Quest. 5. Is not eternal life worth the suffering of a momenfs pai7i? If I suffer with him, I shall reign with him. O how will men venture life and limb for a fadingcrown, swim through seas of blood toathrone ! and will I venture nothing ? suffer nothing for the crown of glory that fadeth not away? My dog will follow my horse's heels from morning to night, take many a weary step through mire and dirt, rather than leave me, though at night all begets by it isbut bones, and blows : If my soul had any true greatness, any sparks of generosity in it, how would it despise the sufferings of the way, for the glorj^ of the end ? liow would it break down all difficulties before it.^ whilst, by an eye of faith, it sees
now TO KEEP THE HEART FROM BACKSyblNG. i89
the forerunner, who is already entered, standing, as it were, upon the walls of heaven, with the crown in his hand, saying, " He that over- cometh shall inherit all things/'* Come on, then, my soul, come on, there is eternal life laid up for them that, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, Ilom. ii. 7.
Quest. 6*. Can I so easilij cast off the society and company of the saints, and give the right-hand of[fcllowship to the wicked ? How can I part with such lovely companions as these have been ? How often have I been benefited by their counsels ? Ezra x. ?}. how often refreshed, warmed, and quickened by their company ? Eccl. iv. 10, 11. how often have I fasted and prayed with them.? What sweet counsel have I taken with them, and gone to the house of God in company ? And shall I now shake hands with them, and say. Fare- well all ye saints for ever ; I shall never be among you more : Come drunkards, swearers, blasphemers, persecutors, you shall be my ever- lasting companions ? O rather let my body and soul be rent asunder, than that ever I should say thu*> to the excellent of the earth, in whom is all my delight.
Quest. 7. Have I seriously considered the terrible scripture-coni' minations against backsliders? Omy heart! darest thou turn thy back upon the very point of such threatenings as these .'^ Jer. xvii. 5, 6. " Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and " maketh flesh his arm ; and whose heart departeth from the Lord ; *' for he shall belike the heath in the desert, and shall not see when " good Cometh," i. e. The curse of God shall wither him root and branch. And Pleb. x. 26, 27. " If we sin wilfully, after we have re- " ceived the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacri- " fice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery " indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.'' And again, ver. 38. " If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him :" As if he should say, ' Take him, world, take him, devil, for your * own, I have no delight in him.' O who dare draw back when God has hedged up the way with such terrible threats as these !
Quest. 8. Can I look Christ in the face at the day of judgment if I desert him now ?
" He that is ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous " and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed " when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. Yet a little while, and you shall see the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory ; the last trump shall sound, the dead, both small and great, even all that sleep in the dust shall awake, and come before that great white throne, on which Christ shall sit in that day. And nov/ do but imagine thou sawest the trembling knees and quivering lips of guilty sinners ; imagine thou heardest the dreadful sentence of the Judge upon them, " Go, ye cursed," &c. and then a cry. Oh ! the weeping, wailing, and wringing of hands, that thex*e shall be.
490 HOW TO KEEP THE IlF.AllT FROM BACKSLIDING.
Wouldst thou desert Christ now, to protract a poor, miserable lifo on earth ? If the word of God be true, if the sayings of Christ be sealed and faithful, this shall be the portion of the apostate. It is an easy thing to stop the mouth of conscience now, but will it be easy to stop the mouth of the Judge then ? Thus keep thy heart that it depart not from the living God.
Season 12. The twelfth season of looking diligently to our hearts and keeping them with greatest care, is the time of sickness : ' When
* a child of God draws nigh to eternity, when there are but a few
* sands more in the upper part of his glass to run down ; now Satan ' busily bestirs himself; of him it may bo said, as of the natural ser- ' pent, 7iHvguam nisi moriens producHur inlongum ; he is never seen
* at his full length till dying : And now his great design, since he can-
* not win the soul from God, is to discourage, and make it unwilling
* to go to God, though the gracious soul, with Jacob, should then ' rouse up itself upon a dying bed, and rejoice that the marriage-day ' of the Lamb is now almost come ; though it should then say, witfi ' dying Austin, viverercnuo ut Chi'isto v'lvam ; I despise life to be ' with Christ. Or as dying Milius, when one asked him, whether he ' were willing to die ? O said ho, illus est nolle mori, qui nolit ire ad ' Christum ; let him be unwilling to die who is unwilling to go to
* Christ. But O ! what shrinking from death ? What lothness to ' depart, may sometimes (Indeed too frequently) be observed in the
* people of God.'^ How loth are some of them to take death by the ' cold hand ? If such a liberty were indulged to us, not to be dis-
* solved till we dissolve ourselves ; when should we say with St. Paul,
* " I desire to be dissolved T"" AVell then, the last case shall be this.
Case 12. How the people of Gody in times of' sickness^ may get their hearts loose from all earthly engagements, and persuade them, into a rvillingness to die.
And there are seven arguments, which I shall urge upon the people of God at such a time as this, to make them cheerfully en- tertain the messengers of death, and die as well as well as live, like saints. And the first is this :
Argument 1. First, The harmlessness of death to the people of God. Though it keep its dart^ it hath lost its sting : A saint (to allude to that, Isn. xi. 8.) " May play upon the hole of the asp, and put his " hand into the cockatrice's den."' Death is the cockatrice, or asp, the grave is his hole or den ; a saint need not fear to put his hand boldly into it: It hath left and lost its sting in the sides of Christ, 1 Cor. XV. ^^, *' O death ! where is thy sting 'f Why art thou afraid, O saint, that this sickness may be thy death, as long as thou knowest that the death of Christ is the death of death "^ Indeed, if thou didst die in tliy sins, as John viii. 21. if death, as a king, did reign over thee, Ilom. v. 14. If it could feed upon thee, as the lion doth upon the prey he hath taken, as Psalm xlix. 14. If " hell fol- " lowed the pale horse,'' as it is. Rev. vi. 1. then thou mightest well