not made your whole life a scene of mifery and affliction. Blefs God that he punifheth you lefs, unfp-akably lefs, than your iniquities deferve; that your fickbed is not hell, your fever is not everlasting burnings, your pain is not the gnawing of the worm that never dieth.

7. You have cause to praise God that your affliction is not fo great as that of fome others, and even of some that were very dear to God, and had not grieved him fo much as you have done. Remember the trials that fome have endured, of whom the world was not worthy, which I mentioned before as recorded, Heb. xi. Your's are nothing to their's, nothing to Job's, that eminent fervant of God. Obferve the difference with thanksgiving and praise.

8 You have reafon to blefs God for the ftrength and fupport he hath given you under affliction. You would foon fink and fuccumb under a fmall burden, if he did not fupport you by his grace; but when he bears you up, the heaviest trial fhall not fink you. Have you not met with fome afflictions, you have thought at a dif tance you would never have been able to bear up under them? yet, when they have come, you have found them light and portable, by reafon of the ftrength God hath beftowed upon you.

9. You have ground of thanksgiving, that the mercies and blessings which God hath continued with you, are far greater than these he hath taken from you; for though he hath taken this and that temporal bleffing from you, yet he hath not taken Chrift from you, nor his Holy Spirit from you; he hath not feparated you from his love, nor cut you off from all the hopes of heaven. However great your trials be, yet ftill there is a mixture of mercy in your lot, which (hould be matter of praise.

Io You have caufe, O believer, to blefs God, that all the afflictions he brings on you are in love, and for your profit. All his ways are mercy and truth to you. If he fmile, it is in mercy; and if he fmite, it is in mercy. God may change his difpenfation towards his children, but never his difpofition: his heart is ftill to

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wards them, and the cords wherewith he fcourgeth them are cords of love. Their profit is the great thing he aims at, in all their chaftifements, Heb. xii. 10. He defigns thereby to reclaim them from their wanderings, cut off provifions for their lufts, make them pant and long for a better state, and caufe them mend their pace towards it. Hence David faid, "It is good for me that I was afflicted for before I was afflicted I went aftray, but now I have learned to keep thy word." Pf. cxix. 67.71. From all which it appears you have manifold ground of praife, even in ths time of affliction.

DIRECT. IV. Let the children of God, when vifited with fickness, fet about actual preparation for death and eternity.

EVERY believer hath his main work done, and is always in a gracious ftate, by reafon of his union with Jefus Chrift, his reconciliation with God through the merits of his blood, and the univerfal change that is wrought in him by regenerating and fanctifying grace; upon which account, every child of God hath habitual preparation for meeting with death. Yet, because frequently, when fickness cometh, there are many things out of order with them, that make death frightful and undefireable, they must fet about actual preparation for death, and feck to have their fouls made ready for the bridegroom's coming. And here I fhall fhew wherein this actual readinefs of believers doth confift, which fhould be their proper work and exercise in time of fick. nefs, efpecially when fickness is lingering, and doth not destroy the use of reafon. But beware of thinking that this fhould be delayed till fickness come: No, no, the time of health is the main working season, and all should be then put by hand as far as poffible. But feeing even the best generally find much to do at the very laft, I hall give the following advices for your actual prepa

ration :

1. Seeing fickness is a means appointed of God for his people's good, and particularly for fitting them for

a better world, labour earneftly to reap the benefit of fickness, feek God's bleffing upon it, that thereby you may be helped to difcover more of the evil of fin; that you may hate and abhor it the more; and that you may fee more effectually the vanity and vexation of the world; and get your heart loofed from all the things of time, and brought to a willingness to be diffolved that you may be with Chrift.

2. Seeing a time of death and fickness is the time of your greatest need, beg earnestly of God, for your Redeemer's fake, fuch special affiftance, influences, and operations of his holy Spirit, as he knows needful for you in your prefent low and weak condition, in order to carry on and complete your actual readiness for meeting with himself at death, and entering into the invifible world, and being fixed unalterably in your everlasting ftate.

