The Last Work of a Believer

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” — Acts vii. 59.

The birth of nature, and the new bii-th of grace, in their measure resemble the death of saints, which is the birth of glory. It is a bitter-sweet day, a day that is mixed of sorrow and joy, when nature must quit its famiHar guest, and j-ield to any of these changes. Our natural birth is not without the throes, and pain, and groanings of the mother, though it transmit the child into a more large, and lightsome, and desirable habitation. Our spiritual buili is not without its humbling and heart -piercing soiTows; and when we are brought out of darkness into the marvellous light, we leave our old companions in displeasure, whom we forsake, and our flesh repining at the loss of its sensual delights. And our passage into glory is not without those pangs and fears which must needs be the attendants of a pained body ready to be dissolved, and a soul that is going through so strait a door into a strange, though a most blessed place; and it leaveth our lamenting friends behind, that feel their loss, and would longer have enjoyed our company, and see not (though they believe) the glonf’ of the departed soul. And this is our case that are brought hither this day, by an act of Pro’idence sad to us, though joyous to our departed friend; by a voice that hath called her into glory, and called us into this mourning plight: even us that njoicc hi the thoughts of her felicity, and are not so cruel as to wish her again into this corruptible flesh, and calamitous world, from

o the glorious presence of the Lord; and vet should have kept hm* longer from it, for our ovm and others’ sakes, if our wisdom had been fit to rule, or oiu* -wills to be fulfilled, or if our prayers must have been answered, according to the measure of our failing apprehensions or precipitant desires. But folly must submit to the incomprehensible wisdom, and the desire of the creature must stoop to the will of the Creator. The interest of Christ must be preferred when he calleth for his own, and our temporary interest must give place: flesh must be silent and not contend, and dust must not dare to question God; he knoweth best when his fruit is ripe, and though he will allow our moderate sorrows, he will not so much injure his saints as to detain them with us from then’ joj-ful rest, till we are content to let them go.

Thus also did blessed Stephen depart from glory to glorj’; from a distant sight of the glorj’ of God, and of Jesus standing at his right hand, into the immediate presence and fruition of that glory-. But yet he must pass the naiTOw port; enraged malice must stone him till he die; and he must imdergo the pains of martydom before he reach to the glory which he had seen. And when he was arrived in safety, he leaveth his brethren scattered in the storm, and devout men make great lamentation at his burial, Acts viii. 2. Though it is probable by the ordinary acceptation of the word asss tlxalii’t, that they were not professed Christians, but devout prosel-tes (such as Cornelius and the JEthiopian eunuch were), that buried and thus lamented Stephen, as knowing him to be an excellent person, cruelly murdered by the raging Jews; yet their example, in a case not culpable, but commendal)le, may be imitated by believers, upon condition that, with our sense of the excellency of the persons, and of our loss by their removal, we exceed them that had but a darker revelation hi our joj-ful sense of the felicity of the translated souls.

The occasion of the death of this holy man was partly that he surpassed others, as being full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost; and partly that he plainly rebuked the blind and furious persecuting Kcal of the Jews, and bore a most resolute testimony of Christ. It is an ill time when men must suffer because they are good, and deserve not suffering, but reward; and they are an unhappy people that have no more grace or wit but to fight against heaven, and set themselves under the strokes of God’s severest justice, by persecuting them that are dear to Christ, and faithfully perform their duty. It is no strange thing for the zeal and interest of a faction to make men mad; so mad as implacably to rage against the offspring of heaven, and to hate men because they are faithful to their great Master, and because they are against theii* fiiction; so mad as to think that the interest of their cause requireth them to destroy the best with the greatest malice, because they stand most in their way, and to forget that Christ, the revenger of his elect, doth take all as done to hiui that is done to them; so mad as to forgL-t all the terrible threatenings of God, and terrible instances of his avenging justice against the enemies of his servants, whom he taketh as his own; and to ruin their own reputations by seeking to defame the upright, whose names God is engaged to honour, and whose righteousness shall shine forth as the sun, when foolish mahgnity hath done its worst. ^’Tien Christ had pleaded his cause effectually with Saul, that was one of the persecutors of Stephen, he maketh him confess that he was viircrus i/ifixivo films, exceedingly, excessively, or beyond measure mad against the Christians.

But this ])lessed protomartjT, in despite of malice, doth safely and joyfully pass through all their rage to heaven. By killing him they make him more than conqueror, and send him to receive his cro’ivn. And he shuts up all the action of his life in imitation of his suffering Lord, with a twofold request to Heaven, the one for himself, that his spirit may be received, the other for his persecutors, that this sin may not be laid to their charge. Acts vii. 59, 60; for so you may find Christ did before him, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;” and, “Father, into thy hands I conunend my spirit,” Luke xxVu. 34, 46. Only Christ directelh his prater immediately to “the Father, and Stephen to Christ, as being one that had a mediator, when Christ had none, as needing none; and being now bearing “witness, by his suifering, to Christ, and therefore it was seasonable to dii-ect his prayer to him; but especially because it was an act of mediation that he petitioneth for, and therefore directeth his petition to the Mediator,

This first request of this djing saint, which I have chosen to handle, as suitable and seasonable for our instruction at this tune, in a few words containeth not a few exceeding useful, wholesome truths.

As I. It is here plainly intimated that Jesus Christ is exalted in glory, in that he hath power to receive departed souls.

II. That Christ is to be prayed to, and that it is not our duty to direct all our prayers only to the Father. Especially those things that belong to the office of the Mediator, as interceding for us in the heavens, must be requested of the Mediator. And those things which belong to the Father to give for the sake of the Mediator, must be asked of the Father for his sake. I cannot now stay to tell you in particular what belongeth to the one, and what unto the other.

III. That man hath a spirit as well as a body; of which more anon.

IV. That this spiiit dieth not with the body (unless you will call a mere separation a djing.)

V. That Christ doth receive the spii-its of his saints when they are separated from the body.

YI. That a dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his s])uit to Christ, to be received of him.

VII. That prayer in general, and this praj’er in special, That Christ will receive our departing souls, is a most suitable conclusion of all the actions of a Christian’s life.

The first and second of these doctrines, offered us by this text, I shall ])ass by.

The third is not ([uestioned by any that knoweth himself to be a man: but that we may understand it, and the rest, we must consider what the word “spiiit” doth here sigiiiA. By “spirit” here, can be meant nothing but the rational soul, which is the principal constitutive part of the man. For though the word do sometimes signify the wind or breath, and sometimes the moral and intellectual quahfications, and have divers other senses, I need not stay to prove that it is not here so taken. Stephen prnveth not to Christ to receive his breath, his graces, or the Holy Ghost, but to receive his rational, immoi’tal soul.

It is not only the soul, but God himself, that is called “a Spirit:” and though the name be fetched fi-om lower things, that is, because that as we have no adequate positive conception of God or spirits, so we can have no adequate proper names for them, but must take up with borrowed names, as answerable to our notions.

Sometimes the word spirit (as Heb. iv. 12, &c.) is distinguished from the soul; and then it either signifieth the superior faculties in the same soul, or the same soul as elevated by grace.

Do you ask, “V^Tiat the soul is? You may also ask, “^Miat a man is? And it is pity that a man should not know what a man is. It is our intellectual nature, containing also the sensitive and vegetative: the principle, or first act, by which we live, and feel, and understand, and freely vnl. The acts tell you what the faculties or powers are, and so what the soul is. If you know what intellection, or reason and free-will are, you may know what it is to have a spiritual nature, essentially containing the power of reasoning and willing. It is thy soul by which thou art thinking and asking what a soul is; and as he that reasoneth to prove that man hath no reason, doth prove that he hath reason by reasoning against it; so he that reasoneth to prove that he hath no soul, doth thereby prove that he hath a reasonable (though abused) soul.

Yet there are some so blind as to question whether they have souls, l)ecause they see them not; whereas if they could see them th eyes of flesh they were no souls, for spirits are inrisible. They see not thi air or wind, and yet thoy know that air or wind there is. They sec not God or angels, and yet they are fools indeed if they doubt whether there be a God and angels. If they see not their eyes, yet they know that they have eyes, because with those eyes they see other thmgs. And if they know not dii-ectly and intuitively that the)^ have rational souls, they might know it by their knowing other things, which without such souls cannot lie kno’wn. It is just with God that those thut live as carnally, and brutishly, and neghgeutly, as if they had no souls to use or care for, should at last be given up to question whether they have souls or no.

O woeful fell! depraved natui-e! O miserable men, that have so for departed from God, as to deny both themselves and God! or to question whether God be God, and man be man. Return to God, and thou wilt come to thyself Forget not, man, thy noble nature, thy chiefest part: think not that thou art only shell, because thou seest not through the shell. It is souls that converse by the bodies while they are in flesh. It is thy soul that I am speaking to, and thy soul that understandeth me. AVhen thy soul is gone, I will speak to thee no more. It is thy soul that is the workmanship of God by an immediate or special way of fabrication. “The souls which I have made,” Isa. lvii. 16. “He breathed mto man the breath of life, and he became a Uving soul,” Gen. ii. 7. It is thy soul that is said to be made after God’s image; in that thou art ennobled with a capacious understanding and free-will; and it Ls thy soul that is the immediate subject of his moral image, even spiritual wisdom, righteousness, and holiness. God hath not hands, and feet, and other members, as thy body hath. How noble a nature is that which is capable of knowhig not only things in the world (m its measure), but God himself, and the things of the world that is to come; and capable of loving and cnjoyuig God, and of seeking and serving him in order to that enjoyment! Cin-ist thought not basely of a soul that redeemed souls at such a price, when he made his soul an offering for sin, Isa. hii. 10. Were it not for our immortal souls, would God ever honour us with such relations to him as to be his children? (For he is first the Father of spii’its (Heb. xii 9), and then the Father of saints.) Should we be called the spouse and the members of Christ? would he be at so much cost upon us? should angels attend us as ministering spirits, if we had not spirits fit to minister to God? Would the Spirit of God himself dwell in us, and quicken and beautify us with his grace, should a world of creatures (whose coi’poreal substance seems as excellent as ours) attend and sen’C us, if we were but an ingenious sort of brutes, and had not rational, immortal souls? Shoidd such store of mercies be prorided for us, should ministers be provided to pi’euch, and pray, and labour for us, if we had not souls to save or lose? “They watch for your souls as they that must give account,” Heb. xiii. 17. Why should they preach in season and out of season, and sufl’er so much to perform their work, but that they know that “he that Arinneth souls is TOse,” Prov. xi. 30; and that “he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, doth save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins,” James v. 20. The devil himself may tell you the worth of souls when he compasseth the earth (Job i. 7), and goeth about night and day to deceive them, and devour them (1 Pet. V. 8), and yet can he make you believe that they are so worthless as to be abused to the basest drudgery, to be poisoned with sin and sensuality, to be ventm-ed for a thing of nought?

O sirs! have you such immortal souls, and will you sell them for a lust, for a beastly pleasure, for liberty to glut your flesh, or for the price that Judas sold his Lord for? Is thy soiU no more worth than honour, or wealth, or foolish mirth? Is thy soul so base as not to be worth the care and lal)Our of a holy life? Is the world worth all thy care and labour, and shall less be called too much ado, when it is for thy precious soul?. Alas! one would think by the careless, fleshly lives of many, that they remember not that they have souls. Have they not need, in the depth of their security, in the height of their ambition, and in the heat of fleshly lusts, to have a monitor to call to them, Pemember that thou ait a man, and that thou hast a soul to save or lose? TMiat thinkest thou of thy negligence and carnal life, when thou readest that so holy a man as Paul must keep under his body, and bring it into subjection, lest he should be a castaway after all his labours? 1 Cor. ix. 25-27. 0 live not as if the flesh were the man, and its pleasure your felicity; but live as those that have spirits to take care of.

