hinder their salvation but still the infinite power of Christ is working and prevailing to bring them to heaven End 8. Christ by sickness doth change his people more and more into his own likeness So that as the fire melts and softens the gold and thereby fits it for the stamp so these sicknesses soften the hearts of the godly and thereby fit them to receive the stamp of Gods Image Hence many a Saint comes more full of God from a sick bed then he did from a Sermon or Sacrament for many a day before To this purpose agrees the saying of learned and holy Rolloc on his sick bed I am not ashamed saith he to profess that I never attained to such a great measure of the knowledge of God as I have gained by this sickness The Apostle assures us that this is Gods end in all our corrections Heb. 12.10 He chasteneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness If we lose by corrections one way as in our health liberty or estates profit comes in another way in holiness in graces and in comforts There is a fit proof of this 2 Cor. 4.16 Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day In v. 12. as was observed before he tells us that death worketh in them Death was busily working to take away their lives Well saith he but though the outward man perish that is though the body and bodily things perish and decay yet the inward man that is the new man the spiritual man is renewed day by day To apply this to our particular case we often see that whilst sickness is withering and wasting the body the outward man there comes a newness of life and spirit from Jesus Christ to quicken and renew the inward man So that although the outward man be feeble speech weak and hands weak and limbs weak yet look in the inward man and you shall see every thing in its prime faith strong and love strong and patience strong and comfort strong so that as the outward man is wasting and falling towards the earth the inward man is rising and ripening towards heaven End 9. Christ visits his people with sickness to try whether they will cleave to him notwithstanding he thus visit them Beloved you often hear and read of the tryals of Gods people I shall therefore acquaint you what this tryal is whereby you will more clearly understand this end of Gods Visitation A tryal is that whereby God puts his people to give a proof and experiment of their graces As for example there was a question between God and Satan concerning the integrity of Job God testifies of Job c. 1.8 That he was a perfect and upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil Satan denies this and undertakes to prove Job to be an Hypocrite and a Dissembler vers 9 10 11. Doth Job fear God for nought No marvel if he fear thee thou payest him well for it thou hast made a hedge about him that no body must hurt him but he makes but a Trade of Religion do but throw down the hedge about him and he will quickly throw down his service and obedience he will curse thee to thy face Now upon this Job is put to the tryal but though in a few hours he is changed from a man of great riches c. to a poor Job yet still he holds fast his integrity as God witnesseth of him Job 2.3 Afterwards ariseth another question Whether Job will prove a hypocrite if God visit him with sickness for sa ith Satan Job 2.5 Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face Upon this Job is put to another tryal he is sorely and sadly diseased from top to toe v. 7. yet his heart proves sound still v. 10. In all this did not Job sin with his lips And if we observe him in the whole course of his tryal though the infirmities of a man appeared in him yet he would never be baffled out of his integrity and at last he comes out of the furnace like gold Job 23.13 And thus God often visits his people to try their graces I shall leave this particular only I shall direct you how to prove sound in all the tryals which can befal you as thus Make that a ground of your Religion which no tryal can ever take away if thou wilt be Religious because it brings thee credit or profit c. then if a tryal comes and God and Mammon clash and thou must be either a Martyr or an Apostate thy Religion is then gone and lost because the ground and reason of it is gone but if thou trust God and love God because he commands thee and because he is a faithful and good God here is a cause and ground and reason for thy Religion which nothing can take away and so thy holiness and godliness is everlasting because it is built and grounded upon an everlasting foundation End 10. To try his people whether they will leave this world and come to him in the other world Beloved we should live in this world so as to be always ready at an hours warning to leave all and to go into Eternity Now when God sends a sickness we should look upon it as a Call into Eternity and be ready to give a willing and obedient answer Job 14.1 Thou shalt call that is saith Lavater call me out of this life and I will come I will answer thee And thus in a Fever or Consumption c. God stands as it were by the sick bed and calls Come away Husband from thy Wife come away Wife from thy Husband come away Father from thy Children now we should be ready to leave all and to come home to God for this is one choice part of our obedience to yield up our lives to God as his right and due when he calls for them Hence