'TIS pity any private Christian of Exemplary Zeal for God and Religion, should at any time go unlamented to his Grave; much more any serious, painful, and laborious Preacher, that like the kind Silk-worm, hath spinned out his own Bowels for the Publick good, and been o­thers loud Call from Sin and Vanity, to the sincere Profession of the Gospel, as their highest Advantage and Gain.

We are greatly stupid, if we eye not their death (the most gainful to themselves) as our own misery and loss, the loudest Alarm to a serious preparation for our own Dissolution and Change, (that must as cer­tainly overtake us, as it hath them) and the saddest in­dication of Heaven's severest Displeasure against us, in the inundation of the heaviest Calamities, that by their powerful Intercessions they might have kept off, and prevented, if there be any thing of weight in the most sacred complaint; The righteous perisheth, Isa. 57.1. and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. And who can forbear dropping a sigh, or weeping a tear, if not a floud, for the death of him we have lately followed to the Earth, and seen covered up therewith, as a much-to-be-lamented loss, as a Chri­stian, and a Minister; and of justice challenging a greater tribute of Respect to his Memory and Ashes than what yet we have paid?

But leaving at present so Melancholy a Theme, the sad Occasion of our Assembling; Let us come nearer the Text, that plainly tells us, Life or Death, as they most effectually advance the Honour of Christ, should be the chief matter of our Rejoycing and Triumph: But as it is hard to determine, whether one or the o­ther; the one in a painful service in his Church, the other in a holy dying Profession of his Truth, hath the greatest tendency thereunto; so a difficulty oftentimes almost invincible attends the Choice.

As for the division of the Text, it naturally branch­eth it self out into these parts.

1st, [...]. St. Paul's sharp Conflict with each; For I am in a strait betwixt two; q. d. Hemm'd in with Difficulties, not knowing which to take, nor which to leave; under a perplexity of mind, not capable of answering Argu­ments for one or the other; A pressure of Spirit not to be expressed, as is elsewhere the import of the Phrase, Luke 12.50. Acts 18.5.

2. One chief Reason thereof; His desire of being with Christ in a departure, (Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.) This was what stirred up in him as earnest longings for Death, as hopes of further ser­vice to his dear Philippians, did of Life; or caused him to breathe out the most passionate desires of quitting his abode on Earth, for that of Heaven; the Greek [...], Having a desire; as it denotes the greatest permanency and constancy thereof, not a sick or faint velleity, or sudden Passion, that soon vanisheth and is gone; so [...] to depart; it imports a dissolution of parts, of which we were before composed, or the quitting of our Clayie Cottages, as persons do their Houses in a Journey; or a Ship, the Shore in a Voyage.

[Page 3]3. His true judgment of that estate: Far, far, [...]. or much, much, the better; i. e. To himself as his own greatest personal Gain, tho not to others; the other Reason of his strait, in what he next utters; V. 24. Never­theless to abide in the flesh, is more needful for you.

From whence ariseth this Threefold Doctrine.

• Truly holy souls, Doct. I when Life and Death are set before them, may be in a very great strait as to their choice of either.
• Truly holy souls are immediately with Christ at their departure from the body. Doct. II
• To be with Christ at our death, is far better than any bodily continuance on earth. Doct. III
• Truly holy souls, when life and death are set before them, may be in a very great strait, Doct. I as to their choice of either.