Doct. IV. The spii’it of man doth survive the body; it dieth not wth it. It is not annihilated; it is not resolved into the essence of some common element of souls, where it loseth its specific form and name. It was still the spu-it of Stephen that was received by Christ. It sleepeth not. To confute the dream of those that talk of the sleeping of souls, or any lethargic, unintelHgent, or inactive state, of so excellent, capacious, and active a nature, were but to dispute ■vvith sleeping men. “When we say it is immortal, we mean not that it, or any creature, hath in itself a self-supporting or self-preserling sufficiency; or that they are necessai-j- beings, and not contingent; or primitive beings, and not derived fi’om another by creation. We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influence, and but suspend that will that doth continue them. He need not t’xert any positive will or act for theii’ destruction or annihilation. Though ejusdem est annihilare, cujus est creare, none can annihilate but God; yet it is by a positive, efficient act of will that he createth; and by a mere cessation of the act of his preser’ing will he can annihilate. I mean not by any change in him, but by wilHng the continuance of the creature but till such a j)criod; but yet he that vnW perpetuate the spirit of man, hath given it a nature (as he hath done the angels) fit to be pcrj)t’tuated; a nature not guilty of composition and elementary materiality, which might subject it to corruption. So that as there is an ;iptitude in iron, or silver, or gold to continue longer than grass, or flowers, or flesh: and a reason of its duration may be given a natura rei from that aptitude in subordination to the will of God

SO there is sudi an aptitude in the nature of the soul to be innnortal, which God maketh use of to the accomplishment of his -will for its actual perpetuity.

The heathenish SocinLans, that deny the immortality of the soul (yea, worse than heathenish, for most heathens do maintain it), must deny to Christ himself, as well as to his members; for he used the like recommendation of his soul to his Father when he was on the cross, as Stephen doth here to him. If “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” be words that prove not the surviving of the spu-it of Stephen; then, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” wUl not prove the surviling of the spirit of Christ. And, then, what do these infidels make of Christ, who also deny his Deity; and consequently, make him nothing but a coi-pse, when his body was in the grave? How then did he make good his promise to the penitent malefactor? “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” But he that said, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John xiv. 19), did live in the spirit, while he was put to death in the flesh, 1 Pet. iii. 1 8; and reeeiveth the spirits of his servants unto life eternal, M’hUe their flesh is rotting in the gi’ave. This vi’ry te.xt is so clear for this, if there were no other, it might end the controversj- M-ith all that believe the holy Scriptures.

I confess there is a sleep of souls, a metaphorical sleep in sin and in security, or else the drowsy opinions of these infidels had never found entertainment in the world; a sleep so deep that the voice of God, in the threatenings of his word, and the alarm of his judgments, and the thimder of his warnings by his most serious ministers, prevail not to awaken the most: so dead a sleep possesseth the most of the ungodly world, that they can quietly sin in the sight of God, at the entrance upon eternity, at the doors of hell, and the calls of God do not awaken them: so dead a sleep, that Scripture justly calls them dead, Eph. ii. 1,5; and ministers may well call them dead, for alas, it is not our voice that can awake them; they are as dead to us: we draw back the curtains to let in the light, and shew them that judgment is at hand, and use those true but terrible arguments from ■vTath and hell, which we are afi-aid should too much fi’ighten many tender hearers, and yet they sleep on; and oiu* loudest calls, om* tears, and our entreaties, cannot awaken them. We cry to them in the name of the Lord, “Awake, thou that sleepest, arise fi’om the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” Eph. v. 14. This moral sleep and death of souls, which is the forerunner of everlasting death in misery, we cannot deny. But after death even this sleep shall cease; and God will awaken them with his vengeance, that would not be awaked by his grace. Then, sinner, sleep under the thoughts of sin and God’s displeasure, if thou canst. There is no sleeping soul in hell; there are none that are past feeling. The mortal stroke that layeth thy flesh to sleep in the dust, lets out a guilty soul into a world where there is no sleeping; where there is a light irresistible, and a terror and torment, that will keep them waking. If God bid thee awake by the flames of justice, he will have no nay. The fu’st sight and feeling which will sm’prise thee when thou hast left this flesh, will awake thee to eternity, and do more than we could do in time, and convince thee that there is no sleeping state for separated souls.

Doct. V. Christ doth receive the sy)irits of the saints when they leave the flesh.

Here we shall lu’st tell you what Christ’s receiidng of the spirit is. The word signifieth, to take it as acceptable to himself; and it comprehendcth these particulars.

1. That Christ will not leave the new-departed soul to the will of Satan, its malicious enemy. How ready is he to receive us to perdition, if Christ refuse us, and receive us not to salvation! He that now seeketh as a roaring lion night and day, as our adversary, to devour us by deceit, will then seek to devour us by execution. How glad was he when God gave him leave but to touch the goods, and children and bcxly of Job! And how nuich more would it please his enmity to hav(i power to torment our souls! But the soul that ileil to the arms of Chiist by I’.iith in the day of trial, shall then find itself in the arms of Christ in the moment of its entrance upon eternity. O Christian, whether thou now feel it to thy comfort or not, thou shalt then feel it to the rarishing of thy soul, that thou didst not fly to Christ in vain, nor trust him in vain to be thy Saviour. Satan shall be for ever disappointed of his desu’ed prey. Long wast thou combatmg with him; frequently and strongly wast thou tempted by him. Thou oft thoughtest it was a doubtful (juestion, who should win the day, and whether ever thou shouldst hold out and be saved; but when thou passest from the flesh, in thy last exti’emity, in the end of thy greatest and most shaking fears, when Satan is ready, if he might, to carry thy soul to hell; then, even then, shalt thou find that thou hast won the day. And yet not thou, but Christ is he that hath been %’ictorious for thee; even as when thou livedst the life of faith, it was not thou, but Christ lived in thee, Gal. ii. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure, and leave the flesh -with ten-or, and imagine that Satan will presently devour thee; but the experience of a moment will end thy fears, and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered foe. He that saved thee from the dominion of a tempting devil, will certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee. Here he would have us that he may sitl; us, and get advantage on our weakness; but Christ prayeth for us, and strengtheneth us, that our faith may not fail, Luke xxii. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin, will save us from the punishment, and from Satan’s fury, as he did from his fraud.

2. Christ’s receiving us doth include his favourable entertainment and welcoming the departed soul. Poor soul, thou wast never so welcome to thy dearest friend, nor mto the arms of a father, a husband or a wife, as thou shalt be then into the presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest, and readest, and partly beUevest, now how he loveth us, even as his spouse and members, as his flesh and bone, Eph. vi. But then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular. If the angels of God have joy at thy conversion, what joy will there be in heaven at thy entrance into that salvation. And sure those angels vdU. bid thee welcome, and concur with Christ in that triumphant joy. If a returning prodigal find himself in the arms of his father’s love, and welcomed home with his kisses, and his robe and feast, what welcome then may a cleansed, conquered soul expect when it cometh into the presence of glorious love, and is purposely to be received ^nth such demonstrations of love as may be fitted to magnify the love of God, which exceedeth all the love of man, as omnipotency doth exceed our impotency, and therefore will exceed it in the effects! Though thou hast questioned here in the dark, whether thou wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer, or when thou camest to his holy table, yet then doubt of thy welcome if thou canst.

Oh had we but one moment’s sense of the delights of the embraced soul that is newly received by Christ into his kingdom, it would make us think we were in heaven already, and transport us more than the disciples that saw the transfiguration of Chiist; and make us say, in comparing this with all the glory of the world, “Master, it is good for us to be here;” but in consideration of the full, to say, It is better to be there. But it must not be: earth must not be so happy as to have a moment’s sense of the inconceivable pleasures of the received soul; that is the reward and crown, and therefore not fit for tis here in our conflict.

But low things may, by dark resemblance, a little help us to conceive of something that is like them in a low degree. How would you receive your son, or husband, the next day after some bloody fight, where he had escaped with the victory? or your child, or friend, that amved safely after a long and a dangerous voyage? Would you not run and meet him, and with joy embrace him, if he had been many years absent, and were now come home? I tC’U thee, poor soul, thy Saviour hath a larger heart, and another kind of love than thou; and other reasons of greater force to move him to Ijid thee welcome into his ])resence.

3. Christ’s rec(‘ITng the dejiarted soul includeth the state of blessedness into which he doth receive it. If you ask

^vllat that is, I answer, It is unto himself, to be with him where he is; and that in general is full of comfort, if there were no more; for we know that Christ is in no ill place; he is glorified at the “right hand of the Majesty on high,” Heb. i. 3. And that the souls of the righteous, and at last their bodies, are received to himself, he often telleth us: “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and whore lam, there shall also my servant be,” John xii. 26. “And if I go and prep;ire a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also,” John xiv. 3. And, in the meantime, when Ave once are absent fi-om the body, we are present with the Lord (2 Cor. V. 8), and that is in “the building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” verse 1. Paul, therefore, desired “to depart, and to be with Christ,” as being far better, Phil. i. 23; and Christ promised the converted thief, “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” Luke xxiii. 43. And our state after the resurrection hath the same description, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thess. iv. 17. And what it shall be he declareth himself, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me,” John XAni. 2-4. The soul of Lazarus (Luke xvi.) was received into Abraham’s bosom, where he is said to be comforted. The heavens receive Christ (Acts iii. 21), and therefore the heavens receive the spu-its that go to him, even the spirits of the just made perfect, Heb. xii. 23; that is, that are crowned with Christ in glory, and freed fi-om the imperfections and eAils of this life. And so that is jjlain, though some would pervert it, that “whether we wake or sleep, we may live together with him,” 1 Thess. v. 1 0. Not whether we wake to righteousness, or sleep in sin, for such sleepers live not with him; nor whether we wake by soUcitude, or sleep in seciu’ity; nor whether we naturally wake or sleep only, but whether we live, or die, and so our bodies sleep in death, yet we live together with him. In a word, Christ will receive us into a participation of his joy and glory; into a joy as great as our nature sh;dl be capable of, and more than we can now desire, and that the largest heart on earth can justly conceive of or comprehend. And because all this tells you but to the ear, stay yet but a little AvhOe, and experimental sight and feeling shall teU you what this recei-ing is, even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved (Heb. xii. 28), and when we receive the end ot our faith, the salvation of our souls, 1 Pet. i. 9.

Doct. VI. A djing Christian may confidently and comfortably recommend his spirit to Christ, to be received by him.

Though he have formerlj’ been a grievous sinner, though at the present he be fi’ail and faulty, though he be weak in faith, and love, and duty, though his body by sickness be become unfit to serve his soul, and as to present sensibility, activity, or joy, he seem to be past the best, or to be nothing, though the tempter would aggravate his sins, and weakness, and dulnesstohis discouragement, yet he may, he must, with confidence recommend his spirit to Christ, to be received by him.

O learn his doctrine, Christians, that you may use it in the hour of your last distress. The hour is near; the distress will be the greatest that ever you were in. As well as we seem now while we are hearing this, our turn is nigh. The midwife is not so necessary to the life of the child that receiveth it into the world, as Christ’s receiving will be then to our everlasting life. To say over heartlessly these words, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” will be no more than a dead-hearted hj’pocrlte may do. Such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing to salvation; now make such necessary preparation, that at death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ will receive your spirits.

