of a holy life, and of the wisdom of the saints on earth; and to know who maketh the wisest choice.[127] Now you may see that it is nothing but heaven that is worth our seeking, and that is finally to be trusted to, and will not fail us in the hour of our distress; now you may discern between the righteous and the wicked; between those that serve God and those that serve him not, Mal. iii. 17, 18. Now judge whether a loose and worldly life, or a holy, heavenly life be better? And resolve accordingly.

Direct. VII. You have also now a very great help to discern the folly of a voluptuous life, and to mortify the deeds and desires of the flesh: when God is mortifying its natural desires, it may help you in mortifying its sinful desires. Now judge what lust, and plays, and gaming, and feasting, and drunkenness, and swaggering, are worth? You see now the end of all such pleasures. Do you think them better than the joys of heaven, and worthy the loss of a man's salvation to attain them? Or better than the pleasures of a holy life?

Direct. VIII. Also now you have a great advantage, for the quickening of your hearts that have lost their zeal, and are cold in prayer, and dull in meditation, and regardless of holy conference. If ever you will pray earnestly, sure it will be now; if ever you will talk seriously of the matters of salvation, sure it will be now. Now you do better understand the reason of fervent prayer, and serious religion, and circumspect walking, than you did before; and you can easily now confute the scorns, or railings of the loose, ungodly enemies of holiness; even as you confute the dotage of a fool, or the ravings of a man beside himself.

Direct. IX. You have a great advantage more sensibly to perceive your dependence upon God alone; and what reason you have to please him before all the world, and to regard his favour or displeasure more, than all the things or persons upon earth. Now you see how vain a thing is man; and how little the favour of all the world can stand you in stead in your greatest necessity: now you see that it is God, and God alone, that is to be trusted to at last; and therefore it is God that is to be obeyed and pleased, whatever become of all things in the world.

Direct. X. You have now a great advantage to discern the preciousness of time, and to see how carefully it should be redeemed, and to perceive the distractedness of those men, that can waste it in pastimes, and curiosity of dressings, and needless compliments and visits, and a multitude of such vanities, as rob the world of that which is more precious than gold or treasure. Now what think you of idling and playing away your time? Now do you not think that it is wiser to spend it in a holy preparation for the life to come, than to cast it away upon childish fooleries, or any unnecessary worldly things?

Direct. XI. Also you have now a special help to be more serious than ever in your preparations for death, and in your thoughts of heaven; and so to be readier than you were before; and if sickness help you to be readier to die, and more to set your hearts above, whether you live or die, it will be a profitable sickness to you.

Direct. XII. Let your friends about you be the witnesses of your open confessions and resolutions, and engage them, if God should restore you to your health, to remember you of all the promises which you made, and to watch over you, and tell you of them whenever there is need. By these means sickness may be improved, and be a mercy to you.

Directions to them that recover.

I might next have given some special directions to them that are recovered from sickness; but because I would not be needlessly tedious, I refer such to what is here said already. 1. Let them but look over these twelve directions, and see whether these benefits remain upon their hearts. 2. Let them call to their lively remembrance, the sense which they had, and the frame they were in, when they made these resolutions. 3. Let them remember that sickness will come again, even a sickness which will have no cure. And, 4. Let them bethink themselves, how terribly conscience will be wounded, and their souls dismayed, when the next sickness cometh, to remember that they were unthankful for their last recovery, and how falsely they dealt with God in the breaking of their promises. Foresee this, that you may prevent it.

Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death.

Comfort is not desirable only as it pleaseth us, but also as it strengtheneth us, and helpeth us in our greatest duties. And when is it more needful than in sickness, and the approach of death? I shall therefore add such directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least, as well as safe.

Direct. I. Because I would make this treatise no longer than I needs must; in order to overcome the fears of death, and get a cheerful willingness to die, I desire the sick to read over those twenty considerations, and the following directions, which I have laid down in my book of "Self-denial." And when the fears of death are overcome, the great impediment of their comfort is removed.

Direct. II. Misunderstand not sickness, as if it were a greater evil than it is; but observe how great a mercy it is, that death hath so suitable a harbinger or forerunner: that God should do so much before he taketh us hence, to wean us from the world, and make us willing to be gone; that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain; and that the senses and appetite languish and decay, which did draw the mind to earthly things: and that we have so loud a call, and so great a help to true repentance and serious preparation! I know to those that have walked very close with God, and are always ready, a sudden death may be a mercy; as we have lately known divers holy ministers and others, that have died either after a sacrament, or in the evening of the Lord's day, or in the midst of some holy exercise, with so little pain, that none about them perceived when they died.[128] But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakened by painful sickness, to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to die.

Direct. III. Remember whose messenger sickness is, and who it is that calleth you to die. It is he, that is the Lord of all the world, and gave us the lives which he taketh from us; and it is he, that must dispose of angels and men, of princes and kingdoms, of heaven and earth; and therefore there is no reason that such worms as we should desire to be excepted. You cannot deny him to be the disposer of all things, without denying him to be God: it is he that loveth us, and never meant us any harm in any thing that he hath done to us; that gave the life of his Son to redeem us; and therefore thinketh not life too good for us. Our sickness and death are sent by the same love that sent us a Saviour, and sent us the powerful preachers of his word, and sent us his Spirit, and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts, and knit them to himself in love; which gave us a life of precious mercies for our souls and bodies, and hath promised to give us life eternal; and shall we think, that he now intendeth us any harm? Cannot he turn this also to our good, as he hath done many an affliction which we have repined at?

