Meditations of death wherein a Christian is taught how to remember and prepare for his latter end: by the late able & faithfull minister of the Gospel, Iohn Paget.

CHAP. III. Monitors of Death in & about a mans ovvne selfe.

His Breath. (a) Pulse. (b) Dayly food, the necessi∣ty, & preparation of it, in the earth; (c) by the death of the creatures. (d) Apparell, the origi∣nall, matter & necessity of it. (e) Labour in ge∣nerall, & sundry vocations in particular. (f) Sleep, a lively image of death. (g) Sinne, the cause of death, feared of some, desired of others. (h) Ex∣treme dangers threatning death. (i) Age & the changes thereof manifested by the face, & stature. (k) Old age described by the decay of strength, (l) of sense, (m) and of health.

HItherto we have heard the call of God sounded out unto us in and by other creatures, by heaven and earth and the things therein that were made for man; now we are to consider how God comes neerer unto man, and from the state of mans owne person, calling, and condition, calles him by the sight of him∣selfe to remember his latter end. And first, the Lord having made man of the dust of the earth, Gen. 2.7. and thereupon after his fall shewed him his readines to return to dust, Gen. 3.19. Eccl. 12.7. doth yet further call us to consider our frailety by

ordaining that this house of clay is to be held upright by a puffe of the ayre conti∣nually breathed in and out, and that this being stopt the house must presently fall downe. Hereby our life hangs as it were loose before us, going in and out every moment: therefore is it called the breath of life, Gen. 2.7. & 7.15.22. our life being carried in & out upon the breath, & de∣pending upon it. And as God tyed life to our body by such a slender & weake thread, so he calles us oft to mark it & think on it & to remember our mortall estate by the breath of our nostrils so easi∣ly departing. Esa. 2.22. Psa. 146.4. & 104.29.

(a) An other fraile band of life, like unto our breathing, is the pulse, which ariseth from the heart & the arteries or beating veines, & this by a double motion of contraction & dilatation, whereby they are drawne in & out, both for the expel∣ling of noxious fumes through the insen∣sible pores of the flesh, & for the drawing in of coole ayre to refresh the heart & to feed the vitall spirits. From the variety of the pulse are taken many signes of health & sicknes, life & death: it is the character of our strength or weaknes, & 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

are we provoked to watchfulnes.

And as in the necessity of food, so in the quality thereof is our corruptible estate made evident unto us. Our food before it come into the body is diversly prepared; and the principall fruits for nourishment of man & comfort of his life, as corne, & wine, & figges, & the like, are ripened & made to grow more abundantly by the dung and excrements of beasts cast upon them: Luke. 13.8. from the juyce of the dung is the fatnes and sweetnes of the fruits increased. And from hence is the strength of our corruptible life: hence we may say to corruption, Thou art my fa∣ther. As once the meat of the miserable Iewes in their distresse was prepared with dung; Ezek. 4.12, 13.15. so is our food dayly in the growth of it, as it were seasoned, baked, and concocted with dung. The earth accursed for our sinne is brought to this base condition that the fattest increase thereof is from excre∣ments, and it yeeldeth fruit unto the mouth of mā from the tayle of the beasts. After it is in the body a great part of it by the alteration there, is turned into corrup∣tion, and receyved into divers lothsome sinkes and channels within the body till it

be againe expelled. By this perishing food, Ioh. 6.27. God doth admonish us of our perishing estate; & shewes unto us, that meats are for the belly and the belly for meats, that he wlll destroy both it & them. 1. Cor. 6.13. Thus the staffe of our strength & the very pillars of our life do carry in them the remembrance of de∣struction & corruption for our warning.

(c) But this is not all: Our food is not onely of corruption, but we feed even of death it selfe, & that by the allowance of God, Gen. 9.3. in taking away the life of other creatures to maintaine our owne; especially in these last times when he hath said unto us of them all, Rise, kill & eat, Act. 10.13. Whatsoever is sold in the shā∣bles, that eat, asking no questiō for consci∣ence sake. 1 Cor. 10.25. herein we see death dayly presēted to us & set before us on our tables. This is seriously to be thought upō as a wonderfull work of God: by the death of other creatures our life is preserved: our living bodies are sustaind by their dead carcasses: in their blood swimmes our life; and from their pangs of death spring the pleasures of our life, our feasts & ordinary food. As the savage Cāniballes eat the flesh of men; so we eat the flesh of beasts that 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