saith Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 I am now ready to be offered Every believer should look upon his life as a sacrifice sanctified and set apart for God and to be always ready to be offered to him at his will and pleasure It is observeable of Moses Deut. 32.48 49 50. God there appoints Moses to go up to Mount Nebo and die and did not Moses think ye go up with a heavy heart No he chearfully and obediently submits and thither he goes up and there he dies Deut. 34. So if God say to thee by his Providence Go into a Fever and die or go into a Dropsie and die go upon thy sick-bed and die thou must yield thou must go at the pleasure of God And certainly if Believers did but clearly see whither sickness and death would bring them it would be a thousand times harder duty to be content to live then to be willing to die End 11. To try his people if they will resigne their friends to God when he calls for them by sickness a friend is a choice treasure he
man into eternity and sinks him into hell when he comes there drunkenness is a sin which of its own nature breeds Dropsies Consumptions and other diseases as we read Hos 4.7 The Princes makes themselves sick with bottles of wine and daily examples witness the sudden and untimely death of many drunkards It is reported of one that when he was drunk as he was getting up on his Mare he said in a drunken frolick that his Mare would carry him to the Devil and his Mare threw him down and broke his neck Sirs do not venture to be drunk lest you fall into hell before you be sober The last sin which I shall here reprove is the beastly sin of whoredom This is a sin against a mans own body 2 Cor. 6.18 hence we read Prov. 6.26 The Adulteress will hunt for the precious life See further Prov. 7.22 26.27 He goeth after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death And thus you see that by this filthy sin men and women sacrifice their health estates names bodies and souls to their stinking lusts carrying a filthy and guilty soul in a rotten body whilst they live and shutting themselves out of heaven into hell when they dye Now that this use of reproof may leave some deep convection in your consciences consider what thy health and life is givâ—n thee for viz. that thou mayst have opportunity of serving and honouring the great God and of providing for eternity Now therefore what a bloudy wretch art thou to thy self that thou shouldest by thy own sins shorten thy space of repentance and put a sad period to all thy blessed oppâ—rtunities and days of Salvation and dispatch thy self beyond all ordinances and means and hopâ—s and possibilities oâ— Salvation and so make thy self unable to live before thou art ready to dye Vse 3. Of Consolation to the truely godly This Doctrine is a great ground of comfort to all the children of God whereby they may see that all sicknesses dangers and deaths come through the hands of their own father for it is a most certain way of comfort to the godly in any sickness to bring their hearts to the first Cause and Author of their Visitation for if they are at peace with him they will be sure to finde peace and comfort in their affliction Hence the Apostle teacheth us Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing that is do not torture and distract and break your hearts with sinful cares and fears but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God bring your hearts and desires unto him And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus Perhaps thou hast nothing to keep thy estate from loss nor thy body from aches and pains nor thy name from reproach nor thy life from death But however thou shalt have the peace of God to keep thy heart full of grace and comfort through Christ Jesus and if the heart be thus kept the blessing and comfort of all is kept in it for in this case thou mayst lose friends out of thy company riches out of thy estate health and ease out of thy body and yet thou mayst keep the peace and comfort of all in thy heart Now that your hearts may be refreshed with this Doctrine I shall shew herein these five grounds of comfort 1. In respect of the season of the visitation 2. Of the end 3. In respect of the godly themselves who are visited 4. In respect of death Lastly in respect of the day of judgement 1. In respect of the season of our Visitation we may be assured that Jesus Christ will chuse the best and fittest season to visit us in See 1 Pet. 1.6 Wherein ye greatly rejoyce though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations This is an argument of comfort that our afflictions come in a season when we have most need of them Husbandmen know that there is a season when the ground hath need of frost and snow and parents know that there is a season when their children have need of the rod And so there are seasons wherein we that are Gods husbandry and Gods children have need of his fatherly chastisements and in these times he chuseth to visit us I shall contract all that I will say of this in the application of a general truth to this particular case viz. that the time and season of Gods remarkable Providence is called the fulness of time in Scripture So we read Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son so that place seems something pertinent to our purpose Eph. 4.