St. Paul was so, not willing of a cessation from works, nor the delay of his Reward; desirous of con­verting more fouls to Christ, and yet longing to be himself with him; in a strait whether he should be yet longer surrounded with the most afflictive trou­bles, (as are those of this present life, of one kind or another) or received to a Heavenly Enlargement and Rest. And what was his Conflict, may be that of others, under different Apprehensions or Temptati­ons. At one time they are reasoning, (there is a Ser­pent every where with his alluring Apple, except in the Heavenly Paradise); How can I leave this plen­tiful Estate to the spoils of luxurious Spend-thrifts, riepend enough without them for destruction? How this dear companion of all my earthly comforts and sorrows? How these Children of my delights, stand­ing as Olive-plants about my table, Psal. 128.3. e're I can leave them Holy and Gracious? Might I not, if longer spared [Page 4]in the world, be of farther use and service in it, than hitherto, through remissness or sloth I have been? Are not threatned Judgments calling for Intercessors? I might be one in the gap to prevent. Are not hun­gry bellies, and naked backs calling for Relief? It will be, at the last day, my greatest Honour and Hap­piness, Mat. 25.34. to the 40. to have fed and cloathed them? Are not dark, secure, and comfortless Souls needing Counsels, A­wakenings, and Supports? I'de spare no pains to Awaken, Direct, and Chear: And shall I be of far­ther use and service to neither? Have I finished my whole work? Might no Talent be better improved; nor in any thing the Honour of my dear Redeemer more advanced? Is his Church in her fullest Glory, I would rejoice to see her in? Am I dying, ere Reli­gion is living? And soon again, as conquered by quite different motives, they are breathing out quite contrary desires; pleading, When, Lord, shall I be released from this present bondage and misery? When from this heavy load of Corruption? When from the cruel buffetings of Satan? When from the grief I am in for the Afflictions of thy Zion; for which I weep, Lam. 1.16. mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water? When from the tempting Flatteries, and unkind Per­secutions of this vain and foolish world, that would allure or affright me from my Reward and Crown? When shall I exchange these dead, cold, and heart­less duties, for Triumphant Praises and Hallelujahs? When for transient visits on earth, shall I have a per­manent enjoyment of Thee in Heaven? Ah! I see a beauty, a desirableness in nothing that can be matched with thy All-Glorious Perfections: Hus­band, Wife, and Children are dear; but thou art dearer to me than all; how it repents me, that I should [Page 5]place so much of affection on them, as I have done. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Rev. 22.20. Judg. 5.28. Cant. 8.14. Why so slack in thy approaches? Why is thy chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels thereof? Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or young Hart upon the mountains of spices. But a little while, and I shall be triumphing in thy blessed Arms and Bosom, where I shall sin no more, and sorrow no more. A Pain, a Sigh, a Groan more, as the happiest I ever felt, finisheth my days, and compleats my joys: And who longs not with me for the approach of this hour? Shall I carry none with me to Heaven, as unwilling to be happy alone! Holy David was in a strait, as to the choice of three the greatest evils, Famine, Pestilence, and Sword. 2 Sam. 24.14. The Saint is oftentimes so, as to two the greatest goods, the Work and Service of Life, and the Reward and Gain of Death.

Censure not any for it. Ʋse I 'Tis sad when an over-ween­ing affection to any creature-comfort, is the reason of it: Earthly delights are put into the same balance with heavenly; but not where hopes of farther ser­vice in the world is so. O Grace indeed! to be found weighing the Soul-advantages of others, in the same scale with our own. O Noble Soul! that can be wil­ling to be one moment out of Heaven, in hopes of being others happy Convoy thither.

2. Think Heaven desirable: Needs must it be so, as what frees us from every pinching strait; particularly that of Living or Dying: For the Soul there, how unwilling soever it was to quit this life, is wholly freed from any the least inclination of returning back to it; under no more sharp conflicts of leaving crea­ture-comforts; but triumphs in God, as better than all.

With him, as in a state of Separation from their earthly bodies, so without the assuming of any Aere­al; there is not any more need of this, for a heavenly converse with their fellow-Spirits, than of Angels one with another.