that which any creature may serve to be a witnesse of for convincing of sinners, that doth the Lord declare to be their cry & a denunciation of woe from them. Habac. 2.11. Iob. 31.38. Iam. 5.2.3. and in like manner that misery which the creature enthralled by sinne doth endure for man, that doth the Apostle expressely call their groaning and travel∣ling together in paine vvith us, &c. Rom. 8.22. These groanes & cryes are then especially to sound in our eares, while we are eating of them: as the Hare newly taken cries in the mouth of the grey∣hound; so should we be affected as if the same cry were made when we eat thereof, & have their flesh betwixt our teeth. The Gentleman that sits at his table above in his dining chamber, and was not present in the kitchin or butche∣ry, to see the execution, the convulsi∣ons of death, the sprinting & gasping of the slaughtered creatures, is yet by re∣membrance to represent the same and to make it present againe in his eating: for eating & burying of them in our bellies is more then killing of them, & a further meanes to strike the heart with thought of death, procured for the eater. Our

stupidity & blockishnes must needs be very great, if we consider not this fearfull & wonderfull providence of God: and we shall be worse then the beasts them∣selves, if we hearken not unto the call which God by them gives us, to awaken us out of our security, & to make us re∣member our fraile condition.

(d) An other helpe to preserve our fraile bodies is our rayment and apparell which God hath given to cover and de∣fend the body without, as food within. And from hence we have a double or tre∣ble memoriall of Death; considering that our apparell was then first given unto us, when by our sinne we first came into the state of death, & not before, Gen. 2.25. with c. 3.7. And then when God first gave our garments unto us, he tooke them out of Deaths wardrobe, they being made with the death of the creatures from whence they were taken. God made coates of skinnes for Adam & his wife & his posterity: Gen. 3.21. Heb. 11.37. The skins of the poore creatures were pluckt over their eares & torne from their backes to cover the shame of our skinnes, & to hide the nakednes of our hydes. And what was sayd of Ioab in another case, 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

are swifter then a post, Iob. 9.25. that we ride post as on dromedaries that runne by the way in all hast to their jour∣neyes end. And the travell that men have by sea in the most swift ships is men∣tioned of God to represent the swiftnes of our time that carries us night and day, sleeping or waking to the haven of death. Iob 9.26. And according to this wise∣dome of God and his example should men make right use of other trades and their labours therein, to set their lat∣ter end continually before their eyes thereby.

(f) As labour & toyle in the day, so sleep & rest from labour in the night sea∣son, is also a necessary help to preserve this mortall life. This sleep is a lively image of death. For in sleep men ly downe as dead men, without sense and motion, ceassing from their workes and taking no knowledge of the things that are done by others: and therefore the holy Ghost often describeth death by the name of sleep, or lying downe to sleepe. Genes. 47.30. Deuter. 31.16. 1. King. 2.10. Iob. 3.13. and ch. 14.12. Psalm. 76.5. Matt. 27.52. Iohn. 11.11. Actes. 7.60. 1. Corinth. 11.30. 1. Thessal.

4.13. By this marvellous work of God in breaking off the course of life, and making Sleepe like an Half-death to invade us continually, to come up∣on us like an unresistable Giant eve∣ry day and to throw us downe; and then by his manner of speech in cal∣ling death a Sleepe, he calleth us by consideration of our sleepe to consider our death; & by the sight of our bed to remember our grave, to looke u∣pon it as a Tombe or Sepulchre, & eve∣ry night before we goe into it to labour for reconciliation with God, & at the end of the day to seeke new sense of his love in Christ as we would doe at the end of our life, that so we may lie downe & sleep safely. Had any man some speciall disease, as of the falling sicknes, Apo∣plexie, Palsie, Lethargie, or the like terrible passion, whereby at a cer∣taine time of the day he should duely fall downe like a dead man, and ly snorting at the gates of death for an houre or two, untill the malignant humour were discussed and the force of the fit were over; would we not thinke that man warned of God, thereby to remember his end 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

7.8.9. but with the faythfull there is another remembrance of death by occa∣sion of sinnes, as comfortable to them, as the former is terrible to the wicked. For in sight of sinnes that greeve them they call to minde what shall quite free them from those sins; and what is that but death? Thereupon they set death before their eyes, and are taught of God so to doe, longing for their redemption, and desiring to remoove out of the body, which is by death. Rom. 8.23. 2. Cor. 5.8. And how many wayes then is death propounded unto us? which way can we looke on the right hand or on the left, before us or behinde us, but e∣very way the memorialles of death are before us? Transgressions past, sins present, feares of the wicked, desires of the godly, all lead to the thought of death, and to the remem∣brance of our latter end.