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Where note that this is the great and mysterious work of God to gather together in one full body all his Elect that those which are already in heaven with those who are to be gathered out of the world may all meet in Christ their Head and so be the fulness of him that fills all in all Now this work is said to be done in the fulness of time So that this is the glorious work which God is carrying on by ordinances mercies afflictions diseases death he is gathering all his people together bringing them into a body unto their head and I say this is all done in the fulness of time Now there are two things which make a fulness of time 1. When it 's a time set and appointed by God for such a dispensation a time full of the Decree and Counsel of God and wherein his Decrees are fulfill'd So the coming of Christ was in the fulness of time viz. in the time set by God 2. When time is fitted and prepared for such a work in which respect also Christ came in the fulness of time time had been travelling as it were for this many ages Prophesies and promises and the faith and expectation of Believers were full of Jesus Christ and so the time being fitted for his coming he comes in the fulness of time Now to apply this to the case in hand whenever sickness or death comes it is in the fulness of time 1. In that time which is set by the wisdom and counsel of our Father for the good of his children he set the time of thy birth and of thy new birth so he hath appointed the time of thy visitation and of thy death which are all times appointed to demonstrate and glorifie his infinite power and love towards thee 2. They come in a time most fit for such a work Sin grows to such an head that it's time for sickness or some
risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Oh tell thy friends lands silver and gold that thou art going into Eternity and art presently to stand before the Judge of Quick and Dead and see what help they can afford thee Thou wilt certainly finde Solomons words true Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Beloved If we would know whether a man be happy or miserable we must not look upon him as he appears in his honours and riches c. but follow him to his death and the day of judgment see how he speeds there and how he comes off then for then the man comes to his proof and we shall see that all the riches of the world yield no profit in those great daies but then the highest carnal Monarch shall be no more respected by the Judge of all the world then the ugliest Devil of Hell when a poor godly servant or day-labourer shall be crowned with incorruptible glory before his face Oh therefore you rich men look among all your jewels and treasures whether you have a God and Christ and grace for your poor souls these only are the provision which will maintain you against the terrors of death and the dread of judgment 6. Exhortation to poor men to prepare for sickness and death We think them poor who have nothing to live on in this world but they are poor who have nothing to live on in the other world Poor people you cannot come at the silver and gold and riches of this world when you will but you have as much freedom to the riches of the other world as the mightiest Prince upon earth Thou mayst call God Father and ask what thou wilt and live upon the everlasting Kingdom of heaven as thy own and therefore you that are poor and godly let your riches of the other world comfort you against the poverty of this Look on thy cold Cottage and then look on thy house not made wiâ—h hands Look on thy poor leathern cloaths and then look how thou shalt be cloaâ—hed when thou appearest with Christ in glory Look on thy brown bread and course fare and then remember the entertainment which Angels and Saints have in heaven Oh poor people though you know not how to be maintained whilst you live yet get saving grace and you will be rich enough to go to heaven when you die The last Exhortation shall be to such who in some respects seem nearer death then other persons I shall instance only in three sorts of people to whom I shall direct this Exhortation to prepare for sickness and death First Such whose callings and imployments do expose their lives to daily and great dangers as Water-men Colliers Carpenters Masons c. These men by a leak in a Boat or Ship a fall of a little earth a slip of a foot may be turned to heaven or hell every day Yet we often see that many who live in the greatest dangers live in the greatest sins My earnest advice to you is to prepare for death that though you stand in dangerous places yet you may stand upon sure ground for the salvation of your souls Sirs for ought I know you may get heaven with less danger then you get your livings Remember what precious souls you have and that every time you venture your lives you venture your souls too Labour by sound repentance to forsake your sins and to turn to God Do not swear and lye and be drunk and deceive others Do not prophane the Lords daies if you expect that God should preserve you on working daies labour by a sound faith to rest on Christ to save your guilty souls see your nearness unto Eternity be often looking from the places where you are into heaven and hell and see what a little there is betwixt you and them and seriously consider if now you should fall into Eternity in which of those two places would be your portion Get