3. Renew the exercise of repentance, and of faith in the blood of Chrift, for removing all grounds of quarrel and controverfy between God and your foul. And, in order thereto, review your bypaft life, and look into your heart alfo, and fearch out every predominant fin and idol of jealousy; for if there be any iniquity regarded in your heart, and unrepented of by you, it may occafion no little anguish and bitterness of spirit in a dying hour. Well, when thou haft difcovered fin, humbly confefs and bewail it beforet he Lord, and ask forgiveness for it through the blood of Jefus Chrift the Son of God, which cleanseth from all fin. Yea, make confeffion of all thy fins, and particularly reflect upon the fountain and fpring of them, viz. thy original fin. Know the plague of thy own heart, and mourn over it, mourn for the lofs and mif fpending, of fuch precious time. Mourn for the unprofitableness of thy life. Now, when the ax is laid to the root of the tree, by fickness, it is high time to mourn for your unfruitfulness under the means of grace and waterings of the holy Spirit. Mourn for your finning against such light and love as have been many days difplayed to you in the glorious gospel. And, in a special manner, mourn for your fins of omiffion, which commonly are but

little

little minded by us. Thus mourn for all thy fins, till thou doft water thy couch with thy tears. It is moft fuitable that death fhould find every man, even every child of God, in the exercise of mourning and repentance; for they that thus fow in tears, fhall eternally eap in joy. But fee that your tears run much in the gofpel-channel, and flow from the believing views of a crucified Chrift, whom you have pierced in your fins. And, in the midst of your mourning, be ftill aiming to take faith's grips of the clefts of the rock, for fheltering thy foul from the guilt of paft fins: fay," Lord Jefus, I have no refuge but thy wounds, no fountain but thy blood, no covert but thy righteoufnefs. And feeing thou freely makeft offer of thy merits for my protection, and inviteft even the chief of finners to come unto thee, faying, Look unto me, be ye faved: Lord, I embrace the offer, and flee to thee to cover me." O believer, do this, not once or twice, but do it a hundred times over; do it as often as thou haft breath to draw in the world, Be ftill breathing to the very laft after a crucified Jefus, for relief against the guilt of fin, which thou art always contracting, and will be, till the earthly house of this tabernacle be diffolved.

4. In order to your actual readiness to go forth to meet the bridegroom, when coming to you by death, you must do as the wife virgins, Mat. xxv. 7, " Arife and trim your lamps." As it is not enough to have a fair lamp of profeflion, fo it is not fufficient to have only the oil of grace in the lamp; nay, or to have it burning in fome degree. There is more requifite at this time, that the foul may be actually ready; the lamp must be trimmed, which imports, 1. A fupplying it with more oil; you must feek to have your grace increased, to have new degrees, new ftrength, and new fupplics of grace given from God, to fit you for the last conflict with your fpiritual enemies, and especially the laft enemy, death. 2. It imports a stirring up of the oil, railing the wick fome higher: So there must be an excitation of grace, which may be in a low declin

ing condition: you must endeavour to stir and raise it up to a more lively exercife, and more elevated acts. Stir up the gift that is in thee; make the oil burn clear and fhine bright. Bring faith, love, repentance and holy defires, to a lively exercife. 3. This trimming imports the cleanfing of the lamp, by taking away the dead afhes that hinder the light, or prevent its burning fo clearly as otherwife it would. So you must labour to take away the dead afhes of corruption, that hinder the fhining of grace; remove all unbelief, earthliness, deadnefs, felf, and formality, and whatever elfe doth fupprefs the exercife of faith, love, and heavenly-mindedness: let all these dead afhes be fnuffed away by repentance and mortification. As you ought to frive earnestly against all thofe heart-evils in the time of health, fo now labour to give them a dead-stroke when death's harbinger gives you a fummons.

5. Be diligent in gathering and fummoning up all your evidences for heaven and eternal life, that fo you may not venture into the dark valley at an uncertainty. The comfort of dying will much depend on the clearness of your evidences; it is therefore your wisdom to examine them carefully, and fee if you can fay, "I know in whom I have believed; I have confented with my foul to the method of falvation laid down in the covenant of grace. I am defirous that the glory of it fhould be eternally afcribed to the free grace of God, and the creature be wholly abafed in his fight. I have chofen God for my portion, and Chrift for my only Saviour; and the happiness which I aim at is, to enjoy God in Chrift for ever. And, in order thereto, I depend on the Holy Spirit to apply the redemption which Jefus Chrift hath purchased to me, and to fanctify me perfectly. There is no fin but what I hate and defire to part with. I would rather have more holinef, than to have health, wealth, and all the pleasures in the world. I earnestly defire the flourishing of Chrift's kingdom, and prefer Jerufalem to my chiefeft joy." If thefe your evidences be clear, you may chearfully take death by the cold hand, and welcome its grim meffengers, and long to be gone that you may be with VOL. I. Chrift.

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