Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

FIRST, As to the meaning of this phrase driven away; there are three things in it: the wicked shall be taken away suddenly, violently, and irresistibly.

First, Unrenewed men shall be taken away suddenly at death. Not that all wicked men die suddenly; nor that they are all wicked who die so, God forbid! But, (1.) Death commonly comes upon them unexpected, and so surpriseth them; as the deluge came surprisingly on the old world, tho' they were forewarned of it long before it came: as travail cometh on a woman with child, with surprising suddenness; although looked for and expected, 1 Thess. v. 3. Death seizeth them, as a creditor doth his debtor, to hale him to prison, Psal. lv. 15. And that when they are not aware. Death comes in, as a thief▪ at the window, and finds them full of busy thoughts about this life, which that very day perish. (2.) Death always seizeth them unprepared for it: the old house falls down about their ears, before they have another provided. When death casts them to the door, they have not where to lay their heads; unless it be on a bed of fire and brimstone. The soul and body are as it were hugging one another in mutual embraces: when death comes like a whirlwind, and separates them. (3.) Death hurries them away in a moment to destruction, and makes a most dismal change: the man, for the most part, never knows where he is, till in hell he lift up his eyes, Luke xvi. 23. The floods of wrath suddenly overwhelm his soul; and ere he is aware, he is plunged in the bottomless pit.

First, Unrenewed men shall be taken away suddenly at death. Not that all wicked men die suddenly; nor that they are all wicked who die so, God forbid! But, (1.) Death commonly comes upon them unexpected, and so surpriseth them; as the deluge came surprisingly on the old world, tho' they were forewarned of it long before it came: as travail cometh on a woman with child, with surprising suddenness; although looked for and expected,