such a saving knowledge of God that you may comfortably commit the keeping of your lives unto him and solemnly worship God in your Closets and Families and live in the fear of God and in peace with him and use your callings to his glory that he may preserve you in your ways or however that if you do die in your callings you may not die in your sins Secondly Such who though they have ordinarily present case and health yet they are subject to dangerous and sudden pains and fearful distempers as Convulsions Falling-Sickness Stone c. you have need in regard of these to be always prepared for sickness and death you would not be without what remedies you can get when your distempers come Oh do not be without God and Christ and Grace if death should come in them Whatever you are doing consider Now my distempers may surprize me therefore if they take you in bed at meat at work let them not take you in your sins in all likelihood these fits will shorten your daies therefore let them hasten your repentance these distempers will fill you with torturing pains or for present deprive you of your reason parts senses c. so that then will be a very unfit time to prepare for death therefore improve your times of health and ease as merciful opportunities that when your diseases or death finde you they may not finde you unprovided Sirs always remember that you carry death in your bodies therefore be sure to carry grace in your souls Lastly Women that are with childe have special reason to be prepared for sickness and death God hath inseparably fixt this punishment upon this Sex that in sorrow they shall bring forth children Gen. 3.16 And our Saviour tells us Joh. 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow And experience witnesseth the grievous pangs and pains of all and the sad deaths of very many in this condition so that thou must certainly within a few weeks be grievously diseased and thou mayst probably dye do not then venture into such dangers in a Christless state Poor woman perhaps thou hast bred that life which will be thy own death therefore labour to finde that Christ is as sure formed in thy heart as the babe is formed in thy womb and before that sad and dangerous hour of the birth of thy childe come examine throughly whether the new birth be past in thy soul I would not have thee oppress thy heart with the dismal fore-thoughts and distracting fears of that time for to be sure sufficient to that day will be the evil thereof but I would have thee so prepared that the short pangs of childe-bearing may not end in the everlasting pangs and torments of hell and that thou mayst be a new creature and found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that if thou shouldst no longer live with thy
a siege or famine will be useful and profitable if such times do not happen so that you can neither be well nor sick nor live nor dye without this work of preparation Mot. 6. That man is in a most blessed condition who is prepared for sickness and death for every thing which makes him prepared makes him blessed I shall onely instance in two things 1. All the happiness of the other world is his own 1 Cor. 3.22 Things to come are yours Christians your sins snares and troubles are almost past but they will be all over shortly but your joy glory and happiness are to come The happiness of heaven is to come and the glory of the day of judgement is to come Now all these joys that are to come are yours for they are setled upon you in the Covenant of Grace 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Now that man is fit to dye and is in a most blessed condition who when sickness and death comes hath a right to go to heaven Poor childe of God! the best of thy hopes and comforts and happiness lies beyond death and thou canst not come at them for this life but sickness and death will put thee into possession of all and thou art like to see a strange sight so soon as death hath loosed thee out of this life 2. He is by the graces of Gods Spirit fitted for heaven he is made meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Beloved grace makes a man fit to receive glory the joys of heaven are brought and received into the soul by grace if thou wilt be prepared for death live now as thou hopest to live for ever in heaven do nothing but what thou wouldst do going to heaven Besides by grace the heart of a Believer fastens on heaven he lays hold on eternal life he prayes hears and receives Sacraments with his heart having fast hold on heaven How fit therefore is such a man to have sickness and death come to let him into heaven Last Motive If you are not prepared for sickness and death you will be prepared for hell Sirs if a godly man doth good and a sinner doth evil both go into eternity the one to be a treasure in heaven the other to be a treasure in hell Now what a fearful condition is this for a man to be always laying up provision against himself in hell We read Rom. 9.22 of vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction if you will not be made up for heaven you must be made up for hell Oh believe what a fearful condition this is to be always ready to be turned into hell thou dost not think of this whilst the pleasures of sin and the patience of God last But what a case wilt thou be in when there will be nothing in thee but torments and nothing in God