1. And first, let me bring this to the carnal, unprepared sinner.

Poor sinner, what thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour, and of thy departing soul? I wonder at thee what thoughts thou hast of them, that thou canst sin so boldly, and live so carelessly, and talk or hear of the life to come so senselessly as thou (lost! Thou mightest well think I wronged thee, if I took thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die. Thy soul that brought thy body hither, that causeth it now to hear and understand, that carrieth it up and down the world, must very shortly be required of thee, and must fcek another habitation. What thoughts hast thou of thy departing soul? “Will Christ receive it? Hast thou made sure of that? Or hast thou made it thv principal care and business to make sure? Oh, what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual, worldly men, that they drown themselves in the cares of this life, and ride and run for transitory riches, and live upon the smoke of honour and applause, and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether Christ will receive their departed souls! That they can fill their minds with other thoughts, and fill their mouths with other talk, and consume then- time in other inconsiderable emplojTuents, and take no more care, and spend no more thoughts, and words, and time about the entertainment of their departing souls! When they are even readv to be gone, and stand, as it were, on tiptoe; when fevers, and consumptions, and many hundred diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their summonses; and when the gates of death have so many passengers crowding in, and souls a remaking such haste away, will you not consider what shall become of yours? Will you say that you hope well, and you must venture? K God had appointed you nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment -w-ith Christ, you might then take up with such an answer; but it Ls a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to your salvation, and then to say, you must put it to the venture. If you die in an unrenewed and unjustified state, it is past all venture; fur it is certain that Chi-ist will not receive you. You may talk of hoping, but it is not a matter to be hoped for. Hope that God will make good every word of his promise, and spare not; but there is no more hope that Christ ll receive the souls of any but of his members, than there is that he will prove a liar. He never promised to save any others; and that is not all, but he hath declared and professed fi-eqiiently that he will not. And you are no believers if you will not believe him; and if you believe him, you must believe that the unbelievers, the unregenerate, the imholy, and the workers of iniquity, shall not be received into the kingdom of heaven, for he hath professed it, John iii. 3, 36; Heb. xii. 14; Matt. vii. 23.

If Christ would receive the souls of all, your venture then had reason for it; or if he had left it as a thing that depended only on his unrevealed will, and not on any preparations of our own, we might then have quit ourselves of the care, and cast it all on him, as being his part, and none of om’s. But it is not so, I hope I need not tell you that it is not so. Believe it, the question must be now resolved, and resolved by yourselves, whether Christ shall receive your departed souls, or cast them off as firebrands for hell. He hath made the law, and set down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand, and which we must trust to. It is now that you must labour to be accepted of him, “for we nmst all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” 2 Cor. v. 10. O sirs! this is the reason of our importunity -with you. “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,” saith the apostle in the next words, ver. 11. We know that the sentence wUl be just, and that it is now in your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you. And if just now your souls were passing hence, before you went from the place you sit in, would you think any care could be too great to make sure that they should go to hap])iness. Oh that you would consider how much it is your own work, and how much it resteth on yourselves what Christ shall then do with you! Then you will cry to him for mercy, O cast not away a miserable soul! Lord, receive me Into thy kingdom! But how he must entreat you to be saved, and to be the people that he may then receive, and you will not hear him. And if you will not hear him when he calleth on you, and beseecheth you to repent and to pr(ppare, as sure as Christ is Christ, he will not liear you Avhcn j’ou cry and call for mercy too late in your extremity. Read Prov. i. and you will see this is true. It is you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you, tor the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part. You are now poisoning your souls by sin; and when we cannot entreat j’ou either to forbear, or to take the vomit of repentance, yet when you are gasping and (lying of your own wilful self-murder, you will then cry to Christ, and think he must receive you upon terms inconsistent with his justice, holiness, and truth. But flatter not yourselves, it will not be. This is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Refuse it now, and it is lost for ever. O sirs, if this were the hour, and you were presently to be received or refused, would you blame me to cry and call to you with all the fervour of my soul, if I knew tiuit it were in your own choice whether you would go to heaven or hell? ^Vhy, now it is in your choice. Life and death are set before you. Christ will receive you if you will but come within the capacity of his acceptation. If youvnll not, there will then be no I’emedy. It is a doleiid thing to observe how Satan doth bewitch poor sinners. That when time is gijue, and the door of mercy is shut against them, they would think no cries too loud for mercy, and no importunity too gi-eat. For Christ telleth us, that then they will cry, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” Matt. xxv. 10, 11. And yet now, when the door stands open, no arguments, no earnestness, no tears, can entreat them to enter in. Then there is not the most senseless sinner of you all but would cry more strongly than Esau for the blessing, when his teai-s could find no place for repentance, Ileb. xii. 16, 17; Lord, receive a miserable soul! O whither shall I go if thou receive me not! I nnist else be tormented in those scorching ilames. Anil yet now you will sell your birthright for one morsel; for a little of

Judas’s or Gehazi’s gain, tor the applause of worms, for the pleasing of your llesh that is turning to corrui)tion, for the delights of gluttony, drunkeimess, sports, or lust. There is not a man of you but would then pray more earnestly than those that jou now deride for earnest praying, as if they wliined, and were ridiculous. And yet now you -will neither be serious in prayer, nor hear Christ, or his messengers, when he maketh it his earnest request to you to come in to him that you may have life, John V. 40. Then you will knock when the door is shut, and cry. Lord, open to a miserable sinner! and yet now you -will not open unto him, when by his word and Spirit, his mercies and afflictions, he standeth at the door of your stubborn hearts, and calleth on you to repent and turn to God; now our entreaties cannot so much as bring you on your knees, or bring you to one hour’s serious thoughts about the state of those souls that a’re so near their doom. O sirs! for your souls’ sake, lay by your obstinacy. Pity those souls that then you will beg of Christ to pity. Do not you damn them by your sloth and sin in the day of your visitation, and then cry in vain to Christ to save them when it is too late. Yet the door of grace is open, but how speedily will it be shut! One stroke of an apoplexy, a consumption, a fever, can quickly shut it, and then you may tear your hearts with crying, “Lord, open to us,” and all in vain. O did you but see departed souls, as you see the corpse that is left behind; did you see how they are treated at their removal from the flesh; how some are taken and others left; how some are welcomed to Christ, and others are abhorred, and turned over to the tormentor, and thrust out with implacable indignation and disdain, Luke xiii. 28; Prov. i. 24, 26, 27; sure you would enter into serious consideration this day, what it is that makes this (Hflerence, and why Christ so useth the one and the other, and what must be done now by the soul that would be received then. Alas! men will do any thing but that which they should do. Among the superstitious papists the conceit of a deliverance from purgatory makes them bequeath their lands and moneys to priests and fi-iars to pray for them when they are dead, and to have other men cry to Christ to receive them, and open to them, when time is past; and yet now in the accepted time, now when it is at your choice, and the door is open, men live fis if tbcv were past feeling, and cared not what became of them at the last, and would not be beholden to Christ to receive them, when the deceitful world hath cast them off.

And now, beloved hearers all, I would make it my most earnest request to you, as one that laioweth Ave ai-e all passing hence, and foreseeth the case of a departed soul, that you would now, mthout any more delay, prepare and maki sure that you may be received into the everlasting habitations: and to this end, I shall more distinctly, though briefly, tell you, 1. What souls they are that Christ will receive, and what he will not; and, consequently, what you must do to be received. 2. What considerations should stir you up to this preparation.

1. Isothing is more sure than that Christ will not receive, 1. Any miregenerate, unconverted soul, John iii. 3, 5; Matt. xliil. 0; that is, not renewed and sanctified by his Spiiit, Rom. viii. 9; Ileb. xii. 14; Acts xxvi. 18. They must have the new and heavenly nature that will ever come to heaven. Without this you are morally incapable of it. Heaven is the proper inheritance of saints, Col. i. 12. This heavenly nature and Spirit is your earnest: if you have this you are sealed up unto salvation, 2 Cor. i. 22; Eph. i. 13; “iv. 30.

2. Christ will receive none but those that make it now theii* work to lay up a treasure in heaven, rather than upon the earth, Matt. -vi. 20, 21; and that seek it in the first place, Matt. vi. 33; and can be content to pai’t with all to purchase it. Matt. xiii. 44, 46; Luke xiv. 33; xviii. 22. An earthly-minded worldling is incapable of heaven in that condition, Phil. iii. 17, 18; Luke xvi. 13. You must take it for your portion, and set your hearts on it, if ever you will come thither, Matt. ^.i. 21; Col. iii. 1-3.

3. Christ vrill receive no soul at last, but such as sincerely received liiiii as theii* Lord and Saviour now, and gave up themselves to him, and received his word, and yield obedience to it, and receiA’ed his Spirit, and were cleansed by him from their iniquities, John i. 11,12; Luke xix. 27. ‘• That all they might be damned that belieA’ed not the truth, but had pleasure In unrighteousness,” 2 Thess. ii. 10, 12. They are God’s own words; be not offended at them, but believe and fear. “He hateth all the workers of Iniquity,” and will say to them, “Depart fi-oni me, I know you not,” Psalm V. 5; Matt. vil. 23.

4. He will receive none but those that loved his servants, that bore his holy Image, and received them according to their abilities, Matt. xxv. 40, 41, &c. And if he will say to those that did not entertain them, “Depart from me, ye cursed. Into everlasting fire,” what avUI he say to those that hate and persecute them? 1 John ill. 14; v. 2.

5. He will receive none but those that live to him in the body, and use his gifts and talents to his sei’vice, and make it their chief Inisiness to serve, and honour, and please him in the world, Matt. xxv. 21, 26; 2 Cor. v. 9, 15; Gal. vi. 7,8; and live not to the pleasing of the flesh, but have crucified It and its lusts, Rom. viii. 1, 13; Gal. v. 24.

Examine all these texts of Scripture (for the matter is worthy of your study), and you will see what souls they are that Christ will then receive, and what he will rejeat. You may see also what you must now be and do, if you will be then received. If jou are not regenerate by the Spirit of God (though you may be sacramentally regenerate in baptism); if you are not justified by Christ (though you may be absolved by a minister); if you sciek not heaven with higher estimation and resolutions than any felicity on earth, and take not God for your satisf3ing portion (though you be never so religious In subserviency to a fleshly, worldly happiness); if you receive not Christ as your only Saviour, and set him not in the throne and government of your hearts and lives (though you may go with men for current Christians); if you hate not sin, if you love not the holy image and children of God, and use them not accordingly; if you crucify not the flesh, and die not to the world, and deny not yourselves, and live not unto God, as making it your chicif business and happiness to please him; I say, if this be not your case, as sure as you are men, if you died this hour In this condition, Christ will not own you, but turn you off with a “Depart, ye cursed.” You may as well think of reconciling light and darkness, or persuade a man to live on the food of beasts, or the stomach to welcome deadly poison, as to think that Christ will receive an ungodly, earthly, guilty soul.

Deceive not yourselves, sinners. If God could have entertained the ungodly, and heaven could hold unholy souls, answer nie, then, these two or three questions.

Quest. 1. What need Christ, then, to have shed his blood, or become a sacrifice for sin? K he could have received the ungodly, he might have done it upon cheaper rates. This feigned him to have died to no p-n-pose, but to bring the unsanctified to heaven, that might have been as well entertained there without his sufferings.

Quest. 2. To what use doth Christ send the Holy Ghost to sanctify his elect, or send his word and ministers to promote it, if they may come to heaven unsanctified?

Que.<it. 3. If the ungodly go to heaven, what use is hell for? There is no hell, if this be true. But you will quickly find that to be too good news to the ungodly to be true.

2. In Luke xvi. Chiist teacheth us our duty by the parable of the steward, that asketh himself l)eforehand, what he shall do when he must be no longer steward, and contriveth it so that others may receive him %vhen he is c»ist off; and he applieth it to us that must now so provide, that when we fail we may be received into the eveilasting habitations. This is the work that we have all to mind. We always knew that this world would fail us. Oh how uncertain is your teinu-e of the dwellings that you now possess! Are you provided, certainly provided, whither to go, and who shall receive you when your stewardshij) is ended, and you must needs go hence? O think of these considerations that should move you presently to provide

1. Your cottages of earth are reaily to drop down, and it is a stormy time, theix; are many sicknesses abroad. One blast may quickly lay them in the dust; and then the flesh that had so much care, and was thought worthy to be preferred before the soul, must be laid and left to rot in darkness, to avoid the annoyance of the living: and when you may justly look every hour when you are turned out of these dwellings that you are in, is it not time to be provided of some other?