(h) Againe the afflictions, sicknes∣ses & dangers, wherein death is threat∣ned unto men, are likewise meanes of death, and by them also we are called of God to remember our lat∣ter end. It pleaseth God for the war∣ning of secure men, to bring men to

the gates of death before they enter: Psal. 19.13. and though he bring them back againe, yet is this done of God for a memoriall of death. God brings men into such extremity that they make full account to die, they receive the sen∣tence of death in themselves, & despaire of life, 2. Cor. 1.8.9. and are free a∣mong the dead in their owne and others judgement; Psal. 88.4.5. and this many times, they are in deaths often: 2. Corint. 11.23. and such things God worketh oftentimes, that men might re∣nounce the world, Iob. 33.22-29. and set their house in order, & their heart in or∣der to die, that being delivered they might then remember what thoughts & desires, what prayers & purposes they had in their soules, and recall them of∣ten, for their preparation against the time of their finall departure out of this world. Esa. 38.1.15. &c. As Iehosaphat having cryed out in the danger of death, 2. Chron. 18.31. was bound to remember that very cry and disposition of his heart afterward: so forasmuch as there is almost no man which hath not seene the face of Death and his dart shaken against him in 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

being pale, withered and wrinckled, & the shadow of death sitting upon their eye-lids; and some in divers degrees be∣twixt both: and especially in the sight of friends long absent and changed in that time, we are called to thinke how the fashion of this world passeth away.

As the face so the stature of man gro∣wing up as a plant, according to the divers measures and degrees of his growth appointed of God, Psalm. 144. 12. Luk. 1.80. and 2.52. is another testi∣mony of his changeable estate, even from the childe of a span long unto those that have their full growth. Lam. 2.20. Though some be of low stature, as Zac∣cheus Luke. 19.3. and some againe higher then the common sort by the head, as was Saul; 1. Sam. 10.23.24. yet even in these compared with them∣selves the proportion of their growth is an evidence of their age to such as know them. Though men being come to their full stature stand at a stay, and loose not their stature by such degrees as they attained unto it in their youth; yet many times we see in experience that crooked old age bowing downe their heads more & more to the earthward,

they doe hereby after a sort loose their stature by degrees, & grow into the ground againe. And thus the wheele of mans age visibly & sensibly turning about according to the variation of his stature is another admonition to remember the latter end approching.

(k) Beside the face & stature, the Lord hath set sundry other markes upon the bodies of young and old, for memori∣als of their time passing away at the changes of their age. The younger peo∣ple have the time of love described of God by divers markes and tokens there∣of: Ezech. 16.7.8. but especially old age hath the tokens of neere-approching death imprinted upon them, whereby they are warned of God to prepare for it. The decay of strength, the decay of sense, the decay of health, are all fore∣runners of death, and summon them to their end. Through decay of strength the armes and hands, the keepers of the house, beginne to tremble. Ecclesi. 12.3. and the legges that are as pillars thereof do bow themselves; and the help of a staffe as a third legge to rest on, is sought of the aged person, Zach. 8.4. and with that woodden legge at

every step he goes, he strikes upon the earth & raps at the gate of the grave, un∣till it be opened unto him. By this weak∣nes death comes & puts his manicles upon their hands, & his shackels upon their legges, for remembrance of their end. This weaknes is further signifyed by the ceassing of the grinders in the mill, Eccles. 12.3. both the upper & the nether milstone, which are called the life of man; Deut. 24.6. These teeth fayling, life begins to fayle. From this weaknes the doores of the lips are shut without, the sound of the grinding is low, & the voyce hoarse: and so whether the old per∣sons worke with their hands, or walke with their feet, or eate with their teeth, or speake with their lips, the memoriall of death is in each of these set before them. And as in the outward parts of the body, so the like weaknes & decay of strength is to be observed in the in∣ward parts, and as a cause of that which is in the outward. The silver coards of the sinewes, which carry the faculty of sense & motion from the head, in old age are loosed: Eccles. 12.6. that cable of the marrow in the backbone, which was wont so firmely to hold & stay the fraile

barke of our body tossed with so many motions, and by those many conjugati∣ons of nerves like so many paire of oares on each side did row the gally up and downe, begins now to dissolve. The head which is the golden bowle, wherein is emboxed the brayne that ministers that faculty of sense & motion, through age is broken & becomes crazie. The many pitchers of the veines, which carry the nourishing blood from the well of the liver unto each part of the body, become like unto broken vessels. And the wheele of the arteries, which by the reciprocall motions & pulses doe convey the vitall spirits from the cisterne of the heart into the furthest coasts of the little world, for the quickening of the whole flesh, even to the toes & fingers ends, through lan∣guishing age begins to turne & returne slowly & weakely. And all these faint operations are so many memorials of death, and doe plainely portend the ap∣proch of our latter end, & every one of them admonisheth us to watch. Againe from this weaknes & decay of strength both in the outward and inward parts, ariseth an other memoriall of death, to be seene in that which is esteemed no 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

taste what he eates, or what he drinkes: 2. Sam. 19.35. old Isaac by his touch cannot feele the difference betwixt the hands of his son & the skinne of a beast: Gen. 27.16.21.22.23. old David is co∣vered with clothes, & feeles no heat: 1. Kings. 1.1. concupiscence departs; Eccle. 11.5. Abishag the faire virgin lies in his bosome & he knowes her not. 1. Kin. 1.4. Yea the inward senses beginne to faile al∣so; memory decayes; the understanding is diminished, & old men some times in their decrepite age come to be little children againe, not able to discerne be∣twixt good & evill. 2. Sam. 19.35. How inexcusable are they that live securely, & thinke not of death, whereof they have so many warnings before hand?