towards thee but wrath Beloved be convinced of the certainty of hell thou mayst as certainly see hell by the light of Scripture as thou mayst see men and beasts and earth and trees by the light of the Sun hell is as certain as sin and sinners there is wrath in God as sure as there is sin in man God's justice is as sure as his mercie and he hath bound himself to condemn unbelievers as well as to save believers See Joh. 3. ult Mark 16.16 See your nearness to hell whilst you are unprepared for sickness and death methinks I see that every step thou goest thou art ready to tread in the flames Poor soul thou hangest over the lake of brimstone by the twin'd thred of life when that breaks thou art drowned and damned for ever there is nothing appears between thee and hell but the hand-breadth of time Oh what a sight is this to see a company of secure sinners drinking and swearing and swaggering and ranting and roaring within an hand-breadth of everlasting burnings Again consider the greatness of hell-torments here is a depth that thou canst not fathom who can speak of the greatness of hell-torments when it 's our duty to believe they are unspeakable Canst thou tell how many years eternity lasts or how much punishment sin deserves Dost thou know how much wrath Omnipotencie can inflict or how much torment a vessel of wrath can hold then mayst thou measure the torments of hell and fathom the lake of fire and brimstone Consider but this one thing viz. the greatness of God who inflicts the torments he is a God to whom vengeance belongs and he were no God if he could not do that which belongs to him consider God is great in every thing that he is to whom he is a father a portion a husband he is a great father a great portion a great husband to whom he is an enemy he is a great enemy Oh how great must their misery be who must for ever feel the weight of that hand which made heaven and earth Beloved if but the ach of a tooth be so grievous that it takes away the taste of a whole monarchy of the world while it lasts how inconceiveably great must their torments be who have the power that made all the world set awork to torment their bodies and souls through all eternity Nay consider further God will raise up his glory out of his enemies misery those are always great works which God makes to please himself and to demonstrate his glory when he would glorifie his power and goodness and wisdom he makes a world when he would glorifie his grace and love and mercie he gives a Christ and when he would glorifie his justice and holiness he damns a sinner O wo wo wo be those poor souls out of whose torments God will raise up to himself an everlasting revenue of unspeakable glory Oh then what a miserable cheated soul art thou who wilt venture to be one hour unprepared for sickness and death when for ought thou knowest thou mayst be in the bottom of hell before the clock strike next I shall now in the last place conclude this Use by giving you ten Directions to direct you how to prepare for sickness and death Direct 1. Labour by a strong and lively faith to be always receiving and resting upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ Beloved the greatest danger you are to provide against is that sickness and death do not bring you to hell Now being found in Christs righteousness you shall have thereby a safe and comfortable way and passage through these into heaven for by reason of this you may stand on the very gates of death and triumph with the Apostle Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Now this righteousness
of Christ is as truely thine by faith as it is Pauls or ever a Saints in heaven Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference So that I say thou mayst stand in this righteousness and put all the enemies of thy salvation to the trial and ask Who can lay any thing to thy charge or condemn thee And thou mayst in effect hear from all the like answer which was made by other things in Job in another case Sin saith It is not in me and Satan saith It is not in me and the Law saith It is not in me and Death saith It is not in me we have nothing to charge upon a justified person and therefore be always taking new and fresh hold in this righteousness for it is observable that God doth not onely in a set and solemn way as in Sacraments and Sermons c. offer and give Jesus Christ but also he is constantly offering him in the Gospel and declaring it to be his will that we should take him and thou shouldst not onely in the duties of Gods worship but also upon all opportunities in secret and at other times be applying to thy self and owning and glorying in this righteousness of Jesus Christ believe that God is always smelling a sweet savour in this righteousness as offered for thee and that Christ is by his continual intercession presenting it to his Father for thee and it 's always offered in the Gospel to thee do thou therefore always take it for thy righteousness to justifie thee that when sickness and death come thou mayst be found so doing Direct 2. Learn to dye daily for it is a certain truth that he that will live when he dies must die whilst he lives and therefore Paul affirms it to be his practice 1 Cor. 15.31 I protest by your rejoycing that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye daily But how can a man dye daily Answ Three ways 1. By a