Direct. IV. Look by faith to your dying, buried, risen, ascended, glorified Lord. Nothing will more powerfully overcome both the poison and the fears of death, than the believing thoughts of him that hath triumphed over it. Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the body? So it did by our Lord, who yet overcame it. Is it terrible as it layeth the body in the grave? So it did by our Saviour; though he saw not corruption, but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead. He died to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death. He was buried, to teach us not over-much to fear a grave. He rose again to conquer death for us, and to assure those that rise to newness of life, that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory; and being made partakers of the first resurrection, the second death shall have no power over them. He liveth as our head, that we might live by him; and that he might assure all those that are here risen with him, and seek first the things that are above, that though in themselves they are dead, "yet their life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory," Col. iii. 1, 2, 4, 5. What a comfortable word is that, John xiv. 19, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Death could not hold the Lord of life; nor can it hold us against his will, who hath the "keys of death and hell," Rev. i. 18. He loveth every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye, or a hand, or any other member of your body, which you will not lose if you are able to save it. When he ascended, he left us that message full of comfort for his followers, John xx. 17, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God." Which, with these two following, I would have written before me on my sick bed. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my servant be," John xii. 26. And, "Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Luke xxiii. 43. Oh what a joyful thought should it be to a believer, to think when he is a dying, that he is going to his Saviour, and that our Lord is risen and gone before us, to prepare a place for us, and take us in season to himself, John xiv. 2-4. "As you believe in God, believe thus in Christ; and then your hearts will be less troubled," ver. 1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you; but your Head and Saviour, that loveth you better than you love yourselves, whose office it is there to appear continually for you before God, and at last to receive your departing souls; and into his hand it is, that you must then commend them, as Stephen did, Acts vii. 59.

Direct. V. Choose out some promises most suitable to your condition, and roll them over and over in your mind, and feed and live on them by faith. A sick man is not (usually) fit to think of very many things; and therefore two or three comfortable promises, to be still before his eyes, may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts; such as those three which I named before. If he be most troubled with the greatness of his sin, let it be such as these: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16. "And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39. "For I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more," Heb. viii. 12. If it be the weakness of his grace that troubleth him, let him choose such passages as these: "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young," Isa. xl. 11. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," Gal. v. 17. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," Matt. xxvi. 41. "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out," John vi. 37. "The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith," Luke xvii. 5. If it be the fear of death, and strangeness to the other world, that troubleth you, remember the words of Christ before cited, and 2 Cor. v. 1-6, 8, "For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.—We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord." "For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better," Phil. i. 23. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them," Rev. xiv. 13. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. xv. 55. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," Acts vii. 59. Fix upon some such word or promise, which may support you in your extremity.

Direct. VI. Look up to God, who is the glory of heaven, and the light, and life, and joy of souls, and believe that you are going to see his face, and to live in the perfect, everlasting fruition of his fullest love among the glorified. If it be delectable here to know his works, what will it be to see the cause of all? All creatures in heaven and earth conjoined, can never afford such content and joy to holy souls, as God alone! Oh if we knew him whom we must there behold, how weary should we be of this dungeon of mortality! and how fervently should we long to see his face! The chicken that cometh out of the shell, or the infant that newly cometh out of the womb, into this illuminated world of human converse, receiveth not such a joyful change, as the soul that is newly loosed from the flesh, and passeth from this mortal life to God. One sight of God by a blessed soul, is worth more than all the kingdoms of the earth. It is pleasant to the eyes to behold the sun; but the sun is as darkness and useless in his glory. "And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof," Rev. xxi. 23. "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads: and there shall be no night there: and they need no candle, nor light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever," Rev. xxii. 3-5. If David in the wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before God, the living God, in his sanctuary at Jerusalem, Psal. xlii. how earnestly should we long to see his glory in the heavenly Jerusalem! The glimpse of his back parts, was as much as Moses might behold, Exod. xxxiv. yet that much put a shining glory upon his face, ver. 29, 30. The sight that Stephen had when men were ready to stone him, was a delectable sight, Acts vii. 55, 56. The glimpse of Christ in his transfiguration ravished the three apostles that beheld it, Matt. xvii. 2, 6. Paul's vision which rapt him up into the third heavens, did advance him above the rest of mankind! But our beatifical sight of the glory of God, will very far excel all this. When our perfected bodies shall have the perfect glorious body of Christ to see, and our perfected souls shall have the God of truth, the most perfect uncreated light to know, what more is a created understanding capable of? And yet this is not the top of our felicity; for the understanding is but the passage to the heart or will, and truth is but subservient to goodness: and therefore though the understanding be capable of no more than the beatifical vision, yet the man is capable of more; even of receiving the fullest communications of God's love, and feeling it poured out upon the heart, and living in the returns of perfect love; and in this intercourse of love will be our highest joys, and this is the top of our heavenly felicity. Oh that God would make us foreknow by a lively faith, what it is to behold him in his glory, and to dwell in perfect love and joy, and then death would no more be able to dismay us, nor should we be unwilling of such a blessed change! But having spoken of this so largely in my "Saints' Rest," I must stop here, and refer you thither.