(m) With decay of strength & sense comes the decay of health. Old age is many times a continuall sicknes, & when the dayes of man are multiplyed, they are but labour & sorrow, even the strength of them. Psa. 90.10. Then is the time when the evill dayes approch, and the yeares of which man sayth, I have no pleasure in them. Eccle. 12.1. Then is the light of Sunne, Moone, & starres obscured: and then the clouds returne after the raine;

one infirmity after another. v. 2. Through decay of naturall heat ariseth indigestion & crudity of stomack, & thereupon fol∣low rheumes, & catarrhes; and from thence comes ach in the bones, & mani∣fold paines & diseases, whereby the Lord as with an yron pen writeth our lesson, & engraveth this sentence deep in our flesh & bones, Remember your latter end approaching. In all the paines of old age the finger of God nippeth & pincheth men, to make them think of his call & prepare for death.

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upon. God shewes that then he exspects a speciall act of humiliation, when at our end he visites us with such paines; that we are to mourne for sinnes committed in the world before we depart out of it, when he sends such sorrow unto us at that time especially. Then are we called to stirre up the grace of God within us, and to rayse up our spirits with all love & reverence to meet the Lord, that we may receyve his blessing, and enter into his gates with joy & into his courts with thanksgiving.

(a) Againe this paine prevayling at the approch of death, causeth men to ly downe & to fall flat along upon their beds, Iob. 33.19. Act. 5.15. and to let all the affaires of the world alone, with the works of their calling. Through infir∣mity of the body God forceth them to stoope, & calleth them to remember their frailety & their end; as if he should command them to couch downe before him, and require them to prostrate their soules at his footstoole in seeking his fa∣vour & mercy in Chirst, even as their bo∣dies are prostrate by his hand. This very position of the body represents unto us how the grasse withers & the flower falls,

and admonisheth us in our soules to worship & fall downe before the Lord our maker; and by faith to enforce our bodies also leaning on our staffe, to wor∣ship upon the beds head, Heb. 11.21. Gen. 47.31. and 48.2. that he may straightway lift us up for ever. As Iacob bowed him∣selfe to the ground seven times, at the ap∣proch of his brother Esaw: Gen. 33.3. so the Lord himselfe by sicknes thrusts us downe seven times; we are often up & downe; we lift up our selves, but cannot hold up our heads: God teacheth us there by to come submissively creeping into his presence, & humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us. 1. Pet. 5.6.

(b) An other warning to thinke of the end at hand, is that distast of meat and want of appetite in sick persons; when their life abhorreth bread, & their soule dainty meat. Iob. 33.20. When the staffe of bread failes & the stay of naturall life is withdrawne, then God calles the sick persons to remember their end, to dou∣ble their care for eternal life, to seeke the hidden manna, unknowne & unregarded of the world, Rev. 2.17. to feed upon the bread of God which commeth downe 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

for their end. This yron sleep is a black cloud of death, a night-shade & a parti∣cular darkenes, of which in its measure is verifyed that more generall saying of our Saviour, The night comes, when no man can work: Ioh. 9.4. and therefore while there is light & liberty of minde in the time of health, the end is to be re∣membred & provided for, before the houres of oppression doe come upon the minde.

(e) Sometimes in sicknes, though sleep oppresse not, there is a kinde of ra∣ving distraction, caused by phrensie, or melancholy, or other distemperatures, which doth overwhelme the minde, as Nebuchadnezzars once was by the stroke of God, Dan. 4. so that it is unfit to thinke of death, or to seeke any comfort against the danger thereof. And frō hence there∣fore it doth likewise appeare how un∣wise they are that deferre the time of their repentance unto the time of death, when it is uncertaine whether they shall be masters of their owne wits, & naturall understanding, not to speake of superna∣turall grace which is further above the reach of man, & yet necessary to salvation.

(f) Sometimes the very vehemency

& extremity of paine doth trouble & dis∣turbe the minde, and disables it that it cannot orderly & quietly dispose it selfe unto godly & comfortable meditations; but being overcome with impatiēce frets & murmures & is tossed up & downe without fruit. Therefore are these ex∣tremities of anguish compared to a cup of intoxicating wine, making men as it were drunken with greefe, Esa. 51.17. 21.22. Lam 4.21. and even mad with woe & sorrow, that they know not what to doe. Deut. 28.34. Ier. 25.16. Eccles. 7.7. And what folly is it then for men to be unprepared through forgetfulnes of their latter end, & to remaine drunken with security all their life till they be drowned in a gulfe of misery? Perplexity & extreme anguish may justly come as a snare upon them that abuse their present peace & ease, promising themselves li∣berty & power to dispatch all that is needfull for their salvation in one mo∣ment of their last distresse.