daily separating and loosing his heart from all things which death can loose him and separate him from I mean so as not to account his life and happiness to consist in them death you know is a separation from that which is our life Now we have a kinde of life in husbands wives children estates c. and when death comes it separates us from these therefore I say we dye daily by a daily loosening and parting the heart from them this duty is clearly taught by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. where the Apostle exhorts that because our time to enjoy relations pleasures and estates is but short and we are presently to spend an eternity without them therefore let them that have wives be as though they had none and they that rejoyce be as though they rejoyced not and they that buy be as though they possessed not that is they must live with their hearts loosed and parted from these things for as a traveller useth the necessary accommodations of his Inne soberly seasonably and cheerfully whilst he stays yet so as to forward and not to hinder his journey home So a Christian must use the comforts of this life holily cheerfully and thankfully yet so as not to stop him in his way to heaven Our sweetest enjoyments must neither make the thoughts of eternity less sweet nor our passage into eternity more hard Now hereby a man is very much prepared for sickness and death for one thing which makes these so grievous is because the heart hath taken such hold of the creature that it exceedingly torments him to be broken from it so that it is often a greater trouble to loose his soul from the world then to loose it from the body but when by grace the heart is already loosed from the world a great part of deaths work is done already because death findes him dead to the world when it comes to take him out of the world 2. A man dyes daily by a daily living on those things which he must live upon after death We are commanded this duty Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth As the heart must be parted from the things on earth so it must be set and fixt and fastned on the things in heaven and this is the property of grace to make the heart dead to the world by turning it to a life in God and Christ and heaven Now this also is a dying daily for death to a childe of God is a removing him from a life on earth to a life in heaven and hereby he doth as it were go beyond death and hath his life and joy and comfort in the other world He walks by faith in the streets of the City that hath foundations and rests and refresheth his soul in his house not made with hands he secretly departs from the company and comforts of this life and gets his heart among Angels and Saints in heaven beholding and praising and rejoycing in the face of God and Jesus Christ Now such a man must needs be fit to dye because his heart is set on every thing that death brings him unto Like Paul who having his heart fixt on Christ in heaven cries out Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Lastly a man dyes daily by daily looking upon himself as a dying or dead man he lays death to his heart Eccles 7.2 his heart is full of the serious thoughts of death Job 17.13 14. If I wait the grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister Ah sirs to one that knows he shall dye and sleep in Jesus death and the worms are as sweet as his dearest relations And thus a man prepares for death when he doth as it were accustom himself to dye and makes death familiar to him Christians look upon your selves as always at the very point of death when you are putting your flowers in your bosoms remember you are as it were dressing a Corpse for the grave when you are washing and kembing your heads and faces and looking on them in the glass remember what ghastly skulls they will be shortly yet let thy thoughts be often among the graves think here lyes my Grand-father and Grand-mother there lyes my Father and Mother yonder lyes my Brother and Sister and I my self am just going to lye down amongst them Thus learn to dye daily Direct 3. Labour by an eye of faith to discern between things that differ Beloved faith hath a very deep and piercing insight into things it judgeth of things by Scripture it believes what God in his Word speaks of them and so a believers carriage towards every thing is
remember thou art shortly to be like unto them The very carkasses in the graves are ready to say unto thee as the Prophet brings in the inhabitants of the Tombs crying to the King of Babylon Isai 14.10 All they shall speak and say unto thee Art thou also become weak as we Art thâ—u become like unto us Look upon every thing about thy friends Funeral with a particular application to thy self look on the Bier at the door as if it stood there to receive thee look on the Coffin as if it were made for thee and look on the Winding-sheet as if it were washt and made ready for thee Look on the Sextons Spade as ready to dig a grave for thee Certainly these things would prove excellent means to fit us for sickness and death Direct 9. Keep up a spirit of prayer for surely a man is in a great measure fit to die who is fit to pray This appears by the Preface to the Petitions in the Lords Prayer Our Father which art in heaven whereby we see that a Childe of God by prayer doth as it were part from the world and is with his Father