With him, as not sleeping in the Grave till the Re­surrection, nor tormented with Purgatory-Flames: As the former is an inlet to the greatest Infidelity and Atheism, so the latter is greatly derogatory from the Riches of Free-Grace in their forgiveness and pardon, as implying a Punishment of a fault remitted; a For­giving the Treason, but Executing the Traytor: For which, may they continue to plead, who experience the secular gain thereof, as of any the most profitable fire in their Kitchen; others, as great Masters of Reason as themselves, dare not: but, as fully re­deemed by the Blood of Christ, from all future pains and misery, can heartily laugh at those of an imagi­nary Purgatory: For we are told, we have Redemption through his blood, Eph. 1.7. the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. And how far a less noble Redemp­tion and Forgiveness would it be, than he hath obtain­ed for us, were we after this life to be refined for Hea­ven in Flames (according to the Popish notion), not differing from those of Hell, Luke 23.43. except in duration? The Converted Thief enters, the very day he suffered, into Paradise: It is not to be thought, that no greater happiness was designed him in the promise of it, than the assurance of it after some longer continuance of time, Acts 7.59. than the very present day in which it was made. Stephen cemmends his Spirit to Christ at his Death. Our good works, Rev. 14.13. Eccl. 12.7. as meant of their reward, are said to follow us. The dust to return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit unto God that gave it. And (which seems to be the most convincing Argument of it), Are or [Page 7]can they be rightly desirous of a Dissolution, upon no other account? It is not to be supposed, Thinking, Rational Creatures should be willing to part with Life, the greatest of Temporal Blessings, for the Re­demption of which, a man will give skin for skin, Job 2.8. and all that he hath, for a silent state in the grave, or the most insupportable of pains? No, rather strip them of their hopes of a present happiness at death; and very unaccountable are their desires of it: They, as knowing when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dis­solved, 2 Cor. 5.1, 2. they shall have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; are groaning enrnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven.

Don't be prejudiced against Religion, or a holy life, Ʋse. for any the greatest earthly afflictions or sufferings of gra­cious souls. You have little reason to be so, their Deaths are so happy; if their Lives are so miserable, their Exit is Peace; their Reward, Life Everlasting; Psal. 37.37. Gal. 6.8. and their present sorrow and affliction, the blessed school in which they have been disciplined and trained up for it. And will you continue to be so prejudiced? Psal. 119.67. Live rather their lives, as you would dye their deaths. It is most foolish without this to wish, Numb. 23.10. Let me dye the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Em­brace Piety as your richest gain; avoid sin as your highest folly; and remember, That as aged and strick­en in years, the hoary head is a crown of glory, Prov. 16.31. when found in the way of righteousness; so as young, you are called upon to Remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Eccl. 12.1. The dedication of your youthful parts, strength, and vigour, to him and his service, seems greatly intended, in that under the Law, Deut. 18.4. Chap. 26.2. Mat. 21.15. John 21.7. of the first fruits for Sacrifice. The Hosannahs of Children were pleasing to Christ in the Temple: St. John, of any, his young­est [Page 8]Disciple, was evidently his most beloved Disciple. On you, of any, are founded the fairest hopes of being the most faithful Instruments of service in Church and State, in the room of those deceased. You are, of any, both the joys and fears of indulgent Parents, and pain­ful Preachers; almost weary of this world, they can do no more good in it; and you only are those that can turn the old Hellish Proverb, A Young Saint, and an Old Devil; into what looks more like Truth, and appears divine (be the Doctrine of our final Perse­verance in Grace begun, acknowledged such), a Saint in Youth, and a bright Angel for Holiness in Old Age; an Angel in Youth, and a Seraphim in Glory.

To be with Christ at our death, Doct. III is far better than any bo­dily continuance on the earth.

In the prosecution of which, I shall only shew,

1. How, or in what respects it is so.

2. The Use.

1. How, or in what respects it is so. And here, where shall I begin, or where shall I end? What a work have I undertaken? How unfit am I to discourse of the blissful state of departed souls in Heaven, who know so little of Souls or Spirits on Earth? Shall I describe a City or Plantation I never saw or viewed, but in the History or Map? Much less a future Glory, which I am sure much more to fail in the description of? Me­thinks I hear it more than whispered, Who is this that darkneth counsel, Job 38.2. by words without knowledge? Stop thou stammering Tongue, and frail Mortal, thy blackest Pen, with which thou art sure but to shade and dark­en what thou fondly hopest in lively colours to paint out and enliven. 2 Cor. 12.4. They were [...], words un­utterable, or unspeakable, the blessed Apostle, the great St. 1 Cor. 2.9. Paul, heard in his highest Rapture; Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor heart conceived, the things [Page 9]which God hath prepared for them that love him. And wilt thou attempt to tell us more? 'tis impossible, alas, impossible. But a dark and blurr'd discovery being better than none, be pleased to take it in this two-fold particular only: viz.