(g) And commonly when death ap∣procheth, our adversary the devill, that prince of darknes, that hath gone about as a roaring lyon watching to devoure us at all opportunities before, doth thē espe∣cially

rage, knowing that his time is short, Rev. 12.12. and withall seekes to take advantage by the present infirmitie of the sick persons, insinuating himselfe into each of the former troubles, adding fear∣full dreames to their slumbers, strong fan∣cies to their distraction, aggravating their paines with divers terrours. Experience shewes what great temptatiōs many have undergone upon their death-bed. And therfore the consideratiō of this last great combat should warne every one betimes to arme thēselves, to gather strēgth every day against the last day, to furnish thēselves with grace, to seek truth & righteous∣nes, faith & patience, store of comfortable promises out of the word of God layd up in their hearts & kept in readines, to nou∣rish themselves in hope, to watch & pray uncessantly; that having concluded this last combat & obtained the victory, they may then be translated from a state mili∣tant to a state triumphant for ever.

(h)

THese forewarnings are such as serve chiefly for the instruction of those that feele them, & on whose persons they are inflicted: but beside these forewarnings the dead leave unto the living many after∣warnings

of their mortality, which admo∣nish the succeeding generation that they must follow their praedecessours. And here first of all observe, how it is ordered by divine providence, that in death the soule & body be separated one from the other. In this separation the Soule is car∣ried away invisibly; no man knoweth how nor whither. No humane sense cā discerne the spirit of man ascending. Ecc. 3.21. The Lord in his unsearchable counsell would have the opening of the gates of the se∣cond world to be kept secret & close from us. If godly parents should see the soules of their children carried away to destruc∣tion in the clawes of an hellish dragon, & crying unto them with a lamentable and desperate voyce, what horrour & woe would this be unto them, to make their dayes more uncomfortable so lōg as they should live on earth? God in great mercy conceales it from them. If wicked & un∣godly men should see their children or companions soules haled away by evill spirits after they were separated frō their bodies, & withall should heare thē shrike & cry & curse their cōpany, what a stroke of terrour might this be unto them? but God in justice hides these things from thē

& will not satisfy the curiosity of profane men, that despise his Gospell and the means of life revealed therein. This secret manner of translating the separated soules in carrying some close prisoners to Hell, and transporting others in covered wa∣gons & invisible chariots unto Glory, serves to warne and admonish us by the very forme thereof, so much the more to remember the other evident monuments of our frailety. When secret things are restrayned to the Lord, the things revealed are immediately there∣upon the more enforced upon us to ob∣serve the same. Deut. 29.29. When the Spirit recordes how some persons, men or angels, have vanished out of the sight of those they had spoken withall, we are to observe how they were occasioned thereby to thinke the more of that which they had seene & heard from such, and not to prye into that which was with∣drawne from them. Luke, 24.31.32. Act. 8.39. Iudg. 6.21.22. &c. Yea the Lord appointed that they should not be suffered to live, which went about to talke with the dead soule or to rayse the spirits. Levit. 20.27. 1. Sam. 28.8 9. &c. But by all this we are so much the more

led to observe the common visible me∣morials of mortality shewed unto us in them that die before us.

(i) It is further to be observed, that when the spirit is carried away presently to God that gave it, yet the body remains behinde & returnes to dust from whence it came. Eccles. 12.7. If God by death had taken away both the soule & the bo∣dy together at the same time; if it had pleased God to take away all men as He∣noch & Elias were; Heb. 11.5. Gen. 5.24. 2. Kin. 2.11.17. or to bury all men so as Moses was, Deut. 34.6. namely so that their bodies should be seene no more among men; yet even then, there were cause enough to remember that wonder∣full great & finall translation: but now seing every man departing this life leaves a peece of himselfe among his friends on earth, yea the one halfe of his person, and that halfe which is the visible part, even the body that was best knowne among men; the Lord by this fragment of man that is left, gives us occasion to thinke what is done with the rest, and to keepe in memory the death past, to prepare us for death to come. As Elias ascending to heaven let his mantle fall, for a remem∣brance 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

so much care for our bodies as we doe for the soules; according to this example of God, who shewes more love & respect to the soules, taking them first into his heavenly Kingdome & glory, when as he suffers the body so long a time after, to lodge in dishonour, & to remaine in the pit of corruption. 1. Cor. 15.43.

