A Body of Practical Divinity

2. At Death the Saints shall be freed from all the Troubles and Incumbrances to which this Life is subject. Sin is the Seed sown, and Trouble is the Harvest reaped: [Greek or Hebrew], Eurip. Life and Trouble are married together: There is more in Life to wean us than to tempt us. Parents divide a Portion of Sorrow to their Children, and yet they leave enough for themselves, Job 5.7. Man is born to trouble. He is Heir to it; it is his Birth-right. You may as well separate weight from Lead, as Trouble from the Life of Man: Quid est diu vivere nisi diu Torqueri? Aug. King Henry's Emblem, a Crown hung in a Bush of Thorns. There is a far greater Proportion of Bitterness than Pleasure in this Life, Prov. 7.17. I have perfumed my Bed with Myrrh, Aloes and Cinnamon. For one sweet Ingredient there were two bitter; for the Cinnamon there was Myrrh and Aloes. A Mans Grace will not exempt him from Troubles, Gen. 47.9. Few and evil have the days of the years of my Life been. Though he was a Godly Patriarch, though he had met with God, Gen. 32.30. He named the name of the place Peniel: For I have seen God face to face: Yet he had his Troubles few and evil, &c. There are many things to embitter Life and cause trouble, and Death frees us from all. 1. Care: The Mind is full of perplexed thoughts, how to bring about such a Design; how to prevent such an Evil. The word for Care, [Greek or Hebrew], comes from a Primitive in the Greek, that signifies To cut the Heart in pieces. Care doth discruciate the Mind, wast the Spirits: No such bitter Bread as the Bread of Carefulness, Ezek. 12.19. Care is a Spiritual Canker which eats out the Comfort of Life. Death is the Cure of Care. 2. Fear: Fear is the Ague of the Soul, which sets it a shaking, 1 John 4.14. There is Torment in Fear: Fear is like Prometheus his Vulture, it gnaws upon the Heart. There is a distrustful Fear, a Fear of Want; and a distracting Fear, Fear of Danger; and a discouraging Fear, a Fear God doth not love us. These Fears leave sad Impressions upon the Mind: Now at Death a Believer is freed from these torturing Fears: He now knows he is passed from Death to Life: He is as far from Fear, as the Damned are from Hope: The Grave buries a Christians Fears. 3. Labour.