2. Consider, if Christ should not receive thy spirit, how unspeakably deplorable thy case will l)e. I think there is no man in all this assembly so mad, that would take all the world now to have his soul refused then by Christ, that would professedly make and subscribe such a bargain; and yet, alas, how many are they that will be hired for a smaller price, even for the pleasure of a sin, to do that which Christ himself hath told them will cause him to refuse them! O su-s, for aught you know, before to-morrow, or within this week, you may be put to know these things by trial, and your souls may- be refused or received; and woe to you that ever you were men, if Christ receive you not.

Consider, 1. If Christ receive thee not, thou hast no friend left then to receive thee. Thy house, and land, and riches, and reputation, are all left behind; none of them will go with thee; or, if they did, they could afford thee no relief. Thy bosom friends, thy powerful defenders, are all left behind; or if they go before thee, or -with thee, they can do nothmg there, that could do so much for thee here. No minister so holy, no fi-iend so kind, no patron so powerful, that can give thee any entertainment, if Christ refuse to entertain thee. Look to the right hand or to the left, there will be none to help thee, or care for thy foi’saken soul. Then thou wilt find that one Christ had been a better friend than all the great ones upon earth.

2. If Chri.st, then, receive not thy departed soul, the devils will receive it. I am loth to speak so terrible a word, but that it must be spoken, if you will be awaked to prevent it. He that deceived thee will then plead conquest, and claim thee as his due, that he may torment thee. And if the devil say, Tliissoul is mine, and Christ do not rescue and justify thee, but say so too, no heart is able to conceive the horror that -will then overwhelm thee. Doth not the reading of the sentence make thee tremble, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pi-epared for the de-ii and his angels?” Matt. xxv. 41. This is that dreadful delivering up to Satan, -syhen the soul is excommunicated from the city of God. O, therefore, if thou bo yet unreconciled to God, agi-ee with him quickly, while thou art here in the way, lest he deliver thee to this terrible jailer and executioner, and thou be cast into the prison of the bottomless pit: “Vei-ily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing,” Matt. v. 25, 26.

8. The greatness of the change will increase the amazement and misery of thy spirit, if Christ receive it not. To leave a world that thou wast acquainted with; a world that pleased thee, and entertained thee; a world where thou hadst long thy business and delight, and where, ■Tetched man, thou hadst made the chief provision, and laid up thy treasure: this will be a sad part of the change. To enter inti) a world where thou art a stranger, and much worse, and see the company and the things that before thou never sawest, and to find things go there so contrary to thy expectation; to be turned, with Dives, from thy sumptuous dwelling, attendance, and fiire, into a place of easeless torment: this will be a sadder part of thy change. Here the rich would have received thee, the poor would have served and Mattered thee, thy friends would have comforted thee, thy play-follows would have been merry with thee. But there, alas! how the case is altered! all these have done; the table is withdrawn, the game is ended, the mirth is ceased, and now succeedeth, “Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented,” Luke xvi. 2.’). Oh, dreadful change to those that made the world their home, and little dreamed, or did but dream, of such a day I Never to see this world again, unless by such reviews as will torment them; never to have sport or ])leasure more; and for these to have such company, such thoughts, su’.h work and usage, as God hath told us is in hell.

4. If Christ receive thee not, the burden of thy sins tvill overwhehn thee, and conscience will have no relief. Sin will not then appear in so harmless a shape as now: it will then seem a more odious or frightful thing. Oh, to remember these days of folly, of careless, sluggish, obstinate folly, of sottish negligence, and contempt of grace, will be a more tormenting thing than you will now believe. If such sermons and discourses as foretell it are troublesome to thee, what then will that sad experience be!

5. The wrath of an offended God will overwhelm thee. This wUl be thy hell. He that was so merciful in the time of mercy, will be most ten-ible and implacable when that time is past, and make men know that Christ and mercy are not neglected, refused, and abused at so cheap a rate, as they would needs unagine in the time of their delirium.

6. It will overwhelm the soul if Christ receive it not, to see that thou art entei’ing upon eternity, even into an everlasting state of woe. Then thou wilt think, O whither am I going? What must I endure? and how long, how long? When shall my miseries have an end? and when shall I come back? and how shall I ever be delivered? Oh now what thoughts wilt thou have of the wonderful design ol God in man’s redemption! Now thou vrilt better understand what a Saviour was worth, and how he should have been believed in, and how his gospel and his saving grace should have been entertained.

Oh that the Lord would now open your hearts to entertain it, that you may not then value it to your vexation, that would not value it now to your relief! Poor sinner, for the Lord’s sake, and for thy soul’s sake, I beg now of thee, as if it were on my knees, that thou wouldst cast away thy sinful cares and pleasures, and open thy heart,. and now receive thy Saviour and his saving grace, as ever thou wouldst have him then receive thy trembling, departed soul! Turn to him now, that he may not turn thee from him then. Forsake him not for a flattering world, a little transitory, vain delight, as ever thou wouldst not then have thy departed soul forsaken by him! O delny not, man, but now, even now receive him, that thou mayst avoid so terrible a danger, and put so gi-eat a question presently out of doubt, and be able comfortably to say, I have received Christ, and he will receive me; if I die this night he will receive me: then thou mayst sleep quietlj-, and live merrily, without any disparagement to thy reason. O yield to this request, sinner, of one that desu-eth thy salvation. If thou wert now departing, and I would not pray earnestly to Christ to receive thy soul, thou wouldst think I were uncharitable. Alas! it will be one of these days; and it is thee that I must entreat, and thyself must be prevailed with, or there is no hope. Christ sendeth me to thyself, and satth, that he is willing to receive thee, if now thou wilt receive him, and be sanctified and ruled by him. The matter stops at thy own regardless, Avilfid heart. “What safest thou? Wilt thou receive Christ now, or not? Wilt thou be a new creature, and live to God, by the princi])le of his Spirit, and the rule of his word, to please him here, that thou mayst live with him for ever? ‘ilt thou take up this resolution, and make this covenant with God this day? O give me a word of comfort, and say, thou art resolved, and wilt deliver up thyself to Christ. That which is my comfort, now on thy behalf, will be ten thousand-fold more thy comfort then, when thou partakest of the benefit. And if thou grieve us now, by denyang thy soul to Christ, it will be at last ten thousand-fold more thy grief. Refuse not our requests and Christ’s request now, as ever thou wouldst not have him refuse thee then, and thy requests. It is men’s turning away now from Christ that will cause Christ then to turn from them. ‘■’■ The tvu’uing away of the simple slayeth them, and they then eat but the ii-uit of their own way, and are filled with their oalti devices,” Prov. i. 31, 32. “See then that ye now refuse not lum that sj)eakcth; for there is no escaping if you turn away from him that gpeaketh from heaven,” Ileb. xii. 25.

What would you say yourselves to the man that would not be dissuaded from setting his house on fu-e, and then would pray and cry importunately to God that he would keep it from being burnt? Or of the man that will not be dissuaded from taking poison, and then when it gripeth him win cry to God to save his life? Or of the man that will go to sea in a leaking, broken vessel, yea, himself will make those breaches in it that shall let the water in, and when it is sinking will cry to God to save him from bemg drowned? And will you do this about so great a matter as the everlasting state of your immortal souls? WiU you now be worldlings, and sensualists, and ungodly, and undo yourselves, and then cry, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” at the last? What! receive an unholy spirit? Will you not knock tiU the door is shut? when he telleth you, that “it is not every one that will cry Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven,” Matt. vii. 21.

Lastly, consider with what unspeakable joy it wUl fiU thy soul to be then received by the Lord. Oh what a jojiul word will it be, when thou shalt hear, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prejjared for you.” If thou wilt not have this to be thy case, thou shalt see those received to the increase of thy gi-ief whom thou reflisedst here to imitate: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and those that from east, .west, north, and south, shall sit thei’e with them, and thou thrust out,” Luke xiii. 27-29.

I have been long in this part of my application, having to do with souls that are ready to depart, and are in so sad an unprepared state, as is not to be thought on but with great compassion; I am next to come to that part of the appUcation which I chiefly intended, to those that are the heirs of life.

2. O you that are members of Jesus Christ, receive this cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of death. Let it come when it vrill, you may boldly recommend your departing souls into the hands of Christ. Let it be by a lingering disease or by an acute, by a natural or a violent death, at the fulness of your age or in the flower of your youth, death can but separate the soul from llesh, but not from Christ: whether you die poor or rich, at liberty or in prison, in your native country or a foreign land, whether you be buried in the earth or cast into the sea, death shall but send your souls to Christ. Though you die under the reproach and slanders of the world, and your names be cast out among men as evil-doers, yet Christ will take your spirits to himself. Though your souls depart in fear and trembling, though they want the sense of the love of God, and doubt of pardon and peace with him, yet Christ -vvill receive them.

I know thou wilt be ready to say, that thou art unworthy, Will he receive so unworthy a soul as mine? But if thou be a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted. Thou hast a worthiness of aptitude, and Christ hath a worthiness of merit.

The day that cometh upon such at unawares, that have their hearts overcharged with sm-feiting, di’unkemiess, and the cares of this life, and as a snare surpriseth the inhabitants of the earth, shall be the day of thy great deliverance; “Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man,” Luke xxi. 84-36. “They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world can die no more; for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God,” Luke xx. 35, 3G.

Object. Oh but my sins are great and many; and vnll Christ ever receive so ignorant, so earthly and impui’e a soul as mine?

Ansio. If he have freed thee from the reign of sin, by giraig thee a will that would fain be fully doUvered from it, anil given thee a desire to be perfectly hoh”, he will finish the work that he hath begun; and will not bring thee deiiled into heaven, but will wtvsh thee in his blood, and separate all the remnant of corruption from thy soul, when he separatcth thy soul from llesh: there needs no purgatory, but his blood and Spirit in the instant of death shall deliver thee, that he luay present thee spotless to the Father.

O fear not then to trust thy soul with him that will receive it; and fear not death that can do thee no more harm. And when once thou hast overcome the fears of death, thou mlt be the more resolute in thy duty, and faithful to Christ, and above the power of most temptations, and wilt not fear the face of man, when death is the worst that man can bring thee to. It is true, death is dreadful; but it is as true that the arms of Christ are joyful. It is an unpleasing tiling to leave the bodies of our fi-iends in the earth; but it is unspeakable pleasure to their souls to be received into the heavenly society by Chi’ist.

And how confidently, quietly, and comfortably you may commend your departing spirits to be received by Christ, be informed by these considerations foUomng.

1. Your spirits are Christ’s own; and may you not trust him with his own? As they arc his by the title of creation, “All souls are mine, saith the Lord,” Ezek. xviii. 4; so also by the title of redemption, “• We are not om* own, we are bought with a price,” 1 Cor. vi. 19.

Say therefore to him, Lord, I am thine much more than my own; receive thine own, take care of thine own. Thou drewest me to consent to thy gracious covenant, and I resigned myself and all I had to thee. And thou swarest to me, and I became thine, Ezek. xvi. 8. And I stand to the covenant that I made, though I have offended thee. I am sinful, but I am thine, and would not forsake thee, and change my Lord and Master, for a world. O know thine own, and own my soul that hath owned thee, though it hath sinned against thee. Thy sheep kncjw thy voice, and follow not a stranger; now know thy jHsor sheep, and leave them not to the devourer. Thy lambs have been preserved by thee among wolves in the world, preserve me now from the enemy of souls. I am thine, O save me (Psal. cxix. 94), and lose not that which is thine own!