(l) The sequestration of the body from the place where the soule is, and the cor∣ruption of it being separate, are memori∣alles wrought immediately by Gods owne hand: beside these there are other after-warnings of death effected by the providence of God mediately by the ser∣vices of men, that seeke the honour of the dead & comfort of the living. For honour of the dead, holy men of old have shewed great care to provide sepulchers, tombes, & monuments for them. Such were the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham; Gen. 40.30.31. and 23. the pillar on Rachels grave that Iaakob set up, Gen. 35.20. that continued so many generations to Samuels time; 1. Sam. 10.2. the title on the sepulcher of the man of God, that prophesied of Iosias; 2. Kin. 23.17.18. the sepulcher of David, that continued twise fourteene generations,

from David to the Apostles time, Act. 2.29. having bene preserved in the time of the Babylonian captivity, even then when both city & temple were destroyed, with many the like. These monuments are in Scripture called Memorialles, Mnemeia, Matth. 23.29. Iohn. 11.38. and 19.41. and 20 1. by which (whatsoever others intended) the godly are taught to remem∣ber their latter end. The garnished tombes and the sumptuous sepulchers are but so many scaffolds, stages & theaters of humane frailety, and so many pulpits out of which our mortality is preached: and all the common graves of the people are the coffers of death, the sight whereof should teach us to lay up our treasure in heaven. And thus, though the touch of a grave defiled the body with a ceremo∣niall pollution in the time of the Law; Numb. 19.16. yet the sight of a grave may serve to cleanse the soule by a spiri∣tuall consideration of our end, even as the sight of the Leviathan raised up, did bring men to purify themselves, fearing lest the whale might be their grave. Iob. 41.25. with Iob, 3.8.

(m) The grave being prepared for the dead corps, then men proceed with their 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

may obtaine.

(n) Having bene at the grave & per∣formed the last duety to the person of the dead, we then returne & come from the dead to the living, to the friends of the dead, to mourne with them, to comfort them, and (as the kinred & speciall friends of old used) to eat & drink with them & give them the cup of consolation: Rom. 12.15. Ier. 16.7.8. Gen. 37.35. 1. Chro. 7.22. Ioh. 11.19. and in this action we have an other call to remember our end. While we minister consolation to others, we are to take an exhortation to our selves. The house of mourning is the schoole of mortification; and therefore better to enter into it then into the house of feasting: for there is the end of all men, which the living will lay unto his heart, & so be made better in his heart by the consideration of the dead & by the sadnes of the countenances waiting on that consideration. Eccles. 7.2.3.4.

(o) When the comforters of them that mourne are departed from the mourning house & gone every one to his owne; yet still the friends of the dead, even while they live on earth, so often as they misse their friends departed, & want the help

& benefit which they were wont to en∣joy from them, so often are they called to remember death, that makes such separati∣ōs. La. 4.18-20. The widowes, orphanes, desolate parents, oppressed subjects, & scattered sheep, that are deprived of their loving husbands, parents, children, rulers, pastours, or any friend & neighbour that misseth the company of an other, are by this want called to remember both that death past which took away their friends, & that death to come which shall againe restore them & bring them together. 1. Thess. 4.13.14. 2. Sam. 12.23. And in this remembrance they are withal warned to make themselves ready for death, & not to be glewed unto this world from whence their comforts are taken away. When the shepheard takes up the young lamb, the ewe followes him of her selfe, and needs no more calling or driving: when the great shepheard of the sheep takes away the soules of young & old, & of dearest friends from one another, it is to make them runne after the Lord & to long after his presence, in whom they shall finde all & more then all that ever they lost in this world. So often as we thinke of a mother, a father, or other in∣tire 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

serve to make a deeper impressiō into the soule, and to keep the memory of it self in the minde more then a thousand other memorials beside. A strange thing it were, if a man that were to be judged the next day of life & death, and to receive sentence eitheir of a most cruell & shame∣full death or of a rich & honourable e∣state during his life; if this man could not keep in minde the judgment approching untill the next morrow, without tying stringes about his fingers for remem∣brance, or writing some caveats upon the posts of the prison, or procuring some watchmen to come every houre whispe∣ring in his eare to tell him of the danger imminent, of life or death: And as strange or more is it, that these great & maine matters of Eternall Salvation or Eternall Condemnation should not by their owne greatnes presse the heart of man with the weight thereof unto a continuall remem∣brance of them, without other warnings; when as we know not whether we shall have one dayes respite before they come.

