Chapter 7. The Application of the Point

Use 1 FIrst, it reproves those that are so far from providing for the evil day, that they will not suffer any thoughts of that day to stay with them, they are as unwilling to be led into a discourse of this subject, as a child to be carried into the dark, and there left. It is a death to them to think of death, or that which leads to it. As some foolishly think, they must needs die presently when they have made their Will, so these think they hasten that sorrowful day by musing on it. The meditation of it is no more welcome to them, then the company of Moses was to Pharaoh. Therefore they say to it as he to Moses, Get you from me, and let me see your face no more; the seare of it makes them to butcher and make away all those thoughts which conscience stirs up concerning it, And at last they get such a mastery of their consciences, that they arrive to a kinde of Atheisme, it is as rare to have them think or speak of such matters, as to see a flie busie in Winter. Nothing now but what is frolick and jocund is entertained by them. If any such thoughts come as prophesie mirth and carnal content, these (as right with their hearts) are taken up into the chariot to sit with them, but all other are commanded to go behinde. Alas, poor-spirited wretches! something might be said for you, if this evil day of death and judgement were such entia rationis, as had no foundation or being but what our fancies give them, (such troubles there are in the world, which have all their evil from our thoughts, when we are disquieted with the scorns and reproaches of men, did we but not think of them they were nothing) but your banishing the thoughts of this evil day from your mind, will be a poor short relief, You can neither hinder its coming, nor take away its sting when it comes by your slighting it. You are like a Passenger in a ship sleep or wake, you are going your voyage. You doest but like that silly bird, who puts her head into a reed, and then thinks she is safe from the Fowler because she sees him not. You are a faire mark for Gods vengeance, he sees you, and is taking his aime at you, when you seest not him, yea, you puttest your self under an inevitable necessity of perishihg, by not thinking of this day. The first step to our safety, is consideration of our danger.

Use 2 It reproves these, who if they think of the evil day, yet it is so far off, that it is to little purpose. They will be sure to set it at such a distance from them, as shall take away the force of the meditation, that it shall not strike them down in the deep sense and fear of it. That cannon, which if we stood at the mouth of it would shatter limb from limb, will not so much as scare them that get out of its reach. The further we put the evil day, the weaker impression it makes on us. 'Tis true (say sinners) it cannot be help't, we owe a debt to nature, it must be paid; sickness will come, and death follow on that, and judgement brings up the reare of both. But (alas!) they look not for these guests yet, they prophesy of these things a great while hence to come. Many a faire day they hope will intervene. Thus men are very kind to themselves. First, they wish it may be long before it comes, and then because they would have it so, they are bold to promise themselves it shall be so; and when once they have made this promise, no wonder if they then live after the rate of their vain hopes, putting off the stating of their accounts, till the winter-evening of old age, when they shall not have such allurements to gad abroad from the pleasures of this life, O then they will do great matters to fit them for the evil day. Bold man! who gave you leave to cut out such large thongs of that time which is not yours but Gods? Who makes the Lease, the Tenant or the Landlord? or doest you forget you farmest your life, and are not an Owner? This is the device of Satan, to make you delay, whereas a present expectation of the evil day, would not let you sit still unprepared. O why do you let your souls from their work, make them idle and rest from their burdens, by telling them of long life, while death chop in upon you unawares? O what shame will your whorish hearts be put to, (that now say your husband is gone afar off, you may fill your selves with loves) if he should come before he is look't for, and finde you in bed with lusts? And let me tell you, sudden destruction is threatened, especially to such secure ones. Reade Matth. 24.48, 50, 51. where 'tis denounced against that sort of sinners, who please themselves with their Lords delaying his coming, that the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. Indeed God must go out of his ordinary road of dealing with sinners, if such scape a sudden ruine. One is bold to challenge any to show a President in Scripture of any that are branded for security, that some remarkable yea, sudden judgement did not surprise. Sodom, how soon after a Sun-shine morning did the heavens thicken, and bury them in a few hours, (by a storme of fire) in their own ashes? Carelesse Laish cut off before they almost think of it. Agag, when he saw the clouds of his fears break, and faire weather was in his countenance, they return immediately upon him, and shut him up in death; he is presently hewen in pieces. Amalek slaughtered by David before the triumph of their late victory was cold. Nebuchadnezzar strutting himself in his Palace with this bravado in his mouth, Is not this great Babylon that I have built? and before he can get the words out of his throat, there is another voice falling from heaven, saying, O King, to you be it spoken,your Kingdom is departed from you: and the same hour it was fulfill'd, and he sent to graze with the beasts. Dives blessing himself for many years, and within a few hours the pillow is pluck't from under his head, and you heare no more of him, till out of hell he roare; yea, a whole world, (few persons excepted) drowned, and they not know till the day the flood came, Matthew 24:29. and swept them all away: And who are you, O man, that promisest your self an exemption, when Kings, Cities, a whole world have been ruined after this sort?

