MY Beloved, feeling my own decay I have chos [...]n this serious and seasonable Text, which perhaps ma [...] be my last, to mind you of your latte [...] Ends, that you may reflect on the shortnes [...] of Life, and the uncertainty thereof, as to its continuance; and to prove it short and momentary, we find it in many respect [...] compared to things of the least duration things that as it were only appear, and then suddenly fade away and vanish from our sight. Holy David says, Thou has [...] made my lise as it were a span long, and min [...] Age is nothing, in comparison of thee. In other Places it is compared to Smoak that vanisheth away; to the Flower that fa­deth; and to Grass that is cut down, and withereth; and St. James, who spake by an excellent Spirit, says, Our Life is but a vapour; and yet this short momentar [...] Life, is, by the Creator of all things in h [...] Eternal Wisdom, given us as a Talent to improve on this side the Grave; that in doing well we may purchase Crowns o [...] [Page 3]Glory and Immortality, and a Life that ne­ver shall have end, in which we sha [...] enjoy [...]leasures, pure, and unmixed with [...]or­ [...]ows; Joys that fade not away, but abide [...]or ever; though here we are Strangers [...]nd Pilgrims, and have no tarrying City, out travel through a Wilderness and Vale of Tears; yet beyond the Grave, when Time shall be with us no more, we shall have fixed and durable Habitations, Man­sions not made with hands, in the highest Heavens, shining with Honour and spark­ing Glory, which Christ, who laid down his precious Life, and shed his rich Re­deeming Blood for mankind, is gone before to prepare for all those that love his Name, and obey his Gospel.

That Death is the certain Lot of all Man­kind, daily Experience shews us, by the dropping off of our Friends and nearest Re­lations, one where or other, unto the Grave, adding a new Cause of Sorrow to mournat their Funeral, and spread doleful Cyprus over their Herses, till it comes to our own [...]urns, when matured by time to follow [...]hem, lie down within the Chambers of Dust, there to remain till the Morning of the Resurrection, when the loud Arch-An­gel's Trumpet shall rouse us from our long [Page 2] [...] [Page 3] [...] [Page 4]silent Re [...]o [...]e, to meet the Lord of Glory coming in the Clouds of Heaven to judge us, and accordingly pronounce the Sen­tance of Reward or Punishments, as we have done Good or Evil in the Flesh.

Death is intailed on us for the Sin and Disobedience of our first Parents, and there is no Pledge nor Reprieve from it, nor do we know any certain limit of time when it will snatch us hence. The tender Blossoms as often fall, as the ripe mellowed Fruit; the Lamb as soon as the aged Sheep, goes to the Slaughter, and however it falls out, we must at one time or other all pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Now some who have heard of the un­speakable Joys of Heaven, may say I am desirous to depart, and be with Christ; but yet the grim King of Terrors, standing be­tween, startles and amazes them into this farther Consideration, how to come to the blessed Shore, where there is so great a Gulf between them and it, as to be lead Captive unto his gloomy Chambers, and in their fright, say with the Psalmist, My Heart is sore pained within me, and the pains [...]f Death are fallen upon me; fearfulness and [...]embling are come upon me, and horror, Psal. [...] 4,5. I see the Shore where I willingly [Page 5]would be out of the Troubles, Sorrows, Cares, and Vexations of this tempestuous World which is at enmity with me; but Oh! here is a great Gulf between me and that [...]lessed Elizium; I must be tossed on a boi­ [...]terous Sea, and be wrecked by dreadful Waves and Tempests: Is there no way to Canaan, but through the desolate Wilder­ness? Must I go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, to the Land that flows with Milk and Honey; the new and hea­venly Jerusalem, which is above? These are things contrary to Flesh and Blood, and such as will make the stoutest Courage faint and tremble.

Yet certain it is, say what they will, the way to true Life lies through the Gates of Death; it is irrevocably appointed unto Man once to die; and therefore, to anti­dote our selves against the Fears and Hor­rors of Death, and the Confusion and Per­plexity of a Dying State, is so to live al­ways, as if we were knocking at the Gates of the Grave; and then the Grave shall ne­ver have power to prevail against us to our hurt; always considering, when we come to die, it is the determinate Order and Ap­pointment of God, in whom we live, and move, and have our Being; he places our [Page 6]Souls in these earthly Tabernacles of Clay and we are only here Tenants at Will, liable to be dispossesed at Pleasure; it is ap­pointed for all Men once to die, and that it is an irrevocable Decree of Heaven, that we must all walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Why should we, like Men without Hope, fear any Evil? For the Lord is with the Righteous, and will guide them safely through the Terrors and Affrightments that they are naturally atten­ded with: Then shall they rest from their Labours, and their Works shall follow them, to crown them with everlasting Joys, and a peaceable Serenity to all Eter­nity; then shall they look back on the Dan­gers they have past. with Joy, and sing Praises and Hallelujahs to him that liveth for ever and ever.

Let us not then look upon Death, as some strange unexpected Accident befel us; for may we not hereupon say with the Apostle St. Paul, That no man should be moved with th [...]se Afflictions; for your selves know that we are appointed hereunto, 1 Thes. 3.3.