Direct. VII. Look up to the blessed society of angels and saints with Christ, and remember their blessedness and joy, and that you also belong to the same society, and are going to be numbered with them. It will greatly overcome the fears of death, to see by faith the joys of them that have gone before us; and withal to think of their relation to us; as it will encourage a man that is to go beyond sea, if the far greatest part of his dearest friends be gone before him, and he heareth of their safe arrival, and of their joy and happiness. Those angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and guardians, and entirely love us, better than any of our friends on earth do! They rejoiced at our conversion, and will rejoice at our glorification; and as they are better, and love us better, so therefore our love should be greater to them, than to any upon earth, and we should more desire to be with them. Those blessed souls that are now with Christ, were once as we are here on earth; they were compassed with temptations, and clogged with flesh, and burdened with sin, and persecuted by the world, and they went out of the world by sickness and death, as we must do; and yet now their tears are wiped away, their pains, and groans, and fears are turned into inexpressible blessedness and joy: and would we not be with them? is not their company desirable? and their felicity more desirable? The glory of the New Jerusalem is not described to us in vain, Rev. xxi. xxii. God will be all in all there to us, as the only sun and glory of that world; and yet we shall have pleasure, not only to see our glorified Redeemer, but also to converse with the heavenly society, and to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and to love and praise him in consort and harmony with all those holy, blessed spirits. And shall we be afraid to follow, where the saints of all generations have gone before us? And shall the company of our best, and most, and happiest friends, be no inducement to us? Though it must be our highest joy to think that we shall dwell with God, and next that we shall see the glory of Christ, yet is it no small part of my comfort to consider, that I shall follow all those holy persons, whom I once conversed with, that are gone before me; and that I shall dwell with such as Enoch and Elias, and Abraham and Moses, and Job and David, and Peter and John, and Paul and Timothy, and Ignatius and Polycarp, and Cyprian and Nazianzen, and Augustine and Chrysostom, and Bernard and Gerson, and Savonarola and Mirandula, and Taulerus and Kempisius, and Melancthon and Alasco, and Calvin and Bucholtzer, and Bullinger and Musculus, and Zanchy and Bucer, and Paræus and Grynæus, and Chemnitius and Gerhard, and Chamier and Capellus, and Blondel and Rivet, and Rogers and Bradford, and Hooper and Latimer, and Hildersham and Amesius, and Langley and Nicolls, and Whitaker and Cartwright, and Hooker and Bayne, and Preston and Sibbes, and Perkins and Dod, and Parker and Ball, and Usher and Hall, and Gataker and Bradshaw, and Vines and Ash, and millions more of the family of God.[129] I name these for my own delight and comfort; it being pleasant to me to remember what companions I shall have in the heavenly joys and praises of my Lord. How few are all the saints on earth, in comparison of those that are now with Christ! And, alas, how weak, and ignorant, and corrupt, how selfish, and contentious, and froward, are God's poor infants here in flesh, when above there is nothing but holiness and perfection! If knowledge, or goodness, or any excellency do make the creatures truly amiable, all this is there in the highest degree; but here, alas, how little have we! If the love of God, or the love of us, do make others lovely to us, it is there and not here that these and all perfections flourish. Oh how much now do I find the company of the wise and learned, the godly and sincere, to differ from the company of the ignorant, brutish, the proud and malicious, the false-hearted and ungodly rabble! How sweet is the converse of a holy, wise, experienced christian! Oh then what a place is the New Jerusalem; and how pleasant will it be with saints and angels to see and love and praise the Lord.

Direct. VIII. That sickness and death may be comfortable to you, as your passage to eternity, take notice of the seal and earnest of God, even the Spirit of grace which he hath put into your hearts. That which imboldened Paul and such others to groan after immortality, and to "be most willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord," was because God himself "had wrought or made them for it, and given them the earnest or pledge of his Spirit," 2 Cor. v. 4, 5, 8. For this is God's mark upon his chosen and justified ones, by which they are "sealed up to the day of their redemption," Eph. iv. 33: i. 13, "In whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." 2 Cor. i. 21, 22, "God hath anointed us, and sealed us, and given us the pledge or earnest of his Spirit into our hearts." "This is the pledge or earnest of our inheritance," Eph. i. 14. And what a comfort should it be to us, when we look towards heaven, to find such a pledge of God within us! If you say, I fear I have not this earnest of the Spirit; whence then did your desires of holiness arise? what weaned you from the world, and made you place your hopes and happiness above? whence came your enmity to sin, and opposition to it, and your earnest desires after the glory of God, the prosperity of the gospel, and the good of souls? The very love of holiness and holy persons, and your desires to know God and perfectly love him, do show that heavenly nature or spirit within you, which is your surest evidence for eternal life: for that spirit was sent from heaven, to draw up your hearts, and fit you for it; and God doth not give you such natures, and desires, and preparations in vain. This also is called "The witness of the Spirit with (or to) our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," Rom. viii. 15-17. It witnesseth our adoption, by evidencing it; as a seal or pledge doth witness our title to that which is so confirmed to us. The nature of every thing is suited to its use and end; God would not have given us a heavenly nature or desire, if he had not intended us for heaven.