Vse 3 This reproves those, who indeed think oft of this evil day, (much against their will,) by reason of an awakened conscience, that is ever pinching of them, and preaching on Pauls text (before Felix) to them, till it makes them tremble as he did; yet such is the power of lust in their hearts, that it makes them spur on, notwithstanding all the rebukes conscience gives them, and affrighting thoughts they have of the evil day; yet they continue in their old trade of sin desperately. These wretches are the objects of our saddest pity. The secure sinner (that has broke prison from his conscience,) is like a strong-brain'd drunkard, he swallows down his sin, (as the other does his drink) with pleasure, and is not stirr'd at all; but here is a man that is stomach sick, (as I may so say) his conscience is oft disgorging his sweet draughts, and yet he will sin, though with pain and anguish. O consider (poor wretches) what you do, instead of arming your selves against the evil day, you arme the evil day against your selves; you are sticking the bed with pins and needles, on which you must ere long be laid; you are throwing billets into that fiery furnace, wherein at last you shall be cast, and all this in spight of your consciences, which yet God mercifully sets in your way, that the prickings of them may be as a hedge of thornes, to keep you from the pursuit of your lusts. Know therefore, if you will go on, that as your conscience takes from the pleasure of your sin at present, so it will adde to the horrour of your torment hereafter.

Usue 4 It reproves those, who though they are not so violent and outragious in sin, to make them stink above ground in the nostrils of others, yet rest in an unarm'd condition, they do not flie to Christ for covering and shelter against this day of storme and tempest, and the reason is, they have a lie in their right hand, they feed on a shell, and a deceived heart carries them aside from seeking after Christ. It would make one tremble to see how confident many are with their false hopes and self-confidences, daring to come up (as Corah with his Censer, as undauntedly as Moses himself) even to the mouth of the grave, till on a sudden they are swallowed up with destruction, and sent to be undeceiv'd in hell, who would not be beaten from their refuges of lies here; whoever you art, O man, and whatever you have to glory in, were it the most Saint-like conversation that ever any lived on earth, yet if this be your shelter against the evil day, you will perish. No salvation when that flood comes but Christ, yea, being in Christ, hanging on the out-side of the Ark by a specious Profession, will not save; Me thinks I see how those of the old world ran for their lives, some to this hill, and others to that high tree, and how the waves pursued them, till at last they were swept into the devouring flood. Such will your end be, that turn any other way for help then to Christ; yet the Ark waits on you, yea, comes up close to your gate to take you in. Noah did not put forth his hand more willingly to take in the dove, then Christ does to receive those who flie to him for refuge. O reject not your own mercies for lying vanity.

