The Day of Doom; Or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment / With Other Poems

DEATH EXPECTED AND WELCOMED.

Welcome sweet Rest, by me so long Desir'd,

Who have with Sins and Griefs so long been tir'd;

And welcome Death, my Father's Messenger;

Of my Felicity the hastener.

Welcome good Angels, who, for me distrest,

Are come to guard me to Eternal Rest.

Welcome, O Christ, who hast my Soul Redeem'd,

Whose Favor I have more than Life esteem'd.

Oh! do not now my sinful soul forsake,

But to thyself thy Servant gath'ring take.

Into thy Hands I recommend my Spirit,

Trusting through Thee Eternal Life t'inherit.

A FAREWELL TO THE WORLD.

Now Farewell, World, in which is not my Treasure;

I have in thee enjoy'd but little Pleasure.

And now I leave thee for a Better Place,

Where lasting Pleasures are, before Christ's face.

Farewell, ye Sons of Men, who do not savor

The things of God; who little prize his Favor.

Farewell, I say, with your Fool's Paradise,

Until the King of Terrors you surprise,

And bring you trembling to Christ's Judgment Seat,

To give Account of your Transgressions great.

Farewell, New England, which hast long enjoy'd

The Day of Grace, but hast most vainly toy'd

And trifled with the Gospel's glorious Light;

Thou may'st expect a dark Egyptian Night.

Farewell, young Brood and rising Generation,

Wanton and proud, ripe for God's Indignation,

Which neither you nor others can prevent,

Except in Truth you speedily repent.

Farewell, sweet Saints of God, Christ's little Number,

Beware lest ye through sloth securely slumber;

Stand to your Spir'tual Arms and keep your Watch,

Let not your Enemy you napping catch;

Take up your Cross, prepare for Tribulation,

Through which doth lie the way unto salvation.

Love Jesus Christ with all sincerity;

Eschew Will-worship and Idolatry.

Farewell, again, until we all appear

Before our Lord, a Well-done there to hear.

Farewell, ye faithful Servants of the Lord,

Painful dispensers of his Holy Word,

From whose Communion and Society

I once was kept through long infirmity.

This of my Sorrows was an aggravation;

But Christ be thankéd, through whose Mediation

I have at length obtainéd Liberty

To dwell with Soul-delighting Company,

Where many of our Friends are gone before,

And you shall follow with a many more.

Meanwhile stand fast, the Truth of God maintain,

Suffer for Christ, and great shall be your Gain.

Farewell, my natural Friends and clear Relations,

Who have my Trials seen and great Temptations;

You have no cause to make for me great Moan;

My Death to you is little Loss or none.

But unto me it is no little Gain,

For Death at once frees me from all my Pain.

Make Christ your greatest Friend, who never dies;

All other Friends are fading Vanities.

Make him your Light, your Life, your End, your All;

Prepare for Death, be ready for his Call.

Farewell, vile Body, subject to decay,

Which art with lingering sickness worn away;

I have by thee much Pain and Smart endur'd;

Great Grief of Mind hast thou to me procur'd;

Great Grief of Mind by being Impotent,

And to Christ's Work an awkward Instrument.

Thou shalt not henceforth be a clog to me.

Nor shall my Soul a Burthen be to thee.

Rest in thy Grave until the Resurrection,

Then shalt thou be revivéd in Perfection,

Endow'd with wonderful Agility,

Clothéd with Strength and Immortality;

With shining Brightness gloriously array'd,

Like to Christ's glorious Body, glorious made.

Thus Christ shall thee again to me restore,

Ever to live with him and part no more.

Meanwhile my Soul shall enter into Peace,

Where Fears and Tears, where Sin and Smart shall cease.

FUNERAL SERMON

A CHARACTER
OF THE REVEREND AUTHOR,
Mr. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH,
PREACHED AT MALDEN, JUNE 24, 1705.
BY THE REVEREND DR. COTTON MATHER.

He was Descended of Eminently Religious Parents, who were Sufferers for that which was then The Cause of God and of New-England. While he was yet a youth, he was marvellously concerned that he might have an Heart filled with the Spirit of God. This Concernment upon his mind appeared especially in his watchful Endeavors to have Spiritual Sins chased out of his cleansed Heart. Pride, the Sin of Young Men, yea, of all Men; Pride, the Sin which few Men try or trouble themselves about; this Devout Youth was full of Holy and Watchful Trouble about it: And he then wrote a very Savoury Discourse, Entituled, Considerations against Pride, and another, Entituled, Considerations against Delighting more in the Creature than in God. This was to Mortify in himself the Sins rarely minded by the most of men.