2. Consider that thou art his u))on so dear a purchase, as that he is the more en“a<ied to receive thee, llath he bought thee by the price of his most precious blood, and will lie cast thee ofl? Ilath he come down on earth to seek and save thee, and vdW he now forsake thee? Hath he lived in flesh a life of poverty, and suffered reproach, and scorn, and bufli’tinfrs, and been nailed to the cross, and put to cry out, “Liv God, my God, why hait thou forsaken me?” and will he now forget his love, and sufferings, and himsi’lf forsake thee after this? Did he himself on the cross commend his spirit into his Father’s hands, and will he not receive thy spirit when thou at death commendest it to him? He hath known himself what it is to have a human soul separated from the body, and the body buried in a grave, and there lamented by surviving friends. And why did he this, but that he might be fit to receive and relieve thee ia the like condition? O, who would not be encouraged to encounter death, and lie down in a grave, that believeth that Christ did so before him, and considereth why he went that way, and what a conquest he had made!

I know an argument from the death of Christ will not prove his love to the souls of the ungodly so as to infer that he will receive them; but it will prove his reception of be-Hevei’s’ souls: “He that spared not his own Sun, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. viii. 32,) is an infallible argument as to believers, but not as to those that do reject him.

Say therefore to him, O my Lord! can it be that thou couldst come down in the flesh, and be abused, and spit upon, and slandered, and crucified; that thou couldst bleed, and die, and be buried for me, and now be unwilling to receive me? that thou shouldst pay so dear for souls, and now refuse to entertain them? that thou shouldst die to save them from the de-il, and now wilt leave them to his cruelty? that thou hast conquered him, and yet wilt suffer him at last to have the prey? To whom can a departing soul fly for refuge, and for entertaimnent, if not to thee that diedst for souls, and sufferedst thine to be separated from the ilesh, that we nlight have all assurance of thy compassion unto ours? ‘J’hou didst openly declare upon the cross, that the reason of thy dpng was to receive departed souls, when thou didst thus encourage the soul of a penitQjit malefactor, by telling Lim, “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” O give the same encouragement or entertainment to this sinful soul that flieth unto thee, that trusteth in thy death and merits, and is coming to receive thy doom!

3. Consider that Jesus Christ is full of love and tender compassion to souls. “What his tears over Lazarus compelled the Jews to say, “Behold how he loved him,” John xi. 36; the same his incarnation, life, and death should much more stir us up to say, with gi’eater admiration. Behold how he loved us. The foregoing words, though the shortest verse in all the Bible, “Jesus wept” (verse 35), are long enough to prove his love to Lazarus: and the Holy Ghost would not have the tears of Chi-ist to be unknown to us, that his love may be the better known. But we have a far larger demonstration of his love; “He loved us and gave himself for us,” Gal. ii. 20. And by what gift could he better testify his love? “He loved us, and washed us in his blood,” Rev. i. 5. He loved us, as the Father loveth him, John XV. 9. And may we not comfortably go to him that loved us? WUl love refuse us Avlien we fly unto hun?

Say then to Christ, O thou that hast loved my soul, receive it! I commend it not unto an enemy. Can that love reject me, and cast me into hell, that so oft embraced me on earth, and hath declared itself by such ample testimonies!

Oh had we but more love to Christ, we should be more sensible of his love to us, and then we should trust him, and love would make us hasten to him, and with confidence cast ourselves upon him!

4. Consider that it is the office of Christ to save souls, and to receive them, and therefore we may boldly recommend them to his hands. The Father sent him to be the Saviour of the world, 1 John iv. 14; and he is effectually the Saviour of his body, Eph. v. 23. And may we not trust him in his undertaken oflice, that would trust a physician or any other in his oflice, if we judge him faithful? Yea, he is engaged by covenant to receive us: when we gave up ourselves to him, he also became ours; and we did it on this condition, that he should receive and save us. And it was the condition of his owti undertaking; he drew the covevant himself and tendered it first to us, and assumed his own conditions, as he imposed ours.

Say then to him. My Lord, I expected but the performance of thy covenants, and the discharge of thine undertaken ofEce: as thou hast caused me to believe in thee, and love and serve thee, and perform the conditions which thou laidest on me, though with many sinful failings, which thou hast pardoned; so now let my soul, that hath trusted on thoo, have the full experience of thy fidelity, and ttike me to thyself according to thy covenant. “O now remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused him to hope!” Psal. cxLx. 49. How many precious promises hast thou left us, that we shall not be forsaken by thee, but that we shall be with thee where thou art, that we may behold thy glory! For this cause art thou the Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheiitance, Ileb. Lx. 15. According to thy covenant, “Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,” 1 Tim. iv. 8. And when we have done thy will (notmtlistanding our lamentable imperfections) we arc to receive the promise, Heb. x. 36. O, now receive me into the kingdom which thou hast promised to them that love thee! James i. 12.

5. Consider how able Christ is to answer thine expectations. All power is given him In heaven and earth (jMatt. xxvill. 19), and all things are given by the Father uito his hands, John xiii. 3. All judgment is committed to him, John V. 22. It Is fully in his power to receive and save thee; and Satan cannot touch thee but by his consent. Fear not, then; he Is the first and last, that liveth, and was dead; and behold he liveth for ever more, amen; and hath the kej-s of hell and death, Kev. I. 17, 18.

Say, then, If thou wilt, Lord, thou canst save this departing soul! O, say but the word, and I shall live! Lay but thy rebuke upon the destroyer, and he shall be restrained. When my Lord and dearest SaAdour hath the keys, how can I be kept out of thy kingdom, or cast into the burning lake? AVere it a matter of difficulty unto thee, my soul might fear lest heaven would not be opened to it; but thy love hath overcome the hindrances; and it is as easy to receive me as to love me.

6. Consider how perfectly thy Saviour is acquainted with the place that thou art going to, and the company and employment which thou must there have; and, therefore, as there is nothing strange to him, so the ignorance and strangeness in thyself should therefore make thee fly to him, and trust him, and recommend thy soul to him, and say, Lord, it would be terrible to my departing soul to go into a world that I never saw, and into a place so strange, and unto company so far above me; but that I know there is nothing strange to thee, and thou knowest it for me, and I may better trust thy knowledge than mine own. When 1 was a child I knew not mine own inheritance, nor what was necessary to the daily pro•isions for my life; but my parents knew it that cared for me. The eyes nmst see for all the body, and not every member see for itself Oh, cause me as quietly and belie’ingly to commit my soul to thee, to be possessed of the glory which thou seest and possessest, as if I had seen and possessed it myself, and let thy knowledge be my trust!

7. Consider that Christ hath provided a glorious receptacle for faithful souls, and it cannot be imagined that he will lose his preparations, or be frustrate of his end. All that he did and suflered on earth was for this end. He therefore became the Captain of our salvation, and was made perfect through sullerings, that he might bring many sons to glory, lleb. ii. 10. He hath taken possession in our nature, and is himself interceding for us in the heavens, Heb. vii. 25. And for whom doth he provide this heavenly building, not made with hands, but for believers? If, therefore, any inordinate fear surprise thee, remember what he hath said: “Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that Avherelam, there ye maybe also,” John xiv. 1-3.

Say, therefore. Lord, when thou hadst made this lower narrow world, thou wouldst not leave it uninhabited; for man thou madest it, and man thou placedst in it. And when thou hast prepared that more capacious, glonous world for thy redeemed flock, it cannot be that thou yvHt shut them out. O, therefore, receive my fearful soul, and help me to obey thy ovra command, Luke xii. 32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” O, let me hear that joj-ful sentence, “Come, yX’ blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Matt. xxv. 3-4.

8. Consider that Christ hath received thy soul unto grace, and therefore he will receive it unto glory-. He hath quickened us who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past we walked, &c. But God, who is rich in mercy, for las great love where’W’ith he loved us, even when we were dead in sms and trespasses, quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 1-6. The state of grace is the kingdom of heaven, as well as the state of glory. Matt. iii. 2; x. 7; xiii. 11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47. By grace thou hast the heavenly birth and nature: we are first-born to trouble and sorrow in the world; but we are new-born to everlasting joy and pleasure. Grace maketh us heii’s, and giveth us title, and therefore at death we shall have possession. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, acpording to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the de»id, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadt-th not away, resciTcd in heaven for us, 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. The gi-eat work was done in the day of thy

Q renovation; then thou wast entered into the household of God, and made a fellow-citizen with the saints, and receivedst the Spirit of adoption, Eph. ii. 19; Gal. iv. 6. He gave thee life eternal, when he gave thee knowledge of himself, and of his Son, John xvii. 3. And will he now take from thee the kingdom which he hath given thee? Thou wast once his enemy, and he hath received thee already into his favour, and reconciled thee to himself; and will he not then receive thee to his glory? Rom. v. 8-11, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” And when we have peace with God, being justified by fiilth (Rom. v. 1), why should we doubt whether he will receive us? The great impediments and cause of fear are now removed: unpardoned sin is taken away, our debt is discharged. We have a sufficient answer against all that can be alleged to the prejudice of our souls: yea, it is Christ himself that answereth for us; it is he that justifieth, who then shall condemn us? Will he not justify those at last whom he hath here justified? Or will he justify us, and yet not receive us? That were both to justify and condemn us.

Depart, then, in peace, O fearful soul; thou fallest into his hands that hath justified thee by his blood; will he deny thee the inheritance of which he himself hath made thee heir, yea, a joint-heir with himself? Rom. viii. 17. Will he deprive thee of thy l)irthright, who himself begot thee of the incorruptible seed? If he would not have received thee to glory, he would not have drawn thee to himself, and have blotted out thine iniquities, and received thee by reconciling grace. Many a time he hath received the secret petitions, complaints, and groans which thou hast poured out before him; and hath given thee access with boldness

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to his throne of grace, when thou couldst not liavc access to man; and he hath taken thee up, when man hath cast thee ort”. Sui-ely he that received thee so readily in thy distress, -will not now at last repent him of his love. As Manoah’s wife said, ‘’ If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received abunit-olFeiiugand a meat-offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things,” Judg. xiii. 23. He hath received thee into his church, and entertained thee with the delights and fatness of his house (Psal. xxxvi. 8), and bid thee welcome to his table, and feasted thee with his body and his blood, and communicated in these his quickening Spirit; and will he then disown thee, and refuse thee, when thou drawest nearer him, and art cast upon him for thy final doom? After so many receptions in the way of grace, dost thou yet doubt of his recei’ing you.