(a) The last end of the godly is eter∣nall life. This life consists especially in fellowship with God & the Saints. By fellowship with God men come to see

God; Matt. 5.8. even to see him as he is; 1. Ioh. 3.2. to see his face which li∣ving man was never able to see on earth; Exo. 33.20. to see him, before whom the glorious Seraphims doe cover their faces with their wings; Esa. 6.2. to see the holy Trinity, the blessed Father, Sonne, & H. Ghost, clothed with the sacred robes of their severall beauty and majesty, shining distinctly as the pure Ia∣sper, the carnation Sardine, & the greene Emerald. Rev. 4.3. Then the Sonne will shew himselfe unto his elect, Ioh. 14.21. and they shall see his glory; Ioh. 17.24. and the Father shall be seene in him; Ioh. 14.9.10. and with them both the seven Spirits which are before the throne even that one and the same Spirit enlight∣ning with his sevenfold graces and gifts that bright sevenfold lamp of his Church. Rev. 1.4. with. 4.5. 1. Cor. 12.11. With this vision shall the soule be satisfyed whē they awake Psal. 17.15. The pleasure of this surmounts the joy of all pleasant things seene by any eye. If all the plea∣sure that all the most ardent lovers recey∣ved at any or at all times from all the most beauteous & amiable countenances of their dearest spouses & fairest loves in 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

& the like promises. Therefore is that end ever to be remēbred & longed after. Thē especially shal it appeare how the elect re∣maine as lambs in the bosome of the Lord their shepheard. Esa. 40.11. Thē will it be further revealed how God dwelleth in thē & they in him; 1. Ioh. 4.15.16. & therefore need not feare being kept far off, as mē on earth that were kept from the bodily pre∣sence of Christ being in the house, because of the thrōg at the doore. Mar. 2.2.4. The incomprehensible Lord filling heaven & earth, Ier. 23.24. is himself a house where they shall dwel, and they a mansiō where∣in he will make his abode: Ioh. 14.23. By this heavenly conjunction & cohabi∣tation with God shall the elect be one, even as the Father & the Sonne are one; Christ in them and the Father in him, that they may be perfect in one. Ioh. 17.22.23. This thrise blessed & most glorious union is that greene bed of Christ & his Spouse, Sol. song. 1.16. an eternall pa∣radise of comfort and garden of pure delights. Oh what madnes is it to for∣sake that greene bed for any bed of plea∣sure in the world! By this communion the Lord embraceth his elect with both armes of his love, & putteth them in his

bosome; Sol. song. 2.6. & 8.3. and in this di∣vine embracement there is felt more hap∣pines & heavenly joy, then all the love & fruits of love, or whatsoever went under the name of the tēdrest and strōgest affec∣tion in this world, could ever yeeld unto the heart of man. For if the first fruits of spirituall joy now at this present, in the middes of tribulation, be an hundred fold more then all the pleasure of houses & lands, fathers & mothers, wife & children, the most desirable things of this world; Mark. 10.29.30. then how can it be but more then an hundred thousand fold pleasure to enjoy the beauty & face of God in heavē, to inherit the fulnes of joy in his presence, & pleasures for evermore at his right hand? If the infinite blessed∣nes of the glorious persons in the holy Trinity doth appeare in their mutuall union, so that they were an allsufficient & eternall delight unto themselves, in en∣joying one an other continually before the world was, before men or angels were made; Prov. 8.30. then may we well think, how our vessels shall be filled and overflow with heavenly comfort, 1. Ioh. 1.4. when we come to drinke of that divine fountaine, and enter into our Ma∣sters 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

able to bring to passe. And therefore as in the transfiguration of Christ, his face did shine as the Sunne; Matt. 17.2. even so shall the righteous shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father. Matt. 13.43. As the raiment of Christ through the brightnes of his body, did shine as the transparent light; Matt. 17.2. & was exceeding white as snow; Mark. 9.3. and withall white & glistering: Luk. 9.29. so the whole person of the elect made whiter then snow in their transfi∣guration, shall shine & glister & sparkle with a radiant beauty & heavenly bright∣nes: yea then shall the Moone be abashed & the Sunne ashamed before the Lord & his ancients, when the Lord shall reigne in Zion; Esa. 24.23. when he shall be glorifyed in the Saints, and made mar∣vellous in all them that beleeve. 2. Thes. 1.10. If the face of Moses, while he was yet clothed with corruption, when he had seene but the back parts of the Lord, and that but for a moment in one vision, did yet shine so gloriously, that men fled away amazed from him & durst not behold the brightnes of his counte∣nance; Exo. 34.30. with c. 33.23. what then shall be the glory of the faithfull,

when being clothed with immortality, they shall see God face to face, and that in a perpetuall vision for evermore?