It is an undoubted Mitigation of any Sorrow or Affliction, to know that God hath appointed it as an unavoidable Lot and Portion of all Man Living; so that on this [Page 7]Account we may say with the Psalmist, I [...]ill fear no Evil, for thou art with me; for [...]ertain it is, all the Evil in Death proceeds only from an evil Life: For a good Life [...]akes away the Sting of Death, and makes his cold Embraces easie and tollerable; but [...] bad Life gives him double Arms against us; Power over us here and hereafter, in a more terrible and fearful second Death, a Death to all Eternity, though living to bear the unspeakable Terrors of it; exclu­ded for ever from all that is God, except his Anger and fiery Indignation; the Conside­ration of which made the Prophet cry out, Who can dwell with the everlasting Burnings? and such must do it, who taste of the second Death, by falling into God's Displeasure by sinning, and heaping up wrath against the Day of Wrath; for our God, when he is angry, is a consuming Fire; nay, if his Anger be but a little kindled in his Breast, blessed are all they that trust in him; and if Sin makes the first Death so uneasie, it must necessarily render the second infinitely more intollerable.

For indeed, the Sting of Death is Sin, and no Terror is in this State like that which doth redound to us from a guilty Consci­ence, which has got us under hold, and will [Page 8]chastise us; for though in our Health an [...] Jollitry we may pass it over lightly, yet o [...] our Sick-Beds, when Death stares us ghast­ly in the Face, then the pains of Hell, as i [...] were, gets hold on us, we are in Troubl [...] and Heaviness, our Souls are as restless and uneasie as our Bodies; then, as the Prophe [...] Isaiah says, We are like a troubled Sea, that cannot rest, whose waters cast up dirt and mire; and again, there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked; for in such a State, when we come to die, the greatest Melancholly that shall then seize our Spirits, will be from the heavy Load and Burthen of our Sins, that will be ready to oppress and sink our Souls.

Then we shall find that Threatning ve­rifi'd in us, Psal. 50.21. I will reprove th [...]e, and set them in order before thine Eyes; and what Grief or Anguish can be comparable to that which redounds from this, when we are going hence? and when God, by visiting Sickness, as his Messenger, gives us warning to remove, Must it not con­cern and afflict us, beyond all Thought and Expression, to consider, in such a Case, what Danger our Sins have brought us to? They hide God's Face and Mercy from us, and in our greatest need of Comfort and Support, threaten us with utter Ruin and [Page 9]Destruction, and nothing now can be so sharp and intollerable, as the Thoughts of a displeas'd and angry God; and well may that be so to us, which was the greatest of our Saviour's Troubles; for at his Dying Hour, the Guilt of all our Sins, pressing heavy upon his Soul, occasioned a bitter Agony, and that bitter Exclamation, viz. My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me? And most certainly, at the Dying Hour of all wicked Men and Women, the Sense of Guilt will be the bitterest Potion, and the very Dregs of the Cup of trem­bling; their Hearts will faint, and their Souls will sink within them; it will be with them, as with Felix, when Baul preached of Judgment to come; his Guilt through the fear of it, made him tremble. They shall shake and fear, and cry mightily, and have on them such passionate Concernment as is inexpressible, from the dismal Appre­hensions of the Divine Wrath and Indigna­tion which their Sins have kindled and pro­voked against them, even to cry out with Cain, Their Punishment is greater than they can bear.

Then whilst it is to day, Let us hear God's Voice, Calling to us to repent; Let us be up and doing his Will, least the night [Page 10]of Death suddenly overtake us, in which no Man can work; for in the Grave there is no Repentance; as the Tree falls, so it lies; as Death leaves us, so will Judgment find us: Which is the next and last thing pursu­ing my Text I propose to treat on, viz.

After this, the Judgment: We have a sure word for it, that after Death there is a Judgment.

I am, saith the Lord, the Resurrection and the Life, he that believeth in me, though he were d [...]ad, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die, St. John 11.25, 26. And Holy Job says, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth; And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my fl [...]sh shall I see God; Whom I shall see for my self, and mine eyes shall be­hold, and not another, Job 19.25, 26, 27.

This plainly proves, that after Death the Soul shall descend and unite again with the Body, and both at the sound of the last Trump shall arise together, to receive their Rewards for the works done in the Flesh, whether it be Good, or whether it be Evil; for St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 15.52, 53. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be rai­sed incorruptible, and we shall be changed; for [Page 11]this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The Earth, Sea, and Hell shall be com­pell'd to give up the Dead that are in them, [...]nd they shall be gathered from the Four Winds under Heaven, and be caught up to meet the Lord, Coming in the Air, ac­companied with Ten Thousand Angels, to [...]udge the Inhabitants of the Earth, at whose Presence its Foundations shall tremble, and [...]t shall be dissolved; the Elements shall melt with fervent heat; the Stars shall fall; [...]he Sun be darkned, the Moon turned into Blood; and the Heavens rowled up toge­gether like a scrole, in that great and terri­ [...]le Day, when the Book shall be opened, wherein all our Actions shall be written, [...]nd we shall be judged out of it, according [...]o the things that are written therein; then [...]appy is it for him who has well improved [...]is Talent in this Life, he shall enter into [...]he Joy of his Lord with Praises, and clad [...]n shining Robes, crowned with Glory and Honour, in everlasting Life, where all Tears [...]hall be wiped away from his Eyes, and he [...]h [...]ll see the abundant Recompence of his [...]bour in his Spiritual Warfare; for he [...]at is faithful has promised it.

But those that have been s [...]oathful and [Page 12]unprofitable Servants, shall call in vain to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the Face of the Lamb, and from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne, but no hiding Place shall shield them from his Wrath and fiery Indignati­on, which shall pursue them to Eterna [...] Torments, upon pronouncing, Go ye cur­sed into everlasting fire, prepared for the de­vil and his angels, where shall be woes and lamentations, anguish and gnashing of teeth where the worm never dieth, and the fire i [...] not quenched.

From which Torments God of his infi­nite Mercy deliver us all, by giving us Hearts for a timely Repentance, before we go hence; for the sake of his well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, who shed his precious Blood, that redeemed us from Sin and eter­nal Death, that we might live and reign with him evermore. Amen.