9. Consider how nearly thou art related to him in this state of grace; thou art his child, and hath he nf»t the bowels of a father? When thou didst ask bread, he was not used to give thee a stone; and will he give thee hell, when thou askest but the entertainment in heaven, which he hath promised thee? Thou art his friend (John xv. 14, 15), and will he not receive his friends? Thou art his spouse, betrothed to him the very day when thou consentedst to his covenant; and where then shouldst thou Uve but with him? Thou art a member of his body, of his flesh and bone, Eph. V. 30; and no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church, verse 29: as he came down in flesh to be a suitor to thee, so he caused thee to let go all for him; and will he now forsake thee? Suspect it not, but quietly resign thy soul into his hands, and say. Lord, take this soul that pleads relation to thee; it is the voice of thy child that crieth to thee; the name of a father, which thou hast assumed towards me, is my encouragement. When thou ditlst call us out of the world unto thee, thou saidst, I will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 2 Cor. -vi. 17, 18. O our Father, which ai’t in heaven, shut not out thy children, the childi-en of thy love and promise. The compassion that thou hast put into man engageth him to reheve a neighbour, yea, an enemy, much more to entertain a child; our children and our fi’iends dare trust themselves ujiou our kindness and fidelity, and fear not that Yre will reject them in then- distress, or desti-oy them, though they do sometimes offend us: our kindness is cruelty in comparison of thine; our love deserveth not the name of love in comparison of thy most precious love. Thine is the love of God, who is love itself, 1 John iv. 8, 16; and who is the God of love, 2 Cor. i. 13, 11; and is answerable to thme omnipotency, omniscience, and other attributes: but ours is the love of frail and finite sinful men. As we may pray to thee to forgive us our trespasses, for we also forgive those that have trespassed against us; so we may pray to thee to receive us, though we have offended thee, for even Ave receive those that have offended us. Hath thy love unto thine own its breadth, and length, and height, and depth; and is it such as passeth knowledge? Eph. iii. 17-19. And yet canst thou exclude thine own, and shut them out that cry unto thee? Can that love, which washed me and took me home when I lay wallowing in my blood, reject me, when it hath so far recovered me? Can that love now thrust me out of heaven, that lately fetched me from the gates of hell, and placed me among thy saints? “Whom thou lovest, thou lovest to the end,” John xiii. 1. “Thou art not as man, that thou shouldst repent,” Numb, xxiii. 19. “With thee is no variableness, or shadow of turning,” Jam. i. 17. If yesterday thou so freely lovedst me as to adopt me for thy child, thou wilt not to-day refuse me, and cast me into hell. lleceive, Lord Jesus, a member of thy body; a weak one, indeed, but yet a member, and needeth the more thy tenderness and compassion, who hast taught us not to cast out our infants, because they are small and weak. “We have forsaken all to cleave unto thee, that we might vnth. thee be one flesh apd spu-it,” Eph. v. 31; 1 Cor. vi. 17. O cut not off, and cast not out, thy members that are ingrafted into thee. “Thou hast dwelt in me here by faith, and shall I not now dwell with thee?” Eph, iii. 17. Thou hast prayed to the Father, that we mav be one in thee, and may be with thee to behold thy glory, John xvii. 20-24; and wilt thou deny to receive me to that glory, who pray but for what thou hast prayed to thy Father? Death maketh no separation between thee and thy members; it dissohefh not the union of souls with thee, though it separate thom from the flesh; and shall a part of thyself be rejected and condemned?

10. Consider that Christ hath sealed thee up unto salvation, and given thee the earnest of his Spirit; and therefore will certainly receive thee, 2 Cor. i. 22; v. 5; Eph. i. 13, 14; iv. 30. Say, therefore, to him. Behold, Lord, thy mark, thy seal, thine earnest: flesh and blood did not illuminate and renew me; thy Spirit which thou hast given me is my witness that I am thine, Rom. ^-iii. 16. And wilt thou disown and refuse the soul that thou hast sealed?

11. Consider that he that hath given thee a heavenly mind, will certainly receive thee into heaven. If thy treasure were not there, thy heart would never have been there, Matt. li. 21. Thy weak desires do shew what he intends thee for; he kindled not those desires in vain. Thy love to him (though too small) is a certain proof that he intends not to reject thee; it cannot be that God can damn, or Christ refuse, a soul that doth sincerely love him: he that loveth, ‘■’■ dwelleth in God, and God in him,” 1 John iv. 15, 16. And shall he not then dwell with God for ever? God fitteth the nature of every creature to its use, and agreeably to the element in which they dwell; and, therefore, when he gave thee the heavenly nature (though but in weak beginnhigs), it shewed his will to make thee an inhabitant of heaven.

Say, therefore, to him, O Lord, I had never loved thee if thou hadst not begun and loved me first; I had not minded thee, or desired after thee, if thou hadst not kindled these desires: it caimot be that thy gi-ace itself should be a deceit and misery, and intended but to tantahze us; and that thou hast set thy servants’ souls on longing for that which thou wilt never give them. Thou wouldst not have given me the wedding-garment, when thou didst invite me, if thou hadst meant to keep me out: even the grain of mustard-seed which thou sowedst in my heart, was a kind of promise of the happiness to which it tendeth. Indeed I have loved thee so little, that I am ashamed of myself, and confess my cold indifferency deserves thy -vvrath; but that I love thee, and desire thee, is thy gift, which signifieth the higher satisfying gift: though I am cold and dull, my eyes are towards thee; it is thee that I mean when I can but groan: it is long since I have bid this world away; it shall not be my home or portion: O perfect what thou hast begun; this is not the time or place of my perfection; and though my life be now hid with thee in God, when thou appearest, let me appear with thee in glory, Col. iii. 4. And, in the meantime, let this soul enjoy its part that appeareth before thee; give me what thou hast caused me to love, and then I shall more perfectly love thee, when my thirst is satisfied, and the water which thou hast given me shall spring up to everlasting life, John iv 14.

12. Consider, also, that he that hath engaged thee to seek first his kingdom, is engaged to give it them that do sincerely seek it. He called thee off the pursuit of vanity when thou wast following the pleasures and profits of the world; and he called thee to labour for the food that perisheth not, but endureth to everlasting life, John vi. 27. Since then it hath been thy care and business (notwithstanding all thine iinperfections), to seek and serve him, to please and honour liiin, and so to run that thou mightest obtain.

Say, then, Though my sins deserve thy wrath, and nothing that I have done deserve thy favour, yet godliness hath thy promise of the life to come; and thou hast said, that “he that seeks sludl find,” Matt. vii. 7, 8. O now let me find the kingdom that I have sought, and sought by thy encouragement and help: it cannot be that any should have cause to repent of serving thee, or suffer disajijjointment that trusts upon thee. My labour for the world was lost and vain, but thou didst engage me to be steadfast and abound in thy work, on this account, that my hibour shouhl not be in vain, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Now give the full and final answer unto all my prayers: now that I have done the fight, and finished my course, let me find the crown of righteousness which thy mercy hath laid up, 2 Tim. iv. 8. O crown thy graces, and with thy greatest mercies recompense and perfect thy preparatory mercies, and let me be received to thy glory, who have been guided by thy counsel, Psal. Lxxiii. 24.

13. Consider that Christ hath already received millions of souls, and never was mifaithful unto any. There are now with him the spirits of the just made perfect, that in this life were imperfect as well as you. Why, then, should you not comfortably trust him with your souls? and say, Lord, thou art the connnon salvation and refuge of thy saints; both strong and weak, even all that are given the* by the Father, shall come to thee, and those that come thou wilt in no wise cast out. Thousands have been entertained by thee that were unworthy in themselves, as well as I. It is few of thy members that are now on earth, in comparison of those that are with thee in heaven. Admit me. Lord, into the new Jerusalem: thou wilt have thy house to be filled; O, take my spirit into the number of those blessed ones that shall come from east, west, north, and south, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom; that we may, together with eternal joys, give thanks and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.

14. Consider that it is the will of the Father himself that we should be glorified. He therefore gave us to his Son, and gave his Son for us. to be our Saviour, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John iii. 16, 17. All our salvation is the product of his love, Eph. ii. 4; John vi. 37. John xvi. 26, 27, “I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me,” &c. John xiv. 21,” He that loveth me shall be loved of my

Father, and I will love him, and will manilest mj-self to him.”

Say, therefore, with our dying Lord, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” By thy Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life, I come to thee, John xiv. 6. “Fulness of joy is in thy presence, and everlasting pleasures at thy right hand,” Psal. xvi. 11. Thy love redeemed me, renewed and preserved me; O now receive me to the fulness of thy love. This was thy will in sending thy Son, that of all that thou gavest him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. O let not now this soul be lost that is passing to thee through the straits of death. I had never come unto thy Son, if thou hadst not cbawn me, anil if I had not heard and learned of thee, John vi. 44, 45. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed to me, a babe, an idiot, the blessed mystei’ies of thy kingdom, Luke x. 21; Acts iv. 13. O now as the veil of flesh must be withdrawn, and ray soul be parted from this body, withdraw the veil of thy displeasure, and shew thy servant the glory of thy presence: that he that hath seen thee but as in a glass, may see thee now with open face; and when my earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, let me inhabit thy building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. v. 1.

15. Lastly, Consider that God hath designed the everlasting glory of his name, and the pleasing of his blessed will, in our salvation; and the Son must triumph in the perfection of his conquest of sin and Satan, and in the perfecting of our redemption; and, doubtless, he wUl not lose his Father’s glory and his own. Say, then, with confidence, I resign my soul to thee, O Lord, who hast called and chosen me, that thou mightest make known the riches of thy glory on me, as a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory, Rom. ix. 23. Thou hast predestinated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thyself, to the praise of the glory of thy grace, when;in thou hast made me accepted in thy Beloved, Eph. i. 5, G, 11, 12. lleceive me now to the glory

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which thou hast prepared for us, ]Iatt. xxv. 34. The hour is at hand; Lord, glorify thy poor adopted child, that he may for ever jrlonfy thee, John xvii. 1. It is thy promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify, Rom. viii. 30. As “there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ” (Rom. ‘iii. 1), so now let him present me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceedmg joy; and to thee “the only wise God our Sadour, be the glory, majesty, dominion, and power for evermore. Amen.” Jude 24, 25.

^Vhat now remaineth, but that we all set ourselves to I’sarn this sweet and necessary task, that we may jo•fully ]jerform it in the hour of our extremity; even to recommend our departing souls to Christ, with confidence that he will receive them. It is a lesson not easy to be learned; for faith is weak, and doubts and fears w-ill easily arise, and nature will be loth to think of dying; and we that haVe so much olfended Christ, and lived so strangely to him, and been entangled in too much familiarity with the w-orld, shall be apt to shrink when we should joy-fully trust him with our departing souls. O, therefore, now set yourselves to overcome these difficulties in time. You know we are all readv to dejiart: it is time this last important work were thorcuglily learned, that our death may be both safe and comfortable.

There are divers other uses of this doctrine, that I should have urged upon you, had there been time. As, 1. If Christ will receive your departing souls, then fear not death, but long for this heavenly entertainment.

2. Then do not sin for fear of them that can but kill the body, and send the soul to Christ.

3. Then think not the righteous uidiappy because they are cast off by the world; neither be too much troubled at it yourselves when it comes to be your case; but remember that Christ will not forsake you, and that none can hinder him from the receiving of your souls. No mahce nor slanders can follow you so far as by defamation to make your justifier condemn you.

4. If you may trust him with your souls, then trust him with your friends, your children that you must leave behind, with all your concernments and affairs: and trust him with his gospel and his church; for they are all his own, and he will preyail to the accomplishment of his blessed pleasure.

But, 5. I shall only add that use which the sad occasion of our meeting doth bespeak. What cause have we now to mix our sorrows for our deceased friend, ■lnth the joys of faith for her felicity! We have left the body to the earth, and that is our lawful sorrow, for it is the fi’uit of sin; but her spirit is received by Jesus Christ, and that must be our joy, if we will behave ourselves as true believers. If we can suffer vdth her, should we not rejoice also with her? And if the joy be far greater to the soul with Christ, than the ruined state of the body can be lamentable, it is but reason that our joy should be greater for her joy, than our sorrow for the dissolution of the flesh. We that should not much lament the passage of a fi-iend beyond the seas, if it were to be advanced to a kingdom, should less lament the passage of a soul to Christ, if it were not for the remnant of our woeful unbelief.