(d) From this transfiguration of the Saints made so glorious by the sight of God & fellowship with him, ariseth the glory of their fellowship one with ano∣ther, which is also an unspeakable felicity of the second life; to enjoy all the beauty & all the love of all the glorified soules & bodies in heaven. As Ionathan seing the grace of God in David, & his wor∣thines, was knit unto him & loved him as his owne soule; 1. Sam. 18.1. so here the Saints beholding the glory of God revea∣led in each other, shall be linked together in the neerest bonds of intire affection. They that first give themselves to God, doe then give themselves unto one an other by the will of God. 2. Cor. 8.5. They are all one in Christ Iesus. Gal. 3.28. There is one body & one spirit: Eph. 4.4. all are gathered together in one, under one head, whether things in heaven or in earth, men & Angels, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or powers. Eph. 1.10.22. All things are the Saints; whe∣ther it be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things pre∣sent, 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

of her and embraced in her armes for ever! The loving society of godly men even in their present weaknes, is magni∣fyed as a good & pleasant thing, as a pre∣cious oyntment, as the dew of Hermon & Zion: Psal. 133.1.2.3. how good & pleasant then is the heavenly conversation and cohabitation of the Saints? even as the dew of Paradise, where God hath appointed the blessing for ever to make those beauteous blossomes therein to flourish eternally. As oyntment & per∣fume rejoyce the heart, so doth the sweetnes of a mans friend by hearty coun∣sell; Prov. 27.9. and what then is the sweetnes and joy of that communion, where every heart is a severall closet re∣plenished with al store & variety of divine oyntments & perfumes for the mutuall delight of the Saints? The consolation of Christ is there most perfect, the com∣fort of love & fellowship of the spirit are compleate & full; and so the joy of every one is fulfilled in being like minded, ha∣ving the same love, being of one accord & of one judgment: Phil. 2.1.2. there is no crying nor complayning; Rev. 21.4. no curse, no angry word; no countenance of dislike or disdaine; no evill, no occasi∣on

of evill, no appearance of evill, no sus∣picion of evill; no want of good in them∣selves, no envy of good in others; but every mans joy doubled for anothers sal∣vation, and glorifyed in anothers glory. The principall delight is that God is found in them all; each being the temple of God, and his love the fire burning u∣pon the altar of every heart: in each of them there is a vision of God & an image of his glory: he is seene in each & shines in them, and so at every turne they meet with God who is all in all & in every one of them. 1. Cor. 15.28. And they never powre out their hearts to one another, but withall they powre out prayse unto God with streames of pleasure to them∣selves. And how infinitely manifold are their pleasures, where there are so many spirits of just & perfect men, Heb. 12.22.23. so many millions of Angels, thou∣sand thousands & ten thousand times ten thousand standing before the Lord? Dan. 7.10. Rev. 5.11. If Peter thought it so good to be there where but two of the Saints, Moses & Elias appeared in glory with Christ; Luk. 9.30-33. how good is it to be there where all appeare toge∣ther in glory with Christ, where the glo∣ry

of every one shall appeare more cleare∣ly and be better discerned, where every one shall be the precious jewell and trea∣sure of another? O who are they which remembring this end, will not be content to make an end of their sinfull courses to enjoy this communion? How unworthy a thing is it that the thoughts of vanity should thrust out of our mindes these pleasant remembrances of our latter end and the comforts therein? If I forget thee O Ierusalem, let my right hand forget it selfe: if I doe not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth; if I prefer not Ie∣rusalem above my chiefe joy. Psalm. 137.5.6.

(e) It is further to be considered that in all the maine parts & acts of Christian life we are taught every day continually to remēber this our latter end. All dueties both of doing good through faith, hope and love, or of suffering evill for doing good through patience, are so many me∣morials thereof. The end of faith is the salvation of our soules, which it beleeveth 1. Pet. 1.9. the object of hope is life eter∣nall, which it embraceth: Tit. 1.2 & 3.7. & 2.13. the comfort of love is transla∣tion

from death unto life, whereof it as∣sureth us: 1. Ioh. 3.14.18.19. the reward of patience is rest in the kingdome of heaven and an eternall weight of glory, which it looketh for. Matth. 5.10-12. 2. Cor. 4.17. And thus the comfort of this blessed end is ever carried in the eye of faith, in the armes of hope, in the bosome of love, & borne as it were upon the shoulders of patience. And as all that is done by mē being well considered, should bring this latter end to their remembrāce; so all the works of speciall grace that are wrought by God for his children, before this world, in this world, or after this world, if we looke upō them with a right eye, they doe every one carry in them a remembrance of this glorious end & pro∣voke us to thinke thereof. We cannot be assured of our election, but we see it as a booke of life wherein we reade our hap∣py end, Phil. 4.3. and behold the king∣dome prepared for us before the founda∣tion of the world. Mat. 25.34. We cannot rightly thinke of our calling, unles we be∣hold that marvellous light & glory where unto we are called. 1. Pet. 2.9. & 5.10. 2. Pet. 1.3. We doe not conceive sufficiently the cōfort of our justificatiō by faith, ūles 〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

eye on this end, and for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse, and fi∣nished his course & the work committed unto him. Heb. 12.2. Oh let us not breake the band that drew on Christ him∣selfe. Oh forgive us Lord that we have bene so profane & carnall to forget this end so often: from henceforth keep it in our mindes & fix it in our memories that it never slip away.