So Hezekiah.

Direct. IX. Look also to the testimony of a holy life, since grace hath employed you in seeking after the heavenly inheritance. It is unlawful and perilous to look after any works or righteousness of your own, so as to set it in whole or in part instead of Christ, or to ascribe to it any honour that is proper to him; as to imagine that you are innocent, or have fulfilled the law, or have made God a compensation by your merits or sufferings, for the sin you have committed; but yet you must judge yourselves on your sick beds as near as you can as God will judge you. And "he will judge every man according to his work;" and will recompense and reward men according to their works. Matt. xxv. 21, 34, &c. "Well done, good and faithful servant! thou hast been faithful over a little, I will make thee ruler over much. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you—for I was hungry and ye fed me," &c.—Heb. v. 9, "He is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." Matt. vii. 24, 25, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock—." Rev. xxii. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gate into the city, for without are dogs," &c. "Thus must you rejoice in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," not only as he was crucified on it for you, but also as you are "crucified by it to the world, and the world to you," Gal. vi. 14. He that as a benefactor will give you that glory which you could never deserve of him, on terms of commutative justice, (for so no creature can deserve any thing of God,) will yet, as a righteous governor and judge, deliver it you only on the terms of his paternal, governing, distributive justice; and all shall receive according to what they have done in the body. And therefore you may take comfort in that evangelical righteousness, which consisteth in your fulfilling the conditions of the new covenant, though you have no legal righteousness, (which consisteth in innocency, or freedom from the curse of the law,) but only in the merits and sacrifice of Christ. If you are accused as being impenitent, unbelievers, or hypocrites, Christ's righteousness will not justify you from that accusation; but only your repentance, faith, and sincerity (wrought in you by the Spirit of Christ). But if you can but show the evidence of this evangelical righteousness, Christ then will justify you against all the other accusations of guilt that can be charged on you. (Of which more anon.) Seeing therefore the Spirit hath given you these evidences, to difference you from the wretched world, and prove your title to eternal life, if you overlook these, you resist your Comforter, and can see no other ground of comfort, than every graceless hypocrite may see. Imitate holy Paul: 2 Cor. i. 12, "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world—." 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." To look back and see that in sincerity you have gone the way to heaven, is a just and necessary ground of assurance, that you shall attain it. If you say, But I have been a grievous sinner! I answer, so was Paul that yet rejoiced after in this evidence! Are not those sins repented of and pardoned? If you say, But I cannot look back upon a holy life with comfort, it hath been so blotted and uneven! I answer, hath it not been sincere, though it was imperfect? Did you not "first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness?" Matt. vi. 33. If you say, My whole life hath been ungodly, till now at last that God hath humbled me; I answer, it is not the length of time, but the sincerity of your hearts and service, that is your evidence. If you came in at the last hour, if now you are faithfully devoted to God, you may look with comfort on this change at last, though you must look with repentance on your sinful lives.

Direct. X. When you see any of this evidence of your interest in Christ, appeal to him to acquit you from all the sin that can be charged on you; for all that believe in him are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 2. Whatever sin a penitent believer hath committed, he is not chargeable with it; Christ hath undertaken to answer for it, and justify him from it; and therefore look not on it with terror, but with penitent shame, and believing thankfulness, as that which shall tend to the honour of the Redeemer, and not to the condemnation of the sinner. He hath borne our transgressions and we are healed by his stripes.[130]

Direct. XI. Look back upon all the mercies of your lives, and think whence they came and what they signify. Love tokens are to draw your hearts to him that sent them; these are dropped from heaven, to entice you thither! If God have been so good to you on earth, what will he be in glory! If he so blessed you in this wilderness, what will he do in the land of promise! It greatly imboldeneth my soul to go to that God, that hath so tenderly loved me, and so graciously preserved me, and so much abounded in all sorts of mercies to me through all my life. Surely he is good that so delighteth to do good! And his presence must be sweet, when his distant mercies have been so sweet! What love shall I enjoy when perfection hath fitted me for his love, who have tasted of so much in this state of sin and imperfection! The sense of mercy will banish the fears and misgivings of the heart.

Direct. XII. Remember (if you have attained to a declining age) what a competent time you have had already in the world. If you are grieved that you are mortal, you might on that account have grieved all your days; but if it be only that you die so soon, if you have lived well, you have lived long. When I think how many years of mercy I have had, since I was near to death, and since many younger than I are gone, and when I think what abundance of mercy I have had in all that time, ingenuity forbiddeth me to grudge at the season of my death, and maketh me almost ashamed to ask for longer life. How long would you stay, before, you would be willing to come to God? If he desired our company no more than we do his, and desired our happiness in heaven no more than we desire it ourselves, we should linger here as Lot in Sodom! Must we be snatched away against our wills, and carried by force to our Father's presence?

Direct. XIII. Remember that all mankind are mortal, and you are to go no other way than all that ever came into the world have gone before you (except Enoch and Elias). Yea, the poor brute creatures must die at your pleasure, to satisfy your hunger or delight. Beasts, and birds, and fishes, even many to make one meal, must die for you. And why then should you shrink at the entrance of such a trodden path, which leadeth you not to hell, as it doth the wicked, nor merely to corruption, as it doth the brutes, but to live in joy with Christ and his church triumphant?