She is arrived at the everlasting rest, where the burden of corruption, the contradictions of the flesh, the molestations of the tempter, the troubles of the world, and the injuries of malicious men, are all kept out, and shall never more disturb her peace. She hath left us in these storms, who have more cause to weep for ourselves, and for our children, that have yet so much to do and suffer, and so many dangers to pass through, than for the souls that are at rest “th Christ. We are capable of no higher hopes than to attain that state of blessedness which her soul possesseth; and sIuiU we make that the matter of our lamentation iis to her, which we make the matter of our hopes as to ourselves? Do we labour earnestly to come thither, and yet lament that she is there? You will say, it is not because she is clothed ujjon with the house from heaven, but that she Is unclothed of the flesh: but is there any other passage than death into inmiortality? Must we not be unclothed before the garments of glory can be put on? She bemoaneth not her own dissolved body; the glorified soul can easily bear the corruption of the flesh; and if you saw but what the soul enjoyeth, you would be like-minded, and be moderate in your griefs. Love not yourselves so as to be unjust and unmerciful in your desires to yoiu: friends. Let Satan desire to keep them out of heaven, but do not you desire it. You may desire your own good, but not so as to deprive your friends of theirs; yea, of a greater good, that you may have a lesser by It. And if it be their company that you ilesire, in reason you should be glad that they are gone to dwell where you must dwell for ever, and therefore may for ever have their company; had they staid on earth you would have had their company but a little while, because you must make so short a stay yourselves. Let them therefore begin their jom-nej’ before you; and grudge not that they are first at home, as long as you expect to find them there. In the mean time he that called them from jou hath not left you comfortless; he is with you himself, who is better than a mother, or than ten thousand friends: when grief or negligence hindereth you from observing him, yet he is with you, and holdeth you up, and tenderly pro’ideth for you: though turbulent passions injuriously question all his love, and cause you to give him unmannerly and unthuTikful words, yet still he beareth with you, and forgiveth all, and doth not forsake you for your pee’ishiiess and weakness, because you are his children; and he kuowcth that you mean not to forsake him. Rebuke your passions, and calm your minds; reclaim your thoughts, and cast away the bitterness of suspicious, quarrelsome unbelief; and then you may perceive the presence of your dearest Friend and Lord, who is enough for you, though you had no other friend. Without him all the friends on earth would be but silly comforters, and leave you as at the gates of hell; without him all the auguls and saints in heaven woxdd never make it a heaven to you. Grieve not too much that one of your candles is put out while you have the sun; or if indeed it be not diiy with any of you, or the sun be clouded or eclipsed, let that rather be the matter of your grief; fmd out the cause, and presently submit and seek reconciliation: or if you are deprived of this light, because you are yet asleep in sin, hearken to his call, and rub your eyes:” Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” Eph. V. 14.” Knowing that it is now high time to awake out of sleep, our salvation being nearer than when we first behaved: the night is far spent, the day of etei-nal light is even at hand; cast off therefore the works of darkness, and put on all the armour of

light; walk honestly and decently as in the day,” K,om. xiii. 11-14. And whatever you do, make sure of the Friend that never dieth, and nCAer shall be separated fi-om you; and when you die will certainly receive the souls which you commend mito him.

And here, though coutraiy to my custom, I shall make some more particular mention of our deceased mend on several accounts. 1. In prosecution of this use that now we are upon, that you may see in the e’vHdences of her happiness how little cause you have to indulge extraordinary grief on her account; and how much cause to moderate your sense of our loss, with the sense of her felicity. 2. That you may have the benefit of her example for yom* imitation, especially her children that are bound to observe the holy actions as well as the instructions of a mother. 3. For the honour of Christ, and his grace, and his servant: for as God hath promised to honour those that honour him (1 Sam. ii. 30), and Christ hath said, “If any man serve me, him vrHl my Father honour,” John xii. 26; so I know Christ will not take it ill to be honoured in his members, and to have his ministers subserve him in so excellent a work: it is a very considerable part of the love or hatred, honour or dishonour, that Christ hath in the world, which lie receiveth as he ap]5eareth in his followers. He that will not see a cup of cold water given to one of them go imrewarded, and will tell those at the last day that did or did not visit and reheve them, that they did or did it not to him, will now expect it from me as my duty to give him the honour of his graces in his deceased servant; and I doubt not will accordmgly accept it, when it is no other indeed than his own

XriE LAST WORK OF A BELIEVKll. 2^3

honour that is my end, and nothing but the -words of truth and soberness shall be the means.

And here I shall make so great a transition as shall retain my discourse in the narrow compass of the time in which she lived near me, and under my care, and in my familiar acquaintance, omitting all the rest of her life, that none may say I speak but by hearsay of things which I am uncertain of; and I will confine it also to those special gifts and gi’aces in which she was eminent, that I may not take you up with a description of a Christian as such, and tell you only of that good which she held but in common with all other Christians. And if any thing that I shall say were unknown to any reader that knew her, let them know that it is because they knew her but distantly, imperfectly, or by reports: and that my advantage of near acquaintance did give me a just assurance of what I say.

The graces which I decerned to be eminent in her were these. 1. She was eminent in her contempt of the pride, and pomp, and pleasure, and vanity of the world; and in her great averseness to all these, she had an honest impatience of the life which is common among the rich and vain-glorious in the world: voluptuousness and sensuaHty, excess of drinking, cards and dice, she could not endure, whatever names of good house-keeping or seemly deportment they borrowed for a mask. In her apparel she went below the garb of others of her rank; indeed in such plainness as did not notify her degree; but yet in such a grave and decent habit as notified her sobriety and humility. She was a stranger to pastimes, and no companion for time-wasters; as knowing that persons so near eternity, that have so short a Ufe, and so great a work, have no time to spare. Accordingly, in her latter days she did, as those that grow wise by experience of the vanity of the world, retire from it, and cast it off before it cast off her: she betook herself to the society of a people that were low in the world, of humble, serious, upright lives, though such as had been wholly strangers to her; and an;nng these poor inferior strangers she lived in contentment and quietness; desirmg rather to converse with those that -woiikl help her to redeem the time, in praj’er and editying conference, than vnth those that would grieve her by consuming it on their lusts.

2. She was very prudent in her converse and affairs (allowing for the passion of her sex and age), and so escaped much of the inconveniences that else in so great and manifold businesses would have overwhelmed her: as “a good man will guide his affairs with discretion,” Psal. cxii. 5; so “discretion will preserve him, and understanding will keep him, to deUver him fi-om the way of the evil man, who leaveth the paths of uprightness to walk in the way of darkness,” Prov. ii. 11-13.

3. She was seriously religious, without partiality, or any taint of siding or faction, or holding the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons. I never heard her speak against men, or for men, as they diffei’ed in some small and tolerable things: she impartially heard any minister that was able, and godly, and sound in the main, and could bear with the weaknesses of ministers when they were faithftil. Instead ol owning the names or opinions of Prelatical, Presbyterian, Independent, or such like, she took up with the name and profession of a Christian, and loved a Christian as a Christian, without much respect to such different, tolerable opinions. Instead of troubling herself with needless scruples, and making up a religion of opinions and singularities, she studied faith and godliness; and lived upon the common certain truths, and well-known duties, which have been the old and beaten way, by which the universal church of Christ hath gone to heaven in former ages.

4. She was very impartial in her judgment about particular cases, being the same in judging of the case of a child and a stranger; and no interest of children, or other relations, could make her swerve from an equal judgment.

6. She very much preferred the spiritual welfare of her children before their temporal; looking on the former as the true felicity, and on the latter without it but as a pleasant, voluntary misery.

6. Since I was acquainted with her, I always found her ‘THE LAST WORK OF A BELIEYICR. 255

very ready to good works, according to her power. And when she hath seen a poor man come to me, that she conjectured solicited me for relief, she hath reprehended me for keeping the case to myself, and not inviting her to contribute; and I could never discern that she thought any thing so well bestowed as that which relieved the necessities of the poor that were honest and uidustrious.

7. She had the wonderful mercy of a man-like, Christian, patient spirit, under all afllictions that did befall her; and under the nmltitude of troublesome businesses, that would have even distracted an impatient mind. Though sudden anger was the sin that she much confessed herself, and therefore thought she wanted patience, yet I have oil wondered to see her bear up with the same alacrity and quietness, when Job’s messengers have brought her the tidings that would have overwhelmed an impatient soul. AVhen law-suits and the great afflictions of her children have assaulted her like successive waves, which I feared would have borne her into the deep, if not devoured all her peace, she sustained all as if no gi’eat considerable change had been made against her, having the same God and the same Christ, and promises, and hope, from which she fetched such real comfort and support as shewed a real, serious faith.

8. She was always apt to put a good interpretation upon God’s providences; like a right believer, that having the spirit of adoption, perceiveth fatherly love in all, she would not easily be persuaded that God meant her any harm: she was not apt to hearken to the enemy that accuseth God and his ways to man, as he accuseth man and his actions to God: she was none of those that are suspicious of God, and are still concluding death and ruin from all that lie doth to them, and are gathering wrath from misinterpreted expressions of his love; who weep because of the smoke before they can be warmed by the fire. Yet (Jod is good to Israel;

and it shall go well with them that fear before him (Tsal. lxxiii. ]; Eccles. viii. 12, 13), were her conclusions from the shai”])est providences: she exjiected the morning in the darkest night, and judged not of the end by the begimiing; but was always confident if she could but entitle God in tte case that the issue would be good. She was not a murraiu’er against God, nor one that contended with her Maker; nor one that created calamity to herself by a self-troubling; unquiet mind: she patiently bore what God laid upon her, and made it not hea-vier by the additions of uncomfortable prognostics, and misgildng or repining thoughts. She had a great confidence in God, that he was doing good to her and hers in all; and where at present she saw any matter of grief, she much supported her soul with a belief that God would remove and overcome it in due time.

9. She was not troubled, that ever I decerned, with doubtings about her interest in Christ, and about her own justification and salvation; but whether she reached to assurance or not, she had confident apprehensions of the love of God, and quietly reposed her soul upon his grace. Yet not secure through presumption or self-esteem, but comforting herself in the Lord her God; by this means she spent those hours in a cheerful performance of her duty, which many spend in fruitless self- vexation for the failings of their duty, or in mere inquiries whether they have grace or not; and others spend in wrangling, perplexed controversies about the manner or circumstances of duty: and I believe that she had more comfiirt fi-om God by way of reward upon her sincere obedience, while she referred her soul to him, and rested on him, than many have that more anxiously perplexed themselves about the discerning of their holiness, when they should be studying to be more holy, that it might discover itself. And by this means she was fit for praises and thanksgiving, and spent not her life in lamentations and complaints; and made not religion seem terrible to the ignorant, that judge of it by the faces and carriage of professors. She did not represent it to the world as a morose and melancholy temper, but as the rational creature’s cheerful obcdirncc to his Maker, actuated by the sense of the wonderful love that is manifested in the Redeemer, and by the hopes of the purchased and promised felicity in the blessed sight and fruition of God. And I

THE L.VST WOllK OF A BELIEVER. 25/

conjecture that her forementioned disposition to think -well of God, and of his providences, together with her long and manifold experience (the great advantage of ancient, tried Christians)., did much conduce to fi-ee her from doubtings and disquieting feai*s about her own sincerity and salvation; and I confess, if her life had not been answerable to her jieacc and confidence, I should not have thought the better, 1 lut the worse, of her condition; nothing being more lamentable than to make haste to hell, through a wilful confidence ihat the danger is past, and that they are in the way to heaven as well as the most sanctified.