which is in Heaven Hence Heb. 10.19 Prayer is called An entring into the Holiest viz. into Heaven Besides it is easie to demonstrate that the same things which make us fit to pray make us fit to die and that a praying frame is a dying frame for our hearts are most set upon those things when we pray which we must receive when we die Death brings us to the things which we pray for and he that is unwilling to die is unwilling to receive an answer to his own prayers Beloved it often puzzles the thoughts of men to think what will be the issue of things what things will come to at the last Now it seems to me a clear and excellent expedient for our satisfaction herein to study well the Lords Prayer and to believe that all the Petitions therein shall certainly be granted and whatever we see before for certain at the Day of Judgment every Petition therein shall be fulfilled and therefore the more a mans heart is set on those things for which we are thereby taught and bound to pray the more ready and fit he is for Death and Judgment Prayer is one of the first and last things of a Christian so soon as ever the spiritual life is begun it presently breaths in prayer and I am perswaded that the godly do usually die in prayer Last Direct Live as one that knows that there are bounds set to thy life It makes many so unprepared for sickness and death because they look upon their lives as boundless they always think they have some time to live and therefore think of no time to die Now it is clear that God hath set bounds to the life of every man and when he comes to those bounds he is stopt and can go no further Job 14.5 Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Proud men climb to such a height of preferment and as they are rising higher Death stops them and they can go no further The covetous man gets such an estate and as he is reaching after greater wealth Death stops him that he can get no more Oh what a sudden stop did Death cause that rich Fool to make when he was constrained to die the same very night when he thought he was as it were beginning to live The malicious man goes to such a height of persecuting the godly and as he is raging in his malice and madness Death stops him that he can go no farther Oh what a stop did Haman meet with in the very height of his bloody designe against the Church of God! On the other hand the poor Childe of God is zealous in worshipping and serving God and as he is seeking to serve and praise him more Death stops him and his work is done therefore do every thing is knowing that thou mayst meet with thy bounds and be stopt in the very midst of thy work All the daies of my appointed time will I wait till my change come saith Job Cap. 14.14 Job knew that there was a change to come and that Death would make a great alteration with him shortly and that there was a secret time appointed for this change therefore he will every day wait and look for it Think with thy self in a morning I may see a great change before night and think with thy self at night I may see a great alteration before morning Sirs when a man goes from his house friends food and estate to heaven or hell believe it he will finde a great alteration Oh then live as if every day were to be the day of thy change as if every journey and work and duty would bring thee to the end and bounds of thy life So much for Exhortation to be prepared for sickness and death The next Exhortation is to such who have been visited with sickness but are by the mercy and power of Jesus Christ restored to health I shall exhort such to these five duties 1. Bless and praise God who hath restored thee to thy health God tells his people Exod. 15.26 I am the God that healâ—â— thee And certainly there comes power â—nd virtue from Jesus Christ to heal our â—iseases Therefore when Christ had healâ—d the woman diseased with an issue of â—lood twelve years I perceive saith he that â—irtue is gone from me Luke 8.46 And beâ—oved when ever we have been diseased â—nd restored there came virtue from Christ â—â—to the head or lungs or liver or where â—ver the disease lay and caused the cure which we must in all thankfulness acknowledge Thus did David Psal 116.6 8. I was brought low and he helped me For thou hast delivered my soul from death â—y eyes from tears and my feet from falling Now for the performance of this duâ—y of praising God observe these five directions 1. Get a clear knowledge of the glorious and excellent Name of God Psal 76.1 Iâ— Judah is God known his name is great in Israel Gods Name is great only where it is known and it is a most savoury thing to hear people speak of God as those that know whom they speak of Where God is thus savingly known the workings of the heart towards God are answerable to the glory and excellency of his Name Psal 48.10 According to thy Name O God so is thy praise Psal 150.2 Praise the Lord according to his excellent greatness Grace is more or less in a man according to his knowledge and sense of the Name of God and Jesus Christ In that heart where God hath no Name the man hath no Grace but it causeth great faith and great love and great joy in a Believer to see the great power and the great love and the great goodness of God and Jesus Christ 2. Praise God as he is a God of mercy to thee ascribe unto him a name from that which he