Direct. XIV. Remember both how vile your body is, and how great an enemy it hath proved to your soul; and then you will the more patiently bear its dissolution. It is not your dwelling-house, but your tent or prison, that God is pulling down. And yet even this vile body, when it is corrupted, shall at last be changed "into the likeness of Christ's glorious body, by the working of his irresistible power," Phil. iii. 20, 21. And it is a flesh that hath so rebelled against the spirit, and made your way to heaven so difficult, and put the soul to so many conflicts, that we should the easilier submit it to the will of justice, and let it perish for a time, when we are assured that mercy will at last recover it.

Direct. XV. Remember what a world it is that you are to leave, and compare it with that which you are going to; and compare the life which is near an end, with that which you are next to enter upon. Was it not Enoch's reward when he had walked with God, to be taken to him from a polluted world? 1. While you are here, you are yourselves defiled; sin is in your natures, and your graces are all imperfect; sin is in your lives, and your duties are all imperfect; you cannot be free from it one day or hour. And is it not a mercy to be delivered from it? Is it not desirable to you to sin no more? and to be perfect in holiness? to know God and love him as much and more than you can now desire? You are here every day lamenting your darkness, and unbelief, and estrangedness from God and want of love to him. How oft have you prayed for a cure of all this! And now would you not have it, when God would give it you? Why hath God put that spark of heavenly life into you, but to fight against sin, and make you weary of it? And yet had you rather continue sinning, than have the victory and be with Christ? 2. It is a life of grief as well as sin; and a life of cares, and doubts, and fears! When you are at the worst, you are fearing worse! If it were nothing but the fears of death itself, it should make you the willinger to submit to it, that you might be past those fears. 3. You are daily afflicted with the infirmities of that flesh, which you are so loth should be dissolved. To satisfy its hunger and thirst, to cover its nakedness, to provide it a habitation, and supply all its wants, what care and labour doth it cost you! Its infirmities, sicknesses, and pains, do make you oft weary of yourselves, so that you "groan, being burdened," as Paul speaketh, 2 Cor. v. 3, 4, 6. And yet is it not desirable to be with Christ? 4. You are compassed with temptations, and are in continual danger through your weakness: and yet would you not be past the danger? Would you have more of those horrid and odious temptations? 5. You are purposely turned here into a wilderness, among wild beasts; you are as lambs among wolves, and through many tribulations you must enter into heaven. You must deny yourselves, and take up your cross, and forsake all that you have; and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution; in the world you must have trouble: the seed of the serpent must bruise your heel, before God bruise Satan under your feet! And is such a life as this more desirable than to be with Christ? Are we afraid to land after such storms and tempests? Is a wicked world, a malicious world, a cruel world, an implacable world, more pleasing to us than the joy of angels, and the sight of Christ, and God himself in the majesty of his glory? Hath God on purpose made the world so bitter to us, and permitted it to use us unjustly and cruelly, and all to make us love it less, and to drive home our hearts unto himself? and yet are we so unwilling to be gone?

Direct. XVI. Settle your estates betimes, that worldly matters may not distract or discompose you. And if God have endowed you with riches, dispose of a due proportion to such pious or charitable uses, in which they may be most serviceable to him that gave them you. Though we should give what we can in the time of life and health, yet many that have but so much as will serve to their necessary maintenance, may well part with that to good uses at their death, which they could not spare in the time of their health: especially they that have no children, or such wicked children, as are like to do hurt with all that is given them above their daily bread.

Direct. XVII. If it may be, get some able, faithful guide and comforter to be with you in your sickness, to counsel you, and resolve your doubts, and pray with you, and discourse of heavenly things, when you are disabled by weakness for such exercises yourselves. Let not carnal persons disturb you with their vain babblings. Though the difference between good company and bad, be very great in the time of health, yet now in sickness it will be more discernible. And though a faithful friend and spiritual pastor be always a great mercy, yet now especially in your last necessity. Therefore make use of them as far as your pain and weakness will permit.

Direct. XVIII. Be fortified against all the temptations of Satan by which he useth to assault men in their extremity: stand it out in the last conflict, and the crown is yours. I shall instance in particulars.

Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan, in the time of Sickness.

Tempt. I. The most ordinary temptation against the comfort of believers, (for I have already spoken of those that are against their safety,) is to doubt of their own sincerity, and consequently of their part in Christ. Saith the tempter, All that thou hast done, hath been but in hypocrisy; thou wast never a true believer, nor ever didst truly repent of sin, nor truly love God; and therefore thou are unjustified, and shalt speedily be condemned.

