s
Holy Name, who has redeemed thy Life from the Destroyer!_

_Corollary II._

We may see the rise of those multiply'd, magnify'd, and
Singularly-stinged Afflictions, with which _aged_, or _dying_ Saints
frequently have their _Death_ Prefaced, and their _Age_ embittered. When
the Saints of God are going to leave the World, it is usually a more
_Stormy World_ with them, than ever it was; and they find more _Vanity_,
and more _Vexation_ in the world than ever they did before. It is true,
_That many are the afflictions of the Righteous;_ but a little before
they bid adieu to all those many _Afflictions_, they often have greater,
harder, Sorer, Loads thereof laid upon them, than they had yet endured.
It is true, _That thro' much Tribulation we must enter in the Kingdom of
God;_ but a little before our _Entrance_ thereinto, our _Tribulation_
may have some sharper accents of Sorrow, than ever were yet upon it. And
what is the cause of this? It is indeed the _Faithfulness of our God
unto us_, that we should find the _Earth_ more full of _Thorns_ and
_Briars_ than ever, just before he fetches us from _Earth_ to _Heaven_;
that so we may go away the more willingly, the more easily, and with
less Convulsion, at his calling for us. O there are _ugly Ties_, by
which we are fastned unto this world; but God will by _Thorns and
Briars_ tear those _Ties_ asunder. But, _is not the Hand of Joab here?_
Sure, There is the _wrath_ of the _Devil_ also in it. A little before we
step into Heaven, the _Devil_ thinks with himself, _My time to abuse
that Saint is now but short; what Mischief I am to do that Saint, must
be done quickly, if at all; he'l shortly be out of my Reach for ever._
And for this cause he will now fly upon us with the Fiercest Efforts and
Furies of his _Wrath_. It was allowed unto the _Serpent_, in _Gen. 2.15._
_To Bruise the Heel_. Why, at the _Heel_, or at the _Close_, of our
Lives, the _Serpent_ will be nibbling, more than ever in our Lives
before: and it is, _Because now he has but a short time._ He knows, That
we shall very shortly be, _Where the wicked cease from Troubling, and
where the Weary are at Rest;_ wherefore that _Wicked_ one will now
_Trouble_ us, more than ever he did, and we shall have so much
_Disrest_, as will make us more _weary_ than ever we were, of things
here below.

_Corollary III._

What a Reasonable Thing then is it, that they whose _Time_ is but
_short_, should make as great _Use_ of their