Use 3 Let it put you upon the enquiry (whoever you art,) whether you beest in a posture of defense for this evil day. Ask your soul soberly and solemnly, Art you provided for this day, this evil day? how couldest you part with what that will take away, and welcome what it will certainly bring? Death comes with a voider to carry away all your carnal enjoyments, and to bring you up a reckoning for them. O can you take your leave of the one, and with peace and confidence reade the other? will it not affright you to have your health and strength turn'd into faintnesse and feeblenesse, your sweet nights of rest into waking eyes, and restlesse tossings up and down; your voice that has so often chanted to the viol, to be now acquainted with no other tune but sighs and groans. O how can you look upon your sweet and dear relations with thoughts of removing from them? yea, behold the instrument, as it were, whetting that shall give the fatal stroke to sever soul and body? think that you wert now half dead in your members, that are most remote from the fountain of life, and death to have but a few moments journey, before it arrive to your heart, and so beat your last breath out of your body. Possibly the inevitable necessity of these do make you to harden your self against them; this might indeed in some Heathen, that is not resolv'd whether there be another world or no, help a little to blunt the edge of that terrour which otherwise would cut deeper in his amazed heart. But if you believest another world, and that judgement which stands at deaths back, ready to allot you your unchangeable state in blisse or misery; surely you can not relieve your awakened conscience with such a poor cordial. O therefore think what answer you meanest to give unto the great God, at your appearing before him, when he shall ask you, what you can say, why the sentence of eternal damnation should not then be pronounced against you. Truly we deale unfaithfully with our owne souls, if we bring not our thoughts to this issue. If now you should ask how you should provide against the evill day, so that you may stand before that dreadful bar, and live so in the mean time, that you might not be under a slavish bondage, through the fearful expectation of it; Take it in a few directions.

First if ever you would have a blessed issue of this evil day, so as to stand in judgement before the great God, rest not till you have got into a Covenant-relation with Christ, Dying Davids living comfort was drawn from the Covenant God had made with him; this was all his desire and all his salvation; how can you put your head into the other world without horrour, if you have not solid ground that Christ will own you for his? Heaven has its proper heires, and so has hell. The heires of heaven are such as are in Covenant with God. The foundation of it was laid in a Covenant, and all the mansions there are prepared for a people in Covenant with him; Gather my Saints together that have made a Covenant with me. But how may you get into this Covenant-relation? First, break your covenant with sin. You are by nature a covenant-servant to sin and Satan, may be you have not expresly in words and formally as witches seal'd this covenant, yet virtually as you have done the work of Satan, and been at the command of your lusts, accepting the reward of unrighteousnesse, (the pleasure and carnal advantages they have paid you in for the same) therein you have declared your self to be so. Now if ever you will be taken into Covenant with God, break this; a Covenant with hell and heaven cannot stand together.