10. Lastly, I esteemed it the height of her attainment that she never discovered any inordinate fears of death, but a cheerful readiness, willingness, and desii’e, to be dissolved, and be with Cluist. This was her constant temper, both in health and sickness, as far as I was able to observe. She would be frequently expressing how little reason she had to be desirous of longer life, and how much reason to be willing to depart. Divei’s times in dangerous siclaiess I have been with her, and never discerned any considerable aversciiess, dejectedness, or fear. JNIany a time I have thought how great a mercy I should esteem it if I had attained that measure of feai-less wilHngness to lay do^■n this flesh, as she had attahied. jNIany a one that can make light of wants, or threats, or scorns, or any ordinary troubles, cannot submit so quietly and wUlingly to death. ]Iany a one that can go through the labours of religion, and contemn oj)j)osition, and easily give all they have to the poor, and bear imprisonments, banishment, or contempt, can never overcome the fears of death. So far, even the father of lies spake truth; “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life,” Job ii. 4. I took it, therefore, for a high attainment and extraordinary mercy to our deceased friend, that the king of terrors was not teri’ible to her. Though I doubt not but somewhat of averseness and fear is so rooted in nature’s self-preserving principle, as that it is almost inseparal»le, yet in her 1 never discerned an- troublesome appeai’ances of it. “When I first came to her in the beginning of her last sickness, she suddenly passed the sentence of death Ti]ion herself, without anj- shew of fear or trouble, when to iis the disease appeared not to be great. But when the di:?ease increased, her pains were so little, and the effect of the fever was so much in her head, that, after this, she seemed not to esteem it mortal, being not sensible of her ease and danger: and so, as she lived without the fears of death, she seemed to us to die without them. God, by the nature of her disease, removing death as out of her sight, when she came to that weakness, in which else the encounter was like to have been sharper than ever it was befoi-e. And thus, in one of the weaker sex, God hath shewed us that it is possible to live in holy confidence, and peace, and quietness of mind, without distressing griefs or fears, even in the midst of a troublesome world, and of vexatious businesses, and with the afflictions of her dearest relations almost continually before her: and that our quiet or disquiet, om* peace or trouble, dependeth more upon our in-Avard sti’ength and temper than upon our outward state, occasions, or provocations; and that it is more in our hands than of any or all our friends and enemies, whether we shall have a comfortable or uncomfortable life.

What remaineth now, but that all we that survive, especially you that are her children, do follow her as she followed Christ? Though the word of God be your sufficient rule, and the example of Christ be your perfect pattern, yet as the instructions, so the example of a parent must be a weighty motive to quicken and engage you to your duty; and will else be a great aggravation of your sin. A holy child of unholy parents doth no more than his necessaiy duty; because whatever parents are, he hath a holy God: but an unholy child of holy parents is inexcusable in sin, and deplorably miserable, as forsaking the doctnne and pattern both of their Creator and their progenitors, whom nature engageth them to observe; and it will be an aggravation of llieir deserved misery to h.ave their parents witness against tlicm, that they taught tlieni, and they would not learn; and went before them in a holy life, but they would not follow

TUK L.ST WOKK OF A BELIEVKK. 251)

them. “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; for they shall be an ornament of gi’aco unto thy head, and chains about thy neck,” Prov. i. 8, 9. Read and consider Prov. xxx. 17; xv. 20; xxiii. 22, 25. Sins against parents have a special curse affixed to them in this life, as the case of Ham sheweth; and the due observance and honouring of parents hath a special proniise of temporal blessings, as the fifth commandment sheweth. “Childi-en, obey your parents in the Lord, for it is right: honour thy lather and thy mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst live long on the earth,” Eph. vi. 1-3. The histories of all ages are so full of the instances of God’s judgments, in this life, upon five sorts of sinners, as may do nmch to convince an atheist of the government and special providence of God; that is, upon persecutors, murderers, sacrilegious, false witnesses (especially by perjury), and abusers and dishonourers of parents. And the gi’eat honour that is due to parents when they are dead, is to give ju.st honour to thuu- names, and to obey their precepts, and imitate their good examples. It is the high commendation of the Pechabites, that they strictly kept the precepts of their father, even in a thing indilferent, a mode of living; not to diink whie, or build houses, but dwell in tents: and God annexeth this notable blessing, ‘■’■ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you: therefdre thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever,” Jer. xxxv. 6, 7, 18, 19. But, especially in the great duties of religion, where parents do but deliver the mind of God, and use their authority to procure obedience to divine authority, and where the matter itself is necessary to our sahation, the obligation to obedience and imitation is most indisjiensable; and disobedience is an aggravated iniipiity, and the notorious brand of infelicity, and prognostic of ensulni,’’ woe; the

2 GO Till: LAST WORK OF A BELIEVER.

ungodly cliikken of godly parents being the most deplorable, jnhappy, inexcusable persons in the world (if they hold on.)

There is yet another doctrine that I should speak to.

Doct. 7. Prayer in general, and this prayer in particular, that Christ will receive our departing souls, is a most suitable conclusion of all the actions of a Christian’s life.

Prayer is the breath of a Christian’s life: it is his wcrk and highest converse, and therefore fittest to be the concluding action of his life, that it may reach the end at which he aimed. We have need of prayer all our lives, because Ave have need of God, and need of his manifold and continued gi-ace. But in our last extremity we have a special need. Though sloth is apt to seize upon us, while prosperity hindereth the sense of oiu* necessities, and health yersuadeth us that time is not near its journey’s end, yet it is high time to pray with redoubled fervour and importunity when we see that Ave are near our last. “When Ave find that Ave haA’e no more time to pray, but must now speak our last for om’ immortal souls, and must at once say all that Ave have to say, and shall never have a hearing more. Oh, then, to be unable to pray, or to be faithless, and heartless, and hopeless in om’ prayers, would be a calamity beyond expression.

Yet I know, for ordmary obser-ation tells it us, that many truh’ gracious persons may accidentally be inchsposed and disabled to ]yVily when they are near to death. If tludisease be such as doth disturb the brain, or take them up with violence of pain, or overAvhehn the muid by perturbation of the passions, or abuse the imagination, or notably waste and debilitate the spirits, it cannot be expected thai a body thus disabled should serve the soul in this or any other duty. But still the praj-ing habit doth remain, though a distempered body do forbid the exercise. The habitual desires of the soul are there; and it is those tluit are the soul of prayer.

But this should move us to pray Avliile A-e have time, and while our bodies have strength, and our spirits haA’e vigour and alacrity to serve us, seeing Ave are so uncertain of bodily ilispositlon aiul capacity so near our end. O prav, and pray th all your hearts, before any fever or delirium overthrow your understandings or your memories; before your thoughts are all commanded to attend your pains, and before your decayed spirits fail you, and deny their necessary service to y-our suits; and before the apprehensions of your speedy approach to the presence of the most holy God, and your entrance upon an endless state, do amaze, confound, and overwhelm your souls -with fear and perturbation, O Christians! what folly, what sin and shame is it to us, that now while we ha’e time to pray, and leave to pray, and helps to prav, r.nd have no such disturbing hindrances, we should yet want hearts, and have no mind, no life and fervour for so gi’eat a work! O yray now, lest you are unable to pray then; nnd if yon are then hindered but by such bodily indisposedness, God will understand your habitual desires, and your groans, and take it as if you had actually prayed. Pray now, that so you may be accj[uainted with the God that then you must fly unto for mercy, and may not be strangers to him, or unto prayer; and that he may not find then that j’our prayers are but the expression of your fears, and not of your love, and are constrained, and not voluntary motions mito God: pray now m preparation to your dying prayers. Oh what a terrible thing it is to be to learn to pray in that hour of exti-emity, and to have then no principle to pray by, but natural self-love, which every thief hath at the gallows! To be then without the spirit of prayer, when without it there cannot an acceptable word or gi’oan be uttered; and when the rejection of our suits and person will be the prologue to the final judicial rejection, and will be a distress so grievous as presumptuous souls will not believe, till sad experience become their tutor. Can you imagine that you shall then at last be taught the art of acceptable prayer merely by horror, and the natural sense of pain and danger, as seamen in a storm, or a malefactor by the rack, when in your health and leisure you will not bo persuaded to the daily use of serious prayer, but number Aourselves with the families that are under the wrath of the

Almighty, being such as call not on his name, Jer. x. 25; Psalm lxxix. 6.

Indeed, there are many pray“ers must go before, or else this prayer, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” will be in vain, when you would be loth to find it so. You must first pray for renemng, sanctif-ing grace, for the death of sin, and the pardon of sin, for a holy life, and a heavenly mind, for obedience, patience, and perseverance; and if you obtain not these, there is no hope that Jesus Christ should receive your spirits, that never received his sanctifying Spirit.

How sad is it to observe that those that have most need of prayer, have least mind to pray, as being least sensible of their needs! Yea, that those that are the next step to the state of deTls, and have as much need of prayer as any miserable souls on earth, do yet deride it, and hate those that seriously and fervently perform it; a man of prayer being the most common object of their malicious reproach and scorn. O miserable Cainites, that hate their brethren for offering more acceptable sacrifice than their ovni! Little do they know how much of the very satanical nature is in that malice, and in those reproachful scorns. And little do they know how near they are to the curse and desperation of Cain, and with what hon-or they shall cry out, “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” Gen. iv. 11, 13. If God and good men condemn you for your lip-ser’ice, and heartless devotions, and ungodly lives, will you therefore hate the holy nature and better lives of those that judge you, when you should hate your own ungodliness and hj“pocrisy? ‘Hear what God said to the leader of your sect,” Why art thou WToth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door,” Gen. iv. 6. Have you not as much need to pray as those that you hate and reproach for pi’aying? Have you not as much need to be oft and earnest in prayer as they? Must Christ himself spend whole nights in prayer (Luke vi. 12), and shall an ignorant, sensual, hardened sinner think he hath no need of it, though he be unconverted, unjustified, vuiready to die, and almost past the opportunity of prating? O miserable men, that shortly would cry and roar in the anguish of their souls, and yet will not pi”ay while there is time and room for prayer! Their Judge is -willing now to hear them, and now they have nothing but hj-pocritical, lifeless words to speak! Praying is now a wearisome, tedious, and unpleasant thing to them, that shortly would be glad if the most heart-tearing lamentations could prevail for the crumbs and drops of that mercy which they thus despise, Luke xvi. 24. Of all men in the world it ill becomes one in so deep necessities and dangers to be prayerless.

But for you. Christians, that are daily exercised in this holy converse with your Maker, hold on, and grow not strange to heaven, and let not your holy desires be extinguished for want of excitation. Prayer is your ascent to heaven; your departure from a vexatious world to treat with God for your salvation; your retirement from a world of dangers into the impregnable fortress where you are safe, and from vanity unto felicity, and from troubles unto rest, whi<;li, though you cannot come so near, nor enjoy so fully and del ig-lit fully, as hereafter you shall do, yet thus do you make your approaches to it, and thus do you secure your future full fruition of it. And let them all scoff at hearty, fervent prayer as long as they will, yet prayer shall do that with God for you which health, and wealth, and dignity, and honour, and carnal pleasures, and all the world shall never do for one of them. And though they neglect and vilify it now, yet the hour is near when they will be fain to scamble and bimgle at it themselves; and the face of death will better teach them the use of prayer, than our doctrine and examjile now can do. A departing soul will not easily be prayerless, nor easily be content with sleepy prayers; but, alas! it is not eveiy pray er that hath some fervency from the power of fear that shall succeed. Many a thousand may perish for ever that have prayed,” Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’’ But the soul that breatheth jifter Christ, and is weary of sinning, and hath long been pressing toward the mark, may

2Gi Tin: last wouic or a believer.

receive encouragement for his last petitions, from the bent md success of all the foregoing prayers of his life. Believe it, Christians, you cannot be so ready to beg of Christ to receive youi’ souls, as he is ready and •wilhng to receive them. As you come praying, therefore, into the world of grace, go prating out of it into the world of glory. It is not a work that you were never used to, though you have had lamented backwardness, and coldness, and omissions. It is not to a God that you were never with before; as you know whom you have believed, so yovi may know to whom you pray. It is indeed a most important suit to beg for the receiving of a departed soul; but it is put up to him to whom it properly doth belong, and to him that hath encouraged a’ou by answering many a former prayer with that mercy which was the earnest of this, and it is to him that loveth souls much better than any soul can love itself. O live in pra’er, and die in prayer, and do not, as the graceless, witless world, despise prayer while they live, and then think a Lord, have mercy on me, shall prove enough to pass them into heaven. Mai-k then- statues and monuments in the churches, whether they be not made kneeling and lifting up the hands, to tell you that all will be forced to pray, or to approve of prayer, at their death, whatever they say against it in their life. O pray, and wait l)ut a little longer, and all your danger will be past, and you are safe for ever! Keep up yovu- hands a little longer, till you shall end your conflict with the last enemy, and shall pass li’oni prayer to everlasting praise.