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things sensible been never so pleasant in thy youth, and hadst thou glutted thyself in health with that sort of delight, in age thou art to say by nature, " I have no pleasure in them.” Doth God in great mercy make pain and feebleness the harbingers of death, and wilt thou not understand their business? Doth he mercifully, beforehand, take away the pleasure of all fleshly things, and worldly vanities, that there may be nothing to relieve a departing soul, (as the shell breaketh when the bird is hatched, and the womb relaxed when the infant must be born,) and yet shall we stay when nothing holdeth us, and still be loth to come away? Wouldest thou dwell with thy beloved body in the grave, where it will rot and stink in loathsome darkness? If not, why should it now, in its painful languor, seem to thee a more pleasant habitation than the glorious presence of thy Lord? In the grave it will be at rest, and not tormented as now it is, nor wish at night, oh, that it were morning! nor say at morning, when will it be night? And is this a dwelling fit for thy delight? Patience in it, while God will so try thee, is thy duty, but is such patience a better and sweeter life than rest and joy?

Sect. 14. But, alas! how deaf is flesh to reason. Faith hath the reason which easily may shame all contrary reasoning, but sense is unreasonable, and especially this inordinate, tenacious love of present life. I have reason enough to be willing to depart, even much more willing than I am. Oh, that I could be as willing as I am convinced that I have reason to be! Could I love God as much as I know that I should love him, then I should desire to depart, and to be with Christ, as much as I know that I should desire it. But God, in nature, hath there laid upon me some necessity of aversation, (though the inordinateness came from sin,) else Christ had not so feared, and deprecated the cup. Death must be a penalty, even where it is a gain, and therefore it must meet with some unwillingness: because we willingly sinned, we must unwillingly suffer. The gain is not the pain or dissolution in itself, but the happy consequents of it. All the faith and reason in the world will not make death to be no penalty, and therefore will not take away all unwillingness. No man ever yet reasoned or believed himself into a love of pain and death, as such, but seeing that the gain is unspeakably greater than the pain and loss, faith and holy reason may make our willingness to be greater than our unwillingness, and our hope and joy than our fear and sorrow,

And it is the deep and effectual notice of goodness, which is God's way, in nature and grace, to change and draw the will of man. Come then, my soul, and think, believingly, what is best for thee. And wilt thou not love and desire most that which is certainly the best?

To depart and to be with Christ is far better, or rather to be chosen.

Sect. 1. To say and hear that it is far better to be with Christ, is not enough to make us willing. Words and notions are such instruments as God useth to work on souls, but the convincing, satisfying, powerful light, and the inclining love, are other things. The soul now operateth ut forma hominis, on and with the corporeal spirits and organs, and it perceiveth now its own perceptions, but it is a stranger to the mode of its future action, when separated from the body, and can have no formal conception of such conceptions as yet it never had. And therefore, its thoughts of its future state must be analogical and general, and partly strange. But general notices, when certain, may be very powerful, and satisfy us in so much as is needful. to our consent, and to such a measure of joy as is suitable to this earthly state. And such notices we have from the nature of the soul, with the nature of God, the course of Providence, and government of mankind, the internal and external conflicts which we perceive about men's souls, the testimony and promises of the word of God, the testimony of conscience, with the witness of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, and in it the earnest and the foretaste of glory, and the beginnings of life eternal here, all which I have before considered.

Sect. 2. The Socinians, who would interpret this of the state of resurrection only, against plain evidence, violate the text: seeing Paul expressly speaketh of his gain by death, which will be his abode with Christ, and this upon his departure hence: which (in 2 Cor. v. 7, 8) he calleth, his being absent from the body, and present with the Lord and Christ, to the penitent thief, calleth his being with him in Paradise: and (Luke xvi.) in the parable of the steward, Christ intimateth to us, that wise preparers, when they go hence, are received into the everlasting habitations; as he there further tells us Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom.

Sect. 3. Goodness is primaria et mensurans, vel secundaria et mensuraia : the first is God's perfect essence and will: the

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it is far better to be with Christ, I.

as it is the fulfilling of God's will. II. tendeth to the perfection of the universe and III. And as it will be our own good or felicity.

And as it will be good to our inferior fellow-creatures; though this last be most questionable, and seemeth not included in the meaning of this text. Somewhat of these in order.

Sect. 5. I. It is an odious effect of idolatrous selfishness, to acknowledge no goodness above our own felicity, and, accordingly, to make the goodness of God to be but formally his usefulness, benevolence, and beneficence, to his creatures, which is by making the creature the ultimate end, and God but the means; to make the creature to be God, and deny God, indeed, while we honour his name: as also it is to acknowledge no higher goodness formally in the creature, than in its own felicity as such as if neither the pleasing of God's will, nor the perfection of the church and world, were better than we are: we are not of ourselves, and therefore we are not chiefly for ourselves; and, therefore, we have a higher good to love.