Secondly, betroth your self to Christ. The Covenant of grace is the joynture which God settles only upon Christs Spouse. Rebeccah had not the Jewels and costly raiment till she was promised to become Isaaks wife, Genesis 24:53. All the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ. If once you receivest Christ, with him, you receivest them. He that owes the tree has right to all the fruit that is on it. Now that you may not huddle up a marriage between Christ and you, so as to be disown'd of Christ, and it prove a nullity at last; it behooves you to look to it, that there be found in you what Christ expects in every soul that he espouss. First, therefore consider whether you can heartily love the person of Christ. Look wishly on him again and again as he is set forth in all his spiritual excellencies, are they such as your heart can close with? does his holy nature and all those heavenly graces with which he is beautified, render him desirable to you? or couldest you like him better if he were not so precise and exactly holy? yea, is your heart so inflamed with a desire of him, that you can love him with a conjugal love. A woman may love one as a friend? whom she cannot love so as to make him her husband. A friendly love may stand with a love of some other equal to it, yea, Superiour; But▪ a conjugal love is such as will bear neither: can you finde in your heart to forsake all other, and cleave to Christ? does your heart speak you ready, and present you willing to go with your sweet Jesus, though he carry you from father and fathers house? Is your confidence such of his power to protect you from all your enemies, sin, wrath and hell, that you can resolvedly put the life of your soul into his hands, to be saved by the sole vertue of his blood, and strength of his omnipotent arme; and of his care to provide for you for this life and the other, that rhou can acquiesce in what he promiss to do for you? In a word, if you have Christ, you must not only love him, but for his sake, all your new Kindred, which by your marriage to him you shalt be allied unto. How can you fadge to call the Saints your brethren? can you love them heartily, and forget all the old grudges you have had against them? some of them you will finde poor and persecuted, yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren, neither must you. If you findest your heart now in such a disposition as suits these Interrogatories, I dare not deny the banes, yea, I dare not but pronounce Christ and you Husband and Wife. Go, poor soul, (if I may call so glorious a Bride poor,) Go and comfort your self with the expectation of your Bridegrooms coming for you, and when the evil day approaches, and death it self draws nigh, look not now with terrour upon it, but rather revive with old Jacob, to see the chariot which shall carry you over unto the embraces of your husband, whom you hearest to be in so great Honor and Majesty in Heaven, as may assure you he is able to make you welcome when you comest there. Amongst the all things which are ours by being Christs, the Apostle forgets not to name this to be one, Death is ours. And well, he did so, or else we should never have look't upon it as a gift, but rather as a judgement. Now soul, you are out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do you. Yet there remains something for you to do, that you may walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day. We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care fall into such distempers, as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day. David, that at one time would not feare to walk in the valley of the shadow of death, is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it, that he cries, Spare me, O Lord, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, Psal. 39. The child, though he loves his father, may do that which may make him afraid to go home. Now, Christian, if you wouldest live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day,

First, labor to die to this life, and the enjoyments of it every day more and more. Death is not so strong to him, whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sicknesse, as it is to him that lies but a few days, and has strength of nature to make great resistance. Truly thus it is here, that Christian, whose love to this life and the contents of it, has been for many years consuming and dying, will with more facility part with them, then he whose love is stronger to them. All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world. Paul tells us he died daily. He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world, so that by that time he came to die, all his affections were pack't up and gone, which made him the more ready to follow, [illegible], I am ready to be offered up, 2 Timothy 4:6. If it be but a tooth to pull out, the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it, O loosen the roots of your affections from the world, and the tree will fall more easily.

Secondly, be careful to approve your self with diligence and faithfulness to God in your place and calling. The clearer you standest in your own thoughts concerning the uprightnesse of your heart in the tenure of your Christian course, the more composure you will have when the evil day comes. I beseech you, O Lord, (says good Hezekiah at the point of death as he thought) remember now how I have walked before you in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. This cannot be our confidence, but it will be a better companion then a scoulding conscience; if the blood be bad, the spirits will be tainted also; the more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisie and unfaithfulnesse, the weaker our faith will be in a dying hour. There is great difference between two children that come home at night, one from the field, where he has been diligent and faithful about his fathers work, and another that has played the Truant a great part of the day; the former comes inconfidently to stand before his father, the other sneaks to bed, & is afraid his father should see him, or ask where he has been. O Sirs, look to your walking. These have been trying times as ever came to England. It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity then formerly. And that is the reason why it is so rare to finde Christians (especially those whose place and calling has been more in the winde of temptation,) go off the stage at death with such a Plaudite of inward peace in their bosomes.

Thirdly, familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to your soul; Handle this serpent, often walk daily in the serious meditations of if, do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh; that is the way to increase the terrour of it. Do with your souls, when shy of, and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death, as you use to do with your beast, that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him. When he flies back and starts at a thing, you do not yield to his fear and go back, that will make him worse another time, but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of, and in time you break him of that quality. The evil day is not such a scareful thing to you that are a Christian, as you shouldest start for it. Bring up your heart close to it. Show your soul what Christ has done to take the sting out of it what the sweet promises are, that are given on purpose to overcome the feare of it, and what your hopes are you shalt get by it. These will satisfie and compose your Spirit, whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase your feare, and bring you more into bondage to it.