Having had a Pious and a Learned Education, the first Publick Station wherein I find him, was that of a Fellow and a Tutor in Harvard Colledge. With a rare Faithfulness did he adorn that Station! He used all means imaginable to make his Pupils not only good Scholars, but also good Christians, and instil into them those things which might render them rich Blessings unto the Churches of God. Unto his Watchful and Painful Essays to keep them close under their Academical Exercises, he added Serious Admonitions unto them about their Interior State; and he Employed his Prayers and Tears to God for them, and had such a flaming zeal to make them worthy Men, that upon Reflection he was afraid Lest his cares for their Good, and his affection to them, should so drink up his very Spirit, as to steal away his Heart from God.

From Cambridge he made his remove to Malden, and was their Faithful Pastor for about a Jubilee of years together.

It was not long after his coming to Malden that a sickly Constitution so prevailed upon him, as to confine him from his Publick Work for some whole seven of Years. His Faithfulness continued when his Ministry was thus interrupted. The Kindness of his Tender Flock unto him was answered in his Kind Concern to have them served by other Hands. He took a short voyage unto another Country for the Recovery of his Health; which, though he recovered not, yet at his Return I find him comforting himself with inserting of this Passage in his Reserved Papers:

Peradventure the Lord Removed me for a season that he might set a better Watchman over his Flock, and a more painful Laborer in his Vineyard. This was one thing that I aimed at in Removing (to help the People's Modesty in the case), and I believe the Lord aimed at it, in Removing me for a season.

His Faithfulness now appeared in his Edifying Discourses to those that came near him; much bewailing the want of a Profitable and Religious conversation in so many that profess Religion. And that yet he might more Faithfully set himself to do Good, when he could not Preach he Wrote several Composures, wherein he proposed the edification of such Readers as are for plain Truths, dressed up in a Plain Meeter. These Composures have had their Acceptance and Advantage among that sort of Readers; and one of them, the Day of Doom, which has been often Reprinted in both Englands, may find our Children till the Day itself arrive.

It pleased God, when the distress of the Church in Malden did extremely call for it, wondrously to restore his Faithful Servant. He that had been for near Twenty Years almost Buried Alive, comes abroad again, and for as many years more, must, in Publick Usefulness, receive the Answer and Harvest of the Thousands of Supplications with which the God of his Health had favoured him.

How Faithfully did he now Deliver the Whole Counsel of God!

How Faithfully did he Rebuke Sin, both in his Ministry and Discipline!

How Faithful was he to the Work of God in the Churches of New-England, and grieved at every thing that he thought had any Tendency to incommode that Glorious Work! But how Patient, how Loving, how Charitable to such as in lesser Matters differed from him!

How Faithful was he in the Education of his Family! A very Abraham for his Commands unto them, to Keep the Way of the Lord! A very David for his charge unto them to Know the God of their Father and Serve Him!

His long Weakness and Illness made him an able Physician for the Body as well the Soul.

As he was Faithful to the Death, so he was Lively to the Death.

It was a surprise to us to see a little, feeble Shadow of a Man, beyond Seventy, preaching usually twice or thrice in a week, Visiting, Comforting the Afflicted, Encouraging the Private Meetings, Catechising the Children of the Flock, and managing the Government of the Church, and attending the Sick, not only as a Pastor, but as a Physician too; and this not only in his own Town, but also in all those of the Vicinity. Thus he did unto the Last; and he was but one Lord's-Day taken off before his Last. But in the Last Week of his Life, how full of Resignation! How full of Satisfaction!

From his Exemplary Life I will single out one thing, his EARLY RELIGION. Our Wigglesworth was a Godly child, and he held on living to God and Christ until the Seventy-Fourth Year of his Age.

When he lay a Dying, some one spoke to him about his having secured his Interest in the Favor of Heaven, and his Assurance of that Interest. He Replyed, [Me-thoughts like my Polycarp,]

I bless God I began that Work betimes, and ere I was Twenty Years Old I had made thorow work of it. Ever since then I have been pressing after the Power of Godliness, the Power of Godliness! For more than Fifty Years together I have been Laboring to uphold a Life of Communion with God; and I thank the Lord I now find the Comfort of it!

Words that contain in them A History of a Life more Valuable than I have seen a Volume in Folio.

EPITAPH.

(BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY REV. COTTON MATHER.)
THE EXCELLENT
WIGGLESWORTH;
REMEMBERED BY SOME GOOD TOKENS.

His Pen did once Meat from the Eater fetch;

And now he's gone beyond the Eater's reach.

His Body once so Thin, was next to None;

From hence he's to Unbodied Spirits flown.

Once his rare skill did all Diseases heal;

And he does nothing now uneasy feel.

He to his Paradise is joyful come,

And waits with joy to see his Day of Doom.