view before him, of what his power and love shall then accomplish for your salvation. And what shall it not accomplish? He shall come to break the bars of the grave, and to re-animate your sleeping clay. Your bodies must indeed be laid in the dust, and be lodged there as a testimony of God's displeasure against sin; against the first sin that ever was committed, from the sad consequences of which the dearest of his children cannot be exempted. But you shall then have an ear to hear the voice of the Son of God, and an eye to behold the lustre of his appearance; and shall shine forth like the sun, arising in the clear heaven, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chambert. Your soul shall be new dressed, to grace this high solemnity; and be clothed not with the rags of mortality, but with the robes of glory; for he shall change this vile body, to fashion it like his own glorious body. And when you are thus royally arrayed, he shall confer public honours on you, and on all his people before the assembled world. You may now perhaps be loaded with infamy, called by reproachful names, and charged with crimes, or with views which your very soul abhors: but he will then bring forth your righteousness as the light §, and your salvation as a lamp that burneth. Though you have been dishonoured by men, you shall be acknowledged by God; and though treated as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things ¶, he will show you that he regards you as his treasure, in the day that he makes up his jewels**. When he shall put away all the wicked of the earth like dross††, you shall be pronounced righteous in that full assembly; and though indeed you have broken the divine law, and might in strict justice have been condemned, yet being clothed with the righteousness of the great Redeemer, even that righteousness which is of God by faith, justice itself shall acquit you, and join with mercy in bestowing upon you a crown of life§§. Christ will confess you before men and angels, will pronounce you good and faithful servants, and call you to enter into the joy of your Lord ¶¶: he will speak of you with endearment as his brethren, and will acknowledge the kindnesses which have been shewn to you, as if he had received them in his own person***. Yea, then shall you, O christian, who may perhaps have sat in some of the lowest places in our assemblies, though (it may be) none of the rich and great of the earth would condescend to look upon, or Mat. xiii. 43. || Isai Ixii. 1. Phil iii. 9. *** Mat. xxv. 40. Psal. xix. 5. 1 Cor. iv. 13. §§ 2 Tim, iv. 8. + Phil. ii. 21. ** Mal. ii. 17. Luke xii. 8. § Psal. xxxvii. 6. ++ Psal. cxix. 119. ¶¶ Mat. xxv. 21. to speak to you, be called to be assessors with Christ on his judgment seat, and to join with him in the sentence he shall pass on wicked men, and rebellious angels. §. 12. Nor is it merely one day of glory and of triumph. But when the judge arises and ascends to his Father's court, all the blessed shall ascend with him, and you among the rest : you shall ascend together with your Saviour, to his Father, and your Father, to his God and your God*. You shall go to make your appearance in the New Jerusalem, in those new shining forms that you have received, which will no doubt be attended with a correspondent improvement of mind; and take up your perpetual abode in that fulness of joy, with which you shall be filled and satisfied in the presence of Godt, upon the consummation of that happiness, which the saints in the intermediate state have been wishing and waiting for. You shall go, from the ruins of a dissolving world, to the new Heavens and new Earth, wherein righteousness for ever dwells. There all the number of God's elect shall be accomplished, and the happiness of each shall be completed. The whole society shall be presented before God, as the bride, the Lamb's wife§, whom the eye of its celestial bridegroom shall survey with unutterable delight, and confess to be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ||; its character and state being just what he originally designed it to be, when he first engaged to give himself for it, to redeem it to God by his blood¶. So shall you ever be with each other, and with the Lord **; and immortal ages shall roll away, and find you still unchanged: your happiness always the same, and your relish for it the same; or rather ever growing, as your souls are approaching nearer and nearer to him, who is the source of happiness, and the centre of infinite perfection. §. 13. And now, look round about upon earth, and single out, if you can, the enjoyments or the hopes, for the sake of which you would say, Lord, delay thy coming; or for the sake of which you any more should hesitate to express your longing for it, and to cry, Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! The Meditation and Prayer of a Christian whose Heart is warmed with these Prospects. "O BLESSED Lord! My soul is enkindled in these views, and rises to thee in the flame++. Thou hast testified, thou comest quickly: and I repeat my joyful assent, Amen, even so * John xx. 17. + Psal. xvi. 11. +2 Pet. iii. 13. ** 1 Thess. iv. 17. Rev. xxi. 9. †† Judg. xii. 20. come, Lord Jesus*. Come, for I long to have done with this low life: to have done with its burdens, its sorrows, and its snares! Come, for I long to ascend into thy presence, and to see the court thou art holding above! "Blessed Jesus, death is transformed, when I view it in this light. The King of terrors is seen no more as such, so near the King of glory, and of grace. I hear with pleasure the sound of thy feet, approaching still nearer and nearer: draw aside the veil, whenever thou pleasest: open the bars of my prison, that my eager soul may spring forth to thee, and cast itself at thy feet; at the feet of that Jesus, whom having not seen, I love; and in whom, though now I see thee not, yet believing, I rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory! Thou, Lord, shalt shew me the path of life: thine hand shall guide me to thy blissful abode, where there is fulness of joy, and rivers of everlasting pleasure. Thou shalt assign me an habitation with thy faithful servants, whose separate spirits are now living with thee, while their bodies sleep in the dust. Many of them have been my companions in thy laborious work, and in the patience and tribulation of thy kingdom §; my dear companions, and