Application 1. First, this rebukes those who are so far from preparing for the evil day that they will not allow any thought of it to remain with them. They are as unwilling to be drawn into a conversation on this topic as a child is to be carried into a dark room and left there. It is a kind of death for them to think of death, or of what leads to it. Some foolishly believe they will die sooner if they make their will, just as these people believe they hasten the sorrowful day by thinking about it. The thought of death is no more welcome to them than Moses was to Pharaoh. So they say to it what Pharaoh said to Moses: 'Get away from me! Do not see my face again.' Their fear of it drives them to silence and destroy every thought that conscience stirs up about it. At last they gain such control over their consciences that they reach a kind of practical atheism — it becomes as rare for them to think or speak of such things as to see a fly in winter. Nothing is welcome to them now but what is cheerful and pleasurable. Any thought that promises merriment and worldly comfort is welcomed aboard and given a seat beside them; all other thoughts are sent to walk behind. Alas, poor wretches! There might be something to be said for them if this evil day of death and judgment were a mere imaginary thing with no existence beyond our fears — like the sting of a person's contempt, which hurts only because we think about it and means nothing if we ignore it. But banishing thoughts of this evil day from your mind will give you only a brief and shallow relief. You cannot prevent its coming, and you cannot remove its sting when it arrives simply by refusing to think about it. You are like a passenger on a ship — sleeping or awake, you are moving toward your destination. You are behaving like the foolish bird that buries its head in a bush and thinks itself safe from the hunter because it cannot see him. You are a clear target for God's judgment. He sees you and is taking aim, even when you do not see Him. In fact, by not thinking of this day, you are placing yourself under the unavoidable necessity of perishing. The first step toward safety is recognizing the danger.

Application 2. This also rebukes those who, if they do think about the evil day at all, place it so far in the future that the thought accomplishes almost nothing. They are careful to keep it at such a distance that it loses all power to strike them with a deep sense of urgency and fear. A cannon that would blow you apart if you stood at its mouth does not even frighten those who have moved far enough out of its range. The further away we push the evil day, the weaker its impression on us. 'It cannot be helped,' sinners say. 'We owe a debt to nature — it must be paid. Sickness will come, death will follow, and judgment will bring up the rear.' But they are not expecting these visitors yet. They prophesy of these things as belonging to a distant future. Many fair days will intervene, they hope. And so people are very kind to themselves in this way. First they wish it may be long before it comes, and then, because they want it to be so, they boldly promise themselves it will be so. Having made that promise, they live according to their vain hopes, deferring the settling of their accounts until the winter evening of old age — when the pleasures of this life will have fewer charms to lure them away. Then, they tell themselves, they will make great preparations for the evil day. Bold man! Who gave you leave to carve out such a large portion of time that is not yours but God's? Who sets the terms of a lease — the tenant or the landlord? Or have you forgotten that you hold your life on lease, and do not own it? This is Satan's device — to make you delay. A present expectation of the evil day would not allow you to sit idle and unprepared. Why do you let your soul idle and rest from its true work by feeding it promises of long life — while death creeps up on you unawares? What shame your unfaithful heart will feel — now telling yourself that your husband is far away and you may fill your time with other loves — if he should arrive before you expected and find you in bed with your sins? And let me tell you: sudden destruction is specifically threatened to people who live in this kind of careless security. Read Matthew 24:48-51, where judgment is declared against the servant who pleases himself with his master's delay: 'The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know.' God would have to go entirely out of His usual ways of dealing with sinners for people like these to escape a sudden ruin. Someone has rightly challenged anyone to show a single example in Scripture of a person marked out for this kind of carelessness who was not overtaken by some striking and sudden judgment. Sodom — how quickly after a sunlit morning did the sky darken and bury them in hours under a storm of fire and their own ashes? Careless Laish, cut off almost before they realized what was happening. Agag — when the clouds of his fear broke and he saw clear skies on his face, judgment came back on him immediately and shut him up in death. He was cut to pieces at once. The Amalekites slaughtered by David before the triumph of their recent victory had even grown cold. Nebuchadnezzar strutting through his palace with these boastful words in his mouth: 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built?' — and before he can finish the sentence, another voice falls from heaven: 'O king, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you.' And that very hour it was fulfilled, and he was sent to graze with the animals. The rich man blessing himself with plans for many years, and within hours the pillow is pulled from under his head — and you hear no more from him until he is crying out from hell. Indeed, an entire world — with few exceptions — drowned, and they did not know until the day the flood came (Matthew 24:38-39) and swept them all away. And who are you, O man, to promise yourself an exemption, when kings, cities, and entire populations have been ruined in exactly this way?