1st, A total removal of all Evil.

2dly, The actual possession and enjoyment of all Good.

1. A total removal of all Evil; as of Sin, and Sorrow.

1. Of Sin. Sin our greatest burthen here, Rom. 7.24. the which made us often to utter the Apostolick Complaint, Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the bo­dy of this death! shall be none then, but be destroyed rather; as in its Actings and Woundings, so in its very Esse, or Being. Not a vain Thought, the sinfulness of which once enkindled in the Almighty A repentance of his ever making man; Gen. 6.5, 6. Jer. 4.14. and we are bid to dislodge. Not a vain Word; Our words are so far so, that we may call most of them, what the Satyrist calls some, Pers. Sat. 5. Bullaras nugas, utpote simile, Bullis vento plenis. Rev. 3.4. Bubbly toys; they are so like a Bubble full of wind: not a sinning Principle, a sinning Disposition, a sinning Inclination is then remaining. We are cloathed in White, the most lively Emblem of Holiness, and have Spirits made perfect. Our Sanctification is compleat; Heb. 12.23. 1 John 3.12. Ephes. 4.13. the Divine Image, in which we were at first formed, most blessedly restored. And oh happy blissful State! that at once strips us of all our former rotten Rags of Sin, and Lust, and most richly adorns us with those of a primitive Perfection and Purity. How should this be the Mark and Prize we aim at! It was that St. Paul did so, in, and under his greatest Spiritual Attainments, Philip. 3.13, 14.

2. Of Sorrow. Sorrows of one kind or another at­tend every worldly Condition: We come into the World with a Cry, and take our farewel of it with a Groan. One (of any the severest of Sorrows) is be­moaning [Page 10]himself under spiritual Desertions, the preva­lency of Corruption, and Buffetings of Satan: Another passionately weeping for the death of Relations; this day like Jonah's Gourd, flourishing; the next, dead and withered. Now the delight of our Eyes, and the chief of our Affections; Gen. 24.3. but anon a dead Sarah that must be buried out of our sight. Another, expressing his Poverty and Losses, through Plunderings and Persecutions: A­nother, his restless days and nights through Pains and Sickness. But farewel Sorrow, farewel Grief in Hea­ven, as no place for either. Then no more Devil to assault and tempt us, nor malicious World to afflict and persecute us; no more aking Head, sick Heart, burn­ing Fever, grinding Stone, painful Cholick, trembling Palsie, wasted Strength, mouldring Carcase; no more scoffing Ishmael, profane Esau, spiteful Canaanite, scratch­ing Thorn, pricking Brier; but an end of sinning, and an end of sorrowing and weeping; an end of sinning, and an end of dying; Rev. 20.4. 1 Thess. 4.17. a dying once, and a living with the Lord for ever.

And not only is it better to be with Christ at our death, than to enjoy the longest bodily continuance here as to this two-fold Evil of Sin and Sorrow, we are fully delivered from. But,

