To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
7. COmpare also the Mercies which thou shalt have above,* 1.2 with those particular Providences which thou hast enjoy∣ed thy self, and those observable Mercies which thou hast recorded through thy life. If thou be a Christian indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy Book, yet certainly in thy Heart, a great many preci∣ous
favors upon record. The very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet: How much more sweet was the actual enjoyment? But all these are nothing to the Mercies which are above. Look over the excellent Mercies of thy Youth and Education; the mercies of thy riper yeers or age; the mercies of thy prosperity, and of thy adversity; the mercies of thy several places and rela∣tions; are they not excellent, and innumerable? Canst not thou think on the several places thou hast lived in, and remember that they have each had their several mercies? the mercies of such a place, and such a place; and all of them very rich and engaging Mercies? O how sweet was it to thee, when God resolved thy last doubts? when he overcame and silenced thy fears and unbelief? when he prevented the inconveniences of thy life, which thy own counsel would have cast thee into? when he eased thy pains? when he healed thy sickness, and raised thee up as from the very grave and death? when thou prayedst, and wepst, as Hezekiah, and saidst, My days are cut off, I shall go to the gates of the grave, I am deprived of the residue of my yeers: I said I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the Land of the Living, I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the World. Mine age is departed and removed from me as a Shepherds Tent: I have cut off like a Weaver my life; he will cut me off with pining sickness; from day to day wilt thou make an end of me, &c. Yet did he in love to thy soul deliver it from the pit of corruption, and cast thy sins behinde his back; and set thee among the living, to praise him as thou dost this day: That the fathers to the children might make known his Truth: The Lord was ready to save thee, that thou mightest sing the songs of praise to him in his house all the days of thy life, Isai. 38.10. to the 20. I say, were not all these most precious mercies? Alas, these are but small things for thee in the eyes of God; he intendeth thee far greater things then these, even such as these are scarce a taste of. It was a choice mercy that God hath so notably answered thy prayers; and that thou hast been so oft and so evidently a pre∣vailer with him: But O think then, Are all these so sweet and precious that my life would have been a perpetual misery without them? Hath his providence lifted me so high on Earth, and his merciful kindness made me great? How sweet then will the Glory of his presence be? And how high will his eternal love exalt me? And how great shall I be made in Communion with his greatness?
If my pilgrimage, and warfare have such mercies, what shall I finde in my home, and in my Triumph? If God will communicate so much to me while I remain a sinner; what will he bestow when I am a perfect Saint? If I have had so much in this strange Country at such a distance from him; what shall I have in Heaven in his im∣mediate presence, where I shall ever stand about his Throne?
§. 9.
Temporalis vita aeternae comparata, mors est di∣cenda potius quam vita. Ipse enim quotidi••nus defectus corruptionis, quid est aliud quam prolixitas mortis? Quae autem lin∣gua dicere, vel quis intellectus capere sufficit illa supernae civitatis quanta sint gaudia? Angelorum choris interesse, cum beatissimis spiritibus gloriae conditoris assistere; praesentem Dei vultum cer••ere, incircumscriptum lumen videre, nullo mortis dolore affici, incorruptionis perpe••uae mun••re laetari? Greg. in hom.