Application 3. This rebukes those who do think often of this evil day — much against their will — because an awakened conscience is always pricking them and preaching to them as Paul did before Felix, until it makes them tremble as he did. Yet such is the power of sin in their hearts that they press on regardless, continuing in their old ways of sin despite every rebuke from conscience and every frightening thought about the evil day. These wretched people deserve our deepest pity. The person whose conscience is completely dulled — who has broken out of its prison — is like a strong-stomached drunkard: he swallows his sin with pleasure and is not troubled at all. But here is a man who is, if I may say it, spiritually nauseated — his conscience is constantly throwing up the pleasures he has swallowed, and yet he keeps sinning, though it causes him pain and anguish. Consider, poor wretches, what you are doing. Instead of arming yourselves against the evil day, you are arming the evil day against yourselves. You are lining the bed with pins and needles on which you must soon lie. You are throwing wood into the furnace in which you will at last be thrown — and all this in spite of consciences that God in His mercy has placed in your path so that their stings might serve as a hedge of thorns to block your pursuit of sin. Know therefore, if you press on: as your conscience now robs you of some of the pleasure of your sin, it will add to the horror of your torment hereafter.

Application 4. This rebukes those who, though they are not so violent and outrageous in sin as to be a stench to those around them, still rest in an unprotected condition — they have not fled to Christ for covering and shelter against this day of storm. The reason is that they have a lie in their right hand. They feed on an empty shell, and a deceived heart has led them away from seeking Christ. It would make anyone tremble to see how confidently many rest in false hopes and self-reliance — coming as boldly as Korah with his censer, as undaunted as Moses himself, right up to the mouth of the grave, until suddenly they are swallowed up by destruction and sent to be undeceived in hell — having refused to be moved from their refuges of lies here. Whoever you are, O man, whatever you have to glory in — even the most saint-like life that was ever lived on earth — if that is your shelter against the evil day, you will perish. There is no salvation when that flood comes except Christ. And merely hanging on the outside of the ark by a respectable profession will not save. I can picture how those in the ancient world ran for their lives — some to this hill, others to that tall tree — and how the waves pursued them until at last they were swept into the consuming flood. Such will be your end, if you turn anywhere else for help than to Christ. But the ark is still waiting for you — it has come right up to your door to take you in. Noah did not put out his hand more willingly to receive the dove than Christ does to receive those who flee to Him for refuge. Do not reject your own mercy for the sake of lying vanity.