2. As to the actual possession and enjoyment of all good.

1. A perfection of Knowledge. Here it is blemished with much imperfection and ignorance. One who had made the sacred Scriptures his chief study, confessed, Multo plura nescio quam scio, He was ignorant of more than he knew. And some of the Jewish Rabbies the like, in their known Saying, Elias cum venerit solvet omnia, Elias, when he cometh, shall give a solution to all things, though we cannot. But then shall all our present ig­norance and imperfection be done away, and our know­ledge be no longer in part, but compleat and perfect; [Page 11]not mediate, or at the second hand only, by discourse, study and meditation; but immediate, and intuitive. And that, as of God, his Divine Being and Perfections; 1 Cor. 13.12. so of Christ his Mysterious Incarnation, Union of Na­tures without change of Properties; and of the Holy Spirit of Grace, how the same in Essence, and yet di­stinct as to Person. How Creation, Redemption and Sanctification, are the proper work of one, or the other; and yet as works ad extra, alike applicable to either. And of the most Mysterious Actings of Providence in the World, Job 10.3. Psal. 73.16. we could before give no account of, nor durst demand any. How we were afflicted, and yet beloved; What Souls are, as to their Royal Original, and what as to their most vivacious Actings; without the assistance of any corporeal Organ; with innume­rable difficulties, no Hypothesis in Philosophy can give an exact solution of. Oh the knowledge that a Soul one minute in glory, hath of delightful Mysteries, be­yond what on Earth we are capable of, by the most painful Converse with Men or Books! He knows more than us all, and is perfectly happy in the knowledge of what he knows; whilst in the knowledge of many things we are miserable, and as to our knowledge of what we ought chiefly to know, have reason to sigh out the complaint of our ignorance.

2. Exactness of conformity in every thing to the divine Image. For what Grace in our blessed Conformity there­unto, is not then in its liveliest and highest Exercise! Our Love, our Delight, our Joy and Rejoycing is so, if not Desire, Faith and Fear wholly ceasing; As we actually enjoy the good or happiness we wished for, be­lieved, or dreaded the loss of. And as for our obedience in every thing to the Divine Will, it is the most chearful, constant and perfect; or to what end do we pray, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven?

[Page 12]3. Constancy of abode. They are no longer complain­ing, Heb. 13.14. We have here no continuing City. No more restless in their motions from place to place, like Noah's Dove, that found no rest for the sole of her Foot, the Waters had so covered the Earth; but plucked in rather by a tender hand into the heavenly Ark, where they have rest perpetual, are fixed the Citizens of the New Je­rusalem, that City above, where they are for ever at home. And oh the happiness of this, beyond what possibly at present we entertain the thoughts of! It is so undoubtedly as to that Venerable, Gray-headed Dis­ciple and Soldier of our dear Redeemer deceased, of any man I have known, since he first left his Publick Living for the sake of conscientious innocent Noncon­formity; His Life appeared but one continued Journey and Travel from place to place; and no removal there­of was apparently more his death's stroke, than his last, from his Native County, and dear People of his Affections, as he often stiled them, to sing out his dy­ing, sweet and Swan-like Notes with you.

4. Sweetest Harmony and Concord one with another. It seems the least of doubts, that Souls departed know each other in Glory; Why not, as well as Adam in the state of Innocency? Of whom it is said, that as soon as he awaked out of his deep Sleep, He knew Eve to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. And no small part truly of their Happiness is it, that they have the highest satisfaction and contentment one in another, as partakers of the same Rest, and alike imployed in the same most noble and delightful work of Praise.

Heaven admits of no Mistakes, nor misunderstand­ings one of another; and 'tis pity this lower World should do it. There are no Treacherous Judas's to betray us with a Kiss; nor faithless Friends, whose friendship is as vanishing as the smoak and vapour; [Page 13]but rather a Hooper and a Ridley more fairly-shaking hands, than ever they agreed in their Prisons. A Lu­ther and a Calvin sworn Friends, or rather a perpetual and everlasting Friendship, that shall never once be violated; begun not only with known Friends deceas­ed, but all the Holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, we never before saw or knew. And may there, as the liveliest Emblem of Heaven, be more of Brotherly Peace, Love and Amity on Earth; May no trifling difference in Judgment separate Affections, but each one for the future make it their only conten­tion, who shall most advance the Interest of the Lord Jesus in the World; and resolve to leave those of lesser moment, to such as think they have greater Concerns to mind, than an endless blessed Eternity we are pro­fessedly waiting, hoping, longing for, and hastning to. And which follows on this,