my brethren. Oh shew me, blessed Saviour, how glorious and how happy thou hast made them! Shew me, to what new forms of better life thou hast conducted them, whom we call the dead! in what nobler and more extensive services thou hast employed them! that I may praise thee better than I now can, for thy goodness to them! and Oh give me to share with them in their blessings and their services, and to raise a song of grateful love, like that which they are breathing forth before thee! "Yet, O my blessed Redeemer, even there will my soul be aspiring to a yet nobler and more glorious hope; and from this as yet unknown splendor and felicity, shall I be drawing new arguments to look and long for the day of thy final appearance. There shall I long more ardently than I now do, to see thy conduct vindicated, and thy triumph displayed; to see the dust of thy servants re-animated, and death, the last of their enemies and of thine, swallowed up in victory ||. I shall long for that superior honour that thou intendest me, and that complete bliss to which the whole body of thy people shall be conducted. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, will mingle itself with the songs of Paradise, and sound from the tongues of all the millions of thy saints, whom thy grace hath transplanted thither. * Rev. xxii. 20. † 1 Pet, i. 8. Psal. xvi. 11. § Rev, i. 9. 1 Cor. xv. 26, 54. "In the mean time, O my divine Master, accept the homage which a grateful heart now pays thee, in a sense of the glorious hopes with which thou hast inspired it! It is thou that hast put this joy into it, and hast raised my soul to this glorious ambition; whereas I might otherwise have now been groveling in the lowest trifles of time and sense, and been looking with horror on that hour, which is now the object of my most ardent wishes. "Oh be with me always even to the end of this mortal life! and give me, while waiting for thy salvation, to be doing thy commandments! May my loins be girded about, and my lamp burning *; and mine ears be still watchful for the blessed signal of thine arrival: that my glowing soul may with pleasure spring to meet thee, and be strengthened by death to bear those visions of glory, under the ecstacies of which feeble mortality would now expire!" CHAP. XXX. The Christian honouring God by his dying Behaviour. Reflections on the Sincerity with which the preceding Advices have been given, §. 1. The Author is desirous, that (if Providence permit) he may assist the Christian to die honourably and comfortably, §. 2, 3. With this View it is advised, (1.) To rid the Mind of all earthly Cares, §. 4. (2.) To renew the Humiliation of the Soul before God, and its Application to the Blood of Christ, §. 5. (3.) To exercise Patience. under bodily Pains and Sorrows, §. 6. (4.) At leaving the World, to bear an honourable Testimony to Religion, §. 7. (5.) To give a solemn Charge to surviving Friends, §. 8. especially recommending Faith in Christ, §. 9. (6.) To keep the Promises of God in View, §. 10, 11. And (7.) To commit the departing Spirit to God in the genuine Exercises of Gratitude and Repentance, Faith and Charity; §. 12. which are exemplified in the concluding Meditation and Prayer. §. 1. THUS, my dear reader, I have endeavoured to lead you through a variety of circumstances; and those not fancied or imaginary, but such as do indeed occur in the human and christian life. And I can truly and cheerfully say, that I have marked out to you the path which I myself have trod, and in which it is my desire still to go on. I have ventured my own everlasting interests on that foundation, on which I have directed you to adventure yours. What I have recommended as the grand business of your life, I desire to make the business of my own: *Luke xii. 35 and the most considerable enjoyments, which I expect or desire in the remaining days of my pilgrimage on earth, are such as I have directed you to seek, and endeavoured to assist you in attaining. Such love to God, such constant activity in his service, such pleasurable views of what lies beyond the grave, appear to me, (God is my witness,) a felicity incomparably beyond any thing else which can offer itself to our affection and pursuit and I would not for ten thousand worlds, resign my share in them, or consent even to the suspension of the delights which they afford, during the remainder of my abode here. §. 2. I would humbly hope, through the divine blessing, that the hours you have spent in the review of these plain things, may have turned to some profitable account; and that in consequence of what you have read, you have been either brought into way of life and peace, or been induced to quicken your pace in it. Most heartily should I rejoice in being further useful to you, and that even to the last. Now there is one scene remaining; a scene, through which you must infallibly pass; which has something in it so awful, that I cannot but attempt doing a little to assist you in it: I mean the dark valley of the shadow of death. I could earnestly wish, that for the credit of your profession, the comfort of your own soul, and the joy and edification of your surviving friends, you might die, not only safely, but honourably too: and therefore I would offer you a few parting advices. I am sensible indeed, that Providence may determine the circumstances of your death in such a manner, as that you may have no opportunity of acting upon the hints I now give you. Some unexpected accident from without, or from within, may, as it were, whirl you to Heaven before you are aware; and you may find yourself so suddenly there, that it may seem a translation, rather than a death. Or it is possible the force of a distemper may affect your understanding in such a manner, that you may be quite insensible of the circumstances in which you are; and so your dissolution (though others may see it visibly and certainly approaching,) may be as great a surprise to you, as if you had died in full health. §. 3. But as it is on the whole probable, you may have a more sensible passage out of time into eternity; and as much may, in various respects, depend on your dying behaviour; give me leave to propose some plain directions with relation to it, to be practised, if God give you opportunity, and remind you of them. It may not be improper to look over the xxixth chapter again, when you find the symptoms of any threatening |