Application 5. Let this prompt you — whoever you are — to examine honestly whether you are in any position of readiness for this evil day. Ask your soul soberly and seriously: are you prepared for this day, this evil day? Could you let go of what it will take away, and welcome what it will certainly bring? Death comes like a servant clearing the table — to carry away all your worldly comforts and to call you to give an account of them. Can you say farewell to the one and read the other with peace and confidence? Will it not alarm you to have your health and strength turned into faintness and weakness, your peaceful nights into wakeful, restless hours, your voice that has so often sung to music now acquainted with nothing but sighs and groans? How will you face saying goodbye to those you love most? Can you even now look, so to speak, at the instrument being sharpened that will deliver the fatal stroke separating soul from body? Consider that you were half dead in your limbs — those furthest from the heart — and death had only a few moments' journey before arriving at your heart and driving your last breath from your body. Perhaps the sheer unavoidability of these things makes you harden yourself against them. That reasoning might help a pagan somewhat — one who has not settled whether there is another world — to somewhat blunt the terror that would otherwise cut deeper into his bewildered heart. But if you believe in another world and in the judgment that stands just behind death, ready to assign you your unchangeable state in joy or misery — surely you cannot comfort an awakened conscience with so weak a remedy. Think, therefore, what answer you intend to give to the great God at your appearance before Him, when He asks what you can say why the sentence of eternal condemnation should not be pronounced against you. We deal unfaithfully with our own souls if we do not bring our thinking to this question. If you are now asking how to prepare against the evil day — so that you may stand before that dreadful bar and live in the meantime without being crushed by a slavish fear of it — take these directions.

First, if you would have a blessed outcome in this evil day — so as to stand in judgment before the great God — do not rest until you have entered into a covenant relationship with Christ. The living comfort of dying David was drawn from the covenant God had made with him. 'This is all my salvation and all my desire.' How can you put your head into the other world without horror if you have no solid ground for knowing that Christ will claim you as His own? Heaven has its proper heirs, and so does hell. The heirs of heaven are those who are in covenant with God. The foundation of heaven was laid through a covenant, and all the mansions there are prepared for a people in covenant with Him: 'Gather My godly ones to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me.' But how may you enter into this covenant relationship? First, break your covenant with sin. By nature you are a covenant-servant to sin and Satan. Perhaps you have not explicitly and formally sealed this covenant in words as witches do — yet in effect you have done so: by doing Satan's work, obeying your sinful desires, and accepting the reward of unrighteousness — the pleasure and worldly advantages they have paid you — you have declared yourself his. If you would ever be taken into covenant with God, you must break with this. A covenant with hell and a covenant with heaven cannot stand together.

Second, betroth yourself to Christ. The covenant of grace is the inheritance God settles only on Christ's bride. Rebekah did not receive the jewelry and fine clothing until she had agreed to become Isaac's wife (Genesis 24:53). All the promises are 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Christ. Receive Christ, and with Him you receive all of them. The one who owns the tree has the right to all its fruit. Now, so that you do not rush into a hasty union with Christ that Christ will later disown — making it null and void in the end — you must look carefully to see whether what Christ requires in every soul He takes as His own is truly found in you. First, consider whether you can genuinely love the person of Christ. Look at Him long and carefully as He is set forth in all His spiritual excellence. Are these qualities that your heart can truly embrace? Does His holy nature and all the heavenly grace that adorns Him make Him desirable to you? Or would you actually prefer Him if He were less perfectly holy? More than that — is your heart so inflamed with longing for Him that you can love Him with the love of a spouse? A woman may love someone as a friend without being able to love him as a husband. A friendly love can coexist with love for someone else equally strong, or even stronger. But the love of a spouse will tolerate neither rival. Can you find in your heart to forsake all others and cling to Christ? Does your heart say it is ready — that you are willing to go with your dear Jesus, even if He takes you away from father and home? Is your confidence in His power to protect you from all your enemies — sin, wrath, and hell — such that you can resolutely place the life of your soul in His hands, to be saved by the sole virtue of His blood and the strength of His almighty arm? And is your trust in His care to provide for you in this life and the next such that you can rest in whatever He has promised to do for you? In short, if you have Christ, you must not only love Him but also, for His sake, all your new family — those to whom your union with Him makes you related. Can you bring yourself to call the saints your brothers and sisters? Can you love them sincerely, setting aside all the old grudges you have carried against them? Some of them you will find poor and persecuted — yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brothers, and you must not be either. If you find your heart now in the condition these questions describe, I dare not refuse the match — I dare declare Christ and you husband and wife. Go, poor soul — if I may call so glorious a bride poor — go and comfort yourself with the expectation of your Bridegroom's coming for you. And when the evil day approaches and death itself draws near, do not look at it with terror. Instead, revive as old Jacob did when he heard the news: the chariot is coming to carry you over to the embrace of your husband, who is even now in such great honor and majesty in heaven that you may be sure He is able to welcome you when you arrive. Among all things that are ours through being Christ's, the apostle includes this one: death is ours. He was right to say so — otherwise we would never have looked on death as a gift, but only as a judgment. Soul, you are now beyond any danger that the evil day can truly do you. Yet there remains something for you to do if you would walk in a comfortable expectation of the evil day. We see that even gracious people may, through lack of holy watchfulness, fall into conditions that put a sting back into their thoughts of the evil day. David, who at one time would not fear to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, is at another time so frightened as he is led toward it that he cries: 'Spare me, O Lord, that I may recover strength before I go and am no more' (Psalm 39:13). A child who loves his father may still do something that makes him afraid to come home. Now, Christian, if you would live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day —