Against this temptation a believer hath two remedies. The first is, to confute the tempter by those evidences which will prove that he hath been sincere (such as I have often mentioned before); and by repelling these reasonings, by which the tempter would prove him to have been a hypocrite. As when it is objected, Thou hast repented and been humbled but slightly and by the halves; Answ. Yet was it sincerely; and weak grace is not no grace. Object. Thou hast been a lover of the world, and a neglecter of thy soul, and cold in all that thou didst for thy salvation. Answ. Yet did I set more by heaven than earth; and I first sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as esteeming it above all the riches of the world. Object. Thou hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of religion. Answ. I had no sin but what in the habitual, ordinary temper of my soul, I hated more than I loved it, and had rather have been delivered from it, than have kept it, and none but what I unfeignedly repented of. Object. Thou didst not truly believe the promises of God, and the life to come; or else thou wouldst never have doubted as thou hast done, nor sought such a kingdom with such weak desires. Answ. Though my faith was weak, it overcame the world: I so far believed the promise of another life, as that I preferred it before this life, and was resolved rather to forsake all the world, than to part with my hopes of that promised blessedness: and that faith is sincere (how weak soever) that can do this. Object. But thou hast done thy works to be seen of men, and been troubled when men have not approved thee, nor honoured thee; and what was this but mere hypocrisy? Answ. Though I had some hypocrisy, yet was I not a hypocrite, because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree: though I too much regarded the esteem of men, yet I did more regard the esteem of God. Thus if a christian discern his evidences, the false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted.

2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course, which is, at present, to believe, and repent, and so confute Satan that saith you are not penitent believers.[131] But then you must truly understand what believing and repenting are; or else you may think that you do not believe and repent when you do. Believing in Christ, is a believing that he is the Saviour of the world, and a consent of will that he be your Saviour, to justify you by his blood, and sanctify you by his Spirit. To repent, is to be so sorry that you have sinned, that if it were to do again, you would not do it (as to gross sin and a state of sin); and the smallest infirmities, your will is so far set against, that you desire to be delivered from them. Believing to justification, is not the believing that you are already justified, and your sins forgiven you; and repenting consisteth not in such degrees of sorrow as some expect; but in the change of the mind and will, from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness. When you know this, then answer the tempter thus: If I should suffer thee to deprive me of the comfort of all my former uprightness, yet shalt thou not so deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity, and of my hopes; I am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone. Past actions are now known but by remembering them; and they are seldom judged of, as indeed they then were, but according to the temper and apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them; and I am now so changed and weakened myself, that I cannot tell whether I truly remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that is past or not. Nor doth it most concern me now, to know what I have been, but to know what I am. Christ will not judge according to what I was, but according to what he findeth me; never did he refuse a penitent, believing soul, because he repented and believed late; I do now unfeignedly repent of all my sins, and am heartily willing to be both pardoned, and cleansed, and sanctified by Christ, and here I give up myself to him as my Saviour, and to this covenant I will stand; and this is true repenting and believing. Thus a poor christian in the time of sickness, may ofttimes much easier clear up to himself, that he repenteth now, than that he repented formerly; and it is his surest way.

Tempt. II. And yet sometimes he cometh with the quite contrary temptation, and must be resisted by the contrary way. When he findeth a christian so perplexed, and distempered with sickness, that his understanding is disabled from any composed thoughts, then he asketh him, Now where is thy faith and repentance? If thou hast any, or ever hadst any, let it now appear. In this case a christian is to take up with the remembrance of his former sincerity, and tell the tempter, I am sure that once I gave up myself unfeignedly to my Lord; and those that come to him, he will in no wise cast out; and if now I be disabled from a composed exercise of grace, he will not impute my sickness to me as my sin.

Tempt. III. Another ordinary temptation is, that it is now too late; God will not now accept repentance; the day of grace is past and gone; or at least, a death-bed repentance is not sincere. To this the tempted soul must reply, 1. That if faith and repentance were not accepted at any time in this life, then God's promise were not true, which saith, that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16. So Luke xxiv. 47; Acts v. 31; xi. 18; xx. 21; 2 Tim. ii. 25; 2 Pet. iii. 9. There is a time in this life, in which some resisters of the truth are given up to their own lusts, to the love of sin, and hatred of holiness, so that they will not repent; but there was never a time in this life, in which God refused to justify a true repenting sinner upon his belief in Christ. 2. That if a death-bed repentance do truly turn the heart from the world to God, and from sin to holiness, so that the penitent person, if he should recover, would lead a new and holy life, then that repentance hath as sure a promise of pardon and salvation, as if it had been sooner; and yet delay must be confessed to be dangerous to all, and casteth men under very great difficulties, and their loss is exceeding great, though at last they repent and are forgiven.

Tempt. IV. Sometimes the tempter saith, Thou art not elected to salvation; and God saveth none but his elect; and so puzzleth the ignorant by setting them on doubting of their election. To this we must answer, That every soul that is chosen to faith, and repentance, and perseverance, is certainly chosen to salvation; and I know that God hath chosen me to faith and repentance, because he hath given them me; and I have reason enough to trust on him for that upholding grace, which will cause me to persevere.

Tempt. V. But, saith the tempter, Christ did not die for thee; and no one can be saved that Christ did not die for. To this it must be answered, That Christ died for all men, so far as to be a sufficient sacrifice for their sins, and to make a promise of pardon and salvation to all that will accept him and his gift; and he entreateth all that hear the gospel to accept it; and accordingly he will save all that consent unto his covenant. I am a sinful child of Adam, and therefore am one that Christ became a sacrifice for; and I consent unto his covenant, and therefore I am one that Christ by that covenant doth justify, and will save.

Tempt. VI. Sometimes the tempter troubleth the soul with temptations to blasphemy and infidelity; and asketh him, How knowest thou, that there is a God, or a life to come, or that souls are immortal, or that the Scripture is true? Of this I spake before. To this we must then answer, I abhor thy suggestions; these things I have seen proved long ago, and I will not so far gratify thee in my weakness and extremity, as to question and dispute these sealed fundamental truths, no more than I will dispute whether there be a sun or earth.