5. Fulness, unspeakableness, and Eternity of Delight and joy.

1. Fulness, and unspeakableness. It is a Joy redun­dant and overflowing, yet what admits of degrees, or it had never been said, They that be wise, Dan. 12.3. shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. But every holy glorified Soul, more or less capacious, is as truly full of it, as the lesser Vessel thrown into the Sea, less capacious, yet is as full as the greater. Matt. 25.21. Psal. 16.11. A Joy too great to enter into us, for which we are bid to enter into it. A Fulness inexhaustible, and that lasts for ever. A Joy that at present supports under the most painful Tribulations, and Afflictive Losses. Rom. 5.3. Heb. 10.34. Primitive Wor­thies gloried therein; And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, as knowing they had in heaven a more endu­ring substance. A Joy, of which God himself is the Author, which was of everlasting preparation, Matt. 25.34. and [Page 14]the most affecting Subject of his dearest Son's Interces­sion. He had never Grace more apparently poured in­to his Lips, Psal. 45.2. than when he uttered, These things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in them­selves. John 17.13, v. 24. Or as the everlasting subject thereof he pleaded, Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with we where I am, that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the founda­tion of the world. A Joy compleatly satisfactory; and that as to the place of it, Heaven; excelling in glory all that is earthly. Luke 23.43. Rev. 21.10. Rev. 21.2. Luke 22.29. Luke 12.32. Matt. 25.32. Rev. 4.8. Rev. 2.10. It is stiled upon this Account, Pa­radise, the great City, the new Jerusalem, the Kingdom pre­pared from the foundation of the world; the work of it, Praises and Thanksgiving, of any the most noble and delightful: Its advancement, Thrones, Scepters and Crowns; our Company, God, Christ, and glorified Be­ings. And our heavenly Converse as with the former, so the latter, communicating their thoughts to us, and we ours to them, in a way much more noble and ex­cellent, than that at present of our quaintest and ex­actest Oratory. Oh the various Delights and Joys, resulting from each part of such our fulness and variety of Happiness, yet no way diverting us from God the Chief; but leading of us rather to the greater admira­tion of his rich Sovereign Love and Goodness, in pre­paring each part of it for Creatures the most vile and unworthy; and the highest thankfulness to him, for the Death and Satisfaction of his Son, by which only it hath been obtain'd and purchased. And,

2. Eternity. It is what shall never have an end. We are never more dreading the clouding or Eclipses of it; but is a Life of joy that lasts for ever. A Joy that is essentially compleat at death, but will be every way so at the Resurrection, in the re-union of our Souls to our Bodies; Phil. 3.21. Fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious [Page 15]body. It being then this despicable Clay shall arise in­corruptible and immortal, 1 Cor. 15.53. and be alike Partners in glory with our Souls, as they have both been so in work and service. Eternally in glory, for ever with the Lord: And oh madness unspeakable, to prefer the greatest Comforts and Enjoyments of Life, before such the greatest Happiness and Joy at Death! Oh what are Riches, Honours, and worldly Greatness, that you should put them into the same Scale! Alas, but vain and empty dead Comforts, dead Enjoyments, that speak you as foolish in the hugging of them, as was the Egyptian in that of the Carved Image or Statue of his dead Son; he hoped with Crown'd Garlands, and a profound respect paid to it, would have been the to­tal cure of his Sorrow; but as the Historian tells us, proved rather the life and resurrection thereof. They are but sweet Dishes, Death with his Voider will soon sweep away, leaving you only a cutting Reckoning to pay, for the full feast and meal of them you have made. They are but Comforts and Enjoyments that are every day on their wing from you, were not you so from them. Prov. 23.5. And will you then continue to do this? haste rather from their tempting Destruction; make sure of more satisfactory Delights, I mean those of a heavenly State, which righteous Souls, as the for­mer Doctrine tells you, presently partake of at their Death. And this last they are most unspeakably hap­py in, beyond any the longest bodily continuance on Earth.

But to hasten to a more practical improvement of what hath been said. As,