That is simply best which God willeth. Therefore, to live here is best whilst I do live here; and to depart is best when the time of my departure cometh: that is best which is, for it is the work of God: the world cannot be better at this instant than it is, nor any thing better, which is of God, because it is as he willeth it to be: but when God hath changed them, it will then be best that they are changed. Were there no other good in my departure hence, but this simple good, the fulfilling of God's will, my reason telleth me that I should be fully satisfied in it: but there is also a subordinate sort of good.

Sect. 6. II. For my change will tend to the perfection of the universe; even that material good or perfection, which is its aptitude for the use to which God hath created, and doth pre

serve it

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modes, the situation, the mo

her engine, do to the ends of the nath not told me particularly, why ode, and motion, is as it is, I know it is all wisdom, and suited to its proper use and end: bird knoweth how to make her nest, to lay her y together, when and how to sit on them till they ed, and how to feed them and preserve them, and forsake them, as sufficient for themselves without her &c. If the bee knoweth when, and whence, and how, to her her honey and wax, and how to form the repository combs, and how to lay it up, and all the rest of her marvellous economy, shall I think that God doth he knoweth not what, or what is not absolutely the best? Doth he want either skill, will, or power?

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And should the stone grudge to be hewed, the brick to be burnt, the trees to be cut down, and sawed and framed, the lead and iron to be melted, &c., when it is but to form an useful edifice, and to adapt and compose every part to the perfecting of the whole?

Shall the waters grudge that they must glide away, and the plants that they must die, and half die every winter, and the fruits and flowers that they must fall, or the moon that it must have its changing motions, or the sun that it must rise and set so oft, &c., when all is but the action and order which maketh up that harmony and perfection which was designed by the Creator, and is pleasing to his will?

Sect. 7. III. But lawful self-love is yet further herein gratified: the goodness expressed in the text is that analogical, subordinate good, which is mihi bonum, my own felicity, and that which tendeth thereunto: it is most reasonable to love God best, and that next which is likest him (if known), and why should it not be the easiest and the sweetest? But experience findeth it so easy to love ourselves, that certainly, if I firmly be-lieve that it is best for me, I shall desire to depart, and to be with Christ. And have I not reason to believe it?

Sect. 8. The reasons of it I will consider in this order: I. The general reason from the efficients and the means. II. The final III. The constitutive reasons from the state of my intellect, and its action and fruition there. IV. The constitutive reasons from the state of my will. V. The constituti

reasons.

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reasons from my practice there, leaving out those which pre-
resurrection will give me, because I am speaking but of my
sent departure unto Christ.

self, my

Sect. 9. And, 1. That is best for me, which love it. I hope heavenly Father designeth, and chooseth, for my gooken, or that I shall never dare to think, or say, that he is mista sen better for he wanted skill or love, or that I could have choice. Many a myself than he doth, if he had left all to my chd my foolish, retime the wise and good will of God hath crosse till perceived that bellious will on earth; and afterward I have for a higher good it was best; usually for myself, but always ant, that made me, than mine. It is not an enemy, nor a tyr hence. He hath not that hath preserved me, and that calls me rried him, the better I used me as an enemy: the more I have the ruling will, how happy have found him had I better obeyed his and rewarding will as had I been! And is not his disposingnd evil corrupteth it; but good? Man's work is like man, arted: if I should not die till God's work is like God, and uncorruuch more till I myself would my dearest friend would have it, misery,) I should rejoice, and choose it, (not constrained by mish, sinful soul! if I take it not think my life were safe! O fool choice, than at my own, or any to be far better to be at God's that he choose the time than I. man's! and if I had not rather tb soul! it is thy Father's voice that Be of good cheer, then, O mye that called thee into the world, calleth thee hence his voiled thee out of a state of sin and and bid thee live; that caereafter unto him; that called thee death, and bid thee live end, forgiving thy sins, renewed thy so oft from the grave, the comforts of his house and service; strength, restored thee tqed thee through this howling wilderness, and that so graciously lyst to the sight of the promised land. And and brought thee almo, y go, when infinite, fatherly love doth call 'wilt thou not willingldesirous of his presence? art thou afraid to thee? art thou not only cure of thy fears? What was it but this go to him who is the did finally elect thee? Where dost thou read glory to which he fee to the riches and honours of this world, or to that he elected th the flesh? But he elected us in Christ to the the pleasures of tance. (Eph. i. 3, 4, &c.) Indeed, he elected heavenly inheri bear the cross, and to manifold sufferings here: thee also to which thou preferrest before the crown? That but is it that a means unto the kingdom, that thou mightest be

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