Tempt. VII. Sometimes the tempter will say, At best, thou hast no assurance of salvation, and how canst thou choose but tremble to think of dying, when thou knowest not whether thou shalt go to heaven or hell? To this the soul, that hath not assurance, must answer, It is my own mistake or weakness that keepeth me unassured; and I will neither take part with my infirmities, nor increase them by their effects: my hopes are such as should draw up my desires, though I want full assurance: the child delighteth in the company of the mother, and every man of his friend; though he is not certain, that the mother or friend will not hurt him, or take away his life. Why should I trouble myself with improbabilities? or fear that which I have no sound reason to fear? Rather I should be glad to die, that death may perfect my assurance, and put an end to all my doubts and fears.

Tempt. VIII. But, saith the tempter, How strange art thou to God, and the life to come! Thou never sawest it: is it not dreadful to enter upon an unchangeable life, in a world which thou art so great a stranger to? Answ. But Christ is not a stranger to it; he seeth it for me, and I will implicitly trust him. Where should my eyes be, but in my head? I shall never see it till I come thither. When I have been there a while, this darkness, and fear, and strangeness will be gone. I was as strange to this world before I came into it, and more; and all those holy souls in heaven, were strange to it once, as well as I. I should therefore long to be with Christ, that I may be strange to him no more.

Tempt. IX. But, saith the tempter, thy fear and unwillingness is a sign that thou hast no love to God, nor heavenly mind; and how then canst thou hope to come to heaven? Answ. My fears come from strangeness, and weakness of faith, and a natural enmity to death. If I could come to Christ in joy and glory, and be perfected in holiness, without dying, I should not be unwilling of it. God looketh not that my nature should be willing to die; but that grace make me willing to be with Christ; and patiently submit to so dark a passage. Even Christ himself prayed, "that if it were possible, that cup might pass from him."

Tempt. X. But what will thy wife and children do, when thou art gone? Answ. God hath more interest in them than I have; he will look to his own without any care: doth all the world depend upon him, and is he not to be trusted with my wife and children?

Tempt. XI. But thou wilt never more be serviceable to the church: all thy work will for ever be at an end; and there are many things which thou mightst have done before thou diest, which will all be lost. Answ. 1. I shall have higher, and holier, and sweeter work: whether it will any thing conduce to the good of those on earth, I know not; but I know it will more conduce to the highest, most desirable ends. 2. As my work will be done, so my trouble, and weariness, and fears, and sufferings from a malignant, unthankful world will all be done. 3. And when my work is done, my reward and everlasting rest begin. 4. And God needeth not such a worm as I! the work is his, and it is reason that he should choose his workmen.

Tempt. XII. But when thou hast said all, death will be death, the king of terrors. Answ. And when thou hast said all, God will be God, and heaven will be heaven, and Christ will be Christ, that hath conquered death, and hath the keys or power of death and hell: and the promise will be sure; and those that trust on him shall never be ashamed or confounded. And therefore "the spirit is willing, though the flesh be weak."[132]

Tit. 4. Directions for doing good to others in our Sickness.

The whole life of a christian should be a serving of his God; and though his body in sickness seem to be unserviceable, yet it is not the least or lowest of his services, which he is then at last to do: partly by his holy example, and partly by his speeches; which are both more observed in dying men, than in any others. For now all suppose, that if there were before any mask of hypocrisy, it is laid aside, and the soul that is going to the bar of God will deal sincerely. And now it is supposed, that we are delivered much from all the befooling delusions of prosperity, and therefore fitter to be counsellors to others. And every christian should be very desirous to do good to the last, and be found so doing.

Direct. I. Show not a distempered, impatient mind. Though pain will be pain, and flesh will be flesh, yet show men that you have also reason and spirit: and that it calmeth your soul, though it ease not your body. Speak good of God, as beseemeth one that indeed believeth that it is good for us when we are afflicted by him, and that all shall work together for good to us.[133] Speak not a repining word against him. Job i. 22, "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." And speak not too peevishly and impatiently to those about you; though weakness incline you to it, yet let the power of grace appear.

Direct. II. Let those that are about you see, that you take the life to come for a reality, and that you verily expect to live with Christ in joys for ever. Let them see this in your holy joy and confidence, and your thankfulness to God for the grace and hopes which he hath given through Christ. I know that a pained, languishing body, is undisposed to express the comforts of the soul: but yet as long as the soul is the commander, they may be expressed in some good measure, though not with such vivacity and alacrity as in health. Behave yourselves before all, as those that are going to dwell with Christ. If you show them that you take heaven for a real felicity, it will do much to draw them to do so too; show them the difference between the death of the righteous and of the wicked; and that may so draw them to desire to die the death of the righteous, that it may draw them also to resolve to live their lives. How many souls might it win to God, if they saw in his dying servants such confidence and joy as beseemeth men that are entering into a world of joy, and peace, and blessedness! If we went out of the body, as from a prison into liberty, and from a tedious journey to our desired home, it would invite sinners to seek after the same felicity, and be a powerful sermon to convert the inconsiderate.