First, work to die to this life and its enjoyments more and more every day. Death does not come with the same force to the person whose strength has been spent by a long wasting illness as it does to one who has lain sick only a few days and still has the physical strength to resist strongly. The same is true here. The Christian whose love for this life and its pleasures has been slowly dying for many years will let go of them more easily than the one whose attachment is still strong. Not all Christians are mortified to the world in equal measure. Paul tells us he died daily. He was constantly sending more and more of his heart out of the world, so that by the time he actually came to die, all his affections had already packed up and gone ahead of him — which made him all the more ready to follow: 'I am already being poured out as a drink offering' (2 Timothy 4:6). If only a tooth needs pulling, the tighter it is rooted, the more pain there is in the drawing. Loosen the roots of your affections from the world, and the tree will fall more easily.

Second, take care to prove yourself diligent and faithful to God in your place and calling. The clearer you stand in your own thoughts about the uprightness of your heart throughout your Christian life, the greater composure you will have when the evil day comes. 'I beseech You, O Lord,' said good Hezekiah when he thought he was at the point of death, 'remember now how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.' This cannot serve as our confidence before God, but it will be a much better companion in the dying hour than a scolding conscience. If the blood is bad, the spirits will be tainted too. The more our life has been corrupted by hypocrisy and unfaithfulness, the weaker our faith will be when the hour of death arrives. There is a great difference between two children coming home at evening — one from the field, where he has been diligent and faithful in his father's work, and another who has been playing truant most of the day. The first comes in with confidence and can stand before his father. The other sneaks off to bed and is afraid his father will see him or ask where he has been. Take care of your walk before God. These have been as trying times as England has ever seen. It has required more care and courage than in former times to maintain sincerity. And that is why it is now so rare to find Christians — especially those whose place and calling have put them most in the wind of temptation — leaving the stage of life at death with the applause of inward peace in their hearts.

Third, make the thoughts of the evil day familiar to your soul. Handle this serpent. Walk in regular, serious meditation on it. Do not run from these thoughts simply because they are unpleasant to the flesh — that is exactly the way to increase your terror of it. Deal with your soul when it shies away from thoughts of affliction or death as you would deal with a horse that startles and bolts as you ride. When the horse shies from something, you do not give in to his fear and turn back — that only makes him worse the next time. Instead, you ride him straight up to the thing he is afraid of, and in time you break him of the habit. The evil day is not such a frightening thing to you as a Christian that you should shy away from it. Bring your heart close to it. Show your soul what Christ has done to remove the sting from it, what sweet promises have been given precisely to overcome the fear of it, and what you will gain through it. These things will settle and compose your spirit. Avoiding thoughts of the evil day will only increase your fear of it and keep you more in bondage to it.