Direct. III. Now tell poor sinners of the vanity of the world, and of all its glory, wealth, and pleasure; and of the mischief and deceitfulness of sin. Say to them, O sirs, you may see in me what the world is worth: if you had all the wealth and pleasure that you desire, thus it would turn you off, and forsake you in the end: it will ease no pain: it will bring no peace to a troubled soul: it will not lengthen your lives an hour: it will not save you from the wrath of God: it maketh your death the sadder, because you must be taken from it: your account will be the more dreadful. O love not such a vain, deceitful world! sell not your souls for so poor a price! Forsake it before you are forsaken by it! O make not light of any sin! Though the wanton flesh would have you take it for a harmless thing, you cannot imagine, when the pleasure is gone, how sharp a sting is left behind. Sin will then be no jesting matter, when your souls are going hence into the dreadful presence of the most holy God.

Direct. IV. Now tell those about you of the excellency and necessity of the love of God, of heaven, of Christ, and of a holy life. Though these may be made light of at a distance, yet a soul that is drawing near them, will be more awakened to understand their worth. Say to them, O friends, I find now more than ever I did before, that it is only God, that is the end and happiness of souls: nothing but his favour through Jesus Christ, can comfort and content a dying man; and none but Christ can reconcile us to God, and answer for our sins, and make us acceptable; and no way but that of faith and holiness will end in happiness. Opinions and customary forms in religion will not serve the turn; to be of this or that party, or church, or communion, will not save you. It is only the soul that is justified by Christ, and sanctified by his Spirit, and brought up to the love of God and holiness, that shall be saved. Whatever opinion or church you are of, without holiness you shall never see God to your comfort, as without faith it is impossible to please him, Heb. xii. 14; xi. 6; Rom. viii. 6, 7, 9. O now what a miserable case were I in, if I had all the wealth and honour in the world, and had not the favour of God, and a Christ to purchase it, and his Spirit to witness it, and prepare me for a better life. Now I see the difference between spending time in holiness, and in sin; between a godly, and a worldly, fleshly, careless life. Now I would not for a thousand worlds, that I had spent my life in sensuality and ungodliness, and continued a stranger to the life of faith. Now, if I had a world, I would give it to be more holy! O sirs, believe it, when you come to die, sin will be then sin indeed, and Christ, and grace, will be better than riches, and to die in an unregenerate, unsanctified state, will be a greater misery than any heart can now conceive.

Direct. V. Endeavour also to make men know the difference between the godly and the wicked. Tell them, I now see who maketh the wisest choice. O happy men, that choose the joys which have no end, and "lay up their treasure in heaven, where rust and moths do not corrupt, and thieves do not break through and steal, and labour for the food that never perisheth," Matt. vi. 19, 20; John vx. 47. O foolish sinners, that for an inch of fleshly, filthy pleasure, do lose everlasting rest and joy! "What shall it profit them that win all the world and lose their souls?"

Direct. VI. Labour also to convince men of the preciousness of time, and the folly of putting off repentance, and a holy life, till the last. Say to them, O friends, it is hard for you in the time of health and prosperity, to judge of time according to its worth: but when time is gone, or near an end, how precious doth it then appear! Now if I had all the time again, which ever I spent in unnecessary sleep, or sports, or curiosities, or idleness, or any needless thing, how highly should I value it, and spend it in another manner than I have done! Of all my life that is past and gone, I have no comfort now in the remembrance of one hour, but what was spent in obedience to God. O take time to make sure of your salvation, before it is gone, and you are left under the tormenting feeling of your loss.

Direct. VII. Labour also to make them understand the sinfulness of sloth, and of loitering in the matters of God and their salvation; and stir them up to do it with all their might. Say to them, I have often heard ungodly people deride or blame the diligence, and zeal, and strictness of the godly; but if they saw and felt what I see and feel they could not do it. Can a man that is going into another world, imagine that any thing is so worthy of his greatest zeal and labour, as his God and his salvation? or blame men for being loth to burn in hell? or for taking more pains for their souls than for their bodies? O friends, let fools talk what they will, in their sleep and phrensy, as you love your souls, do not think any care, or cost, or pains too great for your salvation! If they think not their labour too good for this world, do not you think yours too good for a better world. Let them now say what they will, when they come to die, there is none of them all, that is not quite forsaken of sense and reason, but will wish that they had loved God, and sought and served him, not formally, in hypocritical compliment, but with all their heart, and soul, and might.

Direct. VIII. Labour also to fortify the minds of your friends, against all fears of suffering for Christ, and all impatience in any of their afflictions. Say to them, The sufferings as well as the pleasures of this life are so short, that they are not worthy once to be compared with the durable things of the life to come. If I have passed through a life of want and toil, if my body hath endured painful sickness, if I have suffered never so much from men, and been used cruelly for the sake of Christ, what the worse am I now, when all is past? Would an easy, honourable, plentiful life, have made my death either the safer or the sweeter? O no! it is the things eternal that are indeed significant and regardable. Neither pleasure nor pain that is short, is of any great regard. Make sure of the everlasting pleasures, and you have done your work. O live by faith, and not by sense; look not at the temporal things which are seen. It is not your concernment, whether you are rich or poor, in honour or dishonour, in health or sickness, but whether you be justified, and sanctified, and shall live with God in heaven for ever. Such serious counsels of dying men, may make their sickness more fruitful than their health.