are wilful strangers to themselves but rather like to be corrupted with ambition worldliness idleness fleshâ—pleasing man-pleasing superficialness formality and trifling in Religion and vexing the Church with their contentions about their Ceremonies and Opinions till the approach of death do help them to juster apprehensions and bring them to such confessions as Bishop Ridley made to Hooper in his imprisonment Thou hast here in this Treatise the wholesome savoury fruit of sickness This servant of the Lord was cast down and delivered to teach him how to teach thee to prepare The subject is of such universal usefulness and yet fully handled by so few so needful to be much studied in health and the Book so fit for the reading of the sick or for those friends to read to them that are about them or visit them that though urgent business prohibited me to read it all yet having perused the most of it and observed the scope and spirit of the work I think it my duty to recommend it to thy thankful acceptance and improvement assuring thee upon long experience of the benefits of a dying life that the time is at hand when the studies of death and thy everlasting state will appear to have been more necessary and wise then all those impertinences that now divert distracted worldlings and are but the seed of endless sorrows Thy Brother in the Patience and Hope of Believers Richard Baxter August 1. 1661. Matth. 8.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 5. And when Jesus was entred into Capernaum there came unto him a Centurion beseeching him 6. And saying Lord my servant lieth at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented 7. And Jesus saith unto him I will come and heal him 8. The Centurion answered and said Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed 9. For I am a man under Authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my servant Do this and he doth it 10. When Jesus heard it he marvelled and said to them that followed Verily I say unto you I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel 11. And I say unto you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven 12. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 13. And Jesus said unto the Centurion Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee And his servant was healed in the self-same hour THE mighty Hand of God which hath of late come upon me whereby I must bear him witness that he hath in his Fatherly Wisdom and Goodness and Faithfulness visited me hath caused me to wink a little at the pomp and bravery of this world and to set before my eyes the ghastly sight of those many Beds of Sickness wherein the poor children of men lie languishing I have seriously thought what a poor Creature Man is when he lies gasping under the power and torture of a disease and withall have considered how little a Consumption or a Fever or the Small Pocks or any other disease cares for the strength or wealth or youth or beauty of a man I have seen the great changes which these make in Nations and Cities and Families and Persons where they are sent I have endeavoured to stand at the Door of Eternity looking on these Messengers carrying multitudes before me out of this into the other world The Grave that House of Darkness tells me These bring my ghastly Inhabitants to lodge in me the Worms say These bring our Brethren and Sisters unto us Hell from beneath cryes These have turned multitudes of damned Souls into me and Heaven from above cryes These have brought many blessed Spirits into me Upon these and other considerations I have desired for my own and others good to see clearly out of whose hands all sicknesses and diseases come that I may acknowledge my self and assert and testifie unto others the absolute Command and Dominion which God and Jesus Christ have over all these things the true knowledge and improvement whereof may have a powerful influence upon us in our health to make us daily look and prepare for sickness and in our sickness to make us fit to live or fit to die and when we are restored to health to teach us to whose Will and Glory we should live and to make us ready for sickness and death when they return and by all to cause us to hasten into that blessed state and to live in that gracious frame that both in life and health sickness and death we may have always a plain passage and a clear and safe entrance into that everlasting Kingdom of Glory which is alway set open before us For these ends I have chosen this Text which is full of this Argument viz. to prove that all sicknesses and diseases are under the Command of Jesus Christ This Scripture is recorded by two Evangelists by Matthew in the place before-mentioned and by Luke Cap. 7. from ver 1. to ver 11. they differ chiefly in two things 1. Luke makes a more prolix and large relation then Matthew and therefore we read some things there not mentioned here 2. Matthew speaks as if the Centurion came and spake to Christ in Person v. 5 6. but Luke tells us expresly that he sent unto him the Elders of the Jews v. 3. and after sent other friends to meet him v. 6. This difference hath made some conceive that they are distinct Relations of two distinct Miracles but without ground for it is ordinary to speak of that which a man doth by others as if he did it by himself as the words which John the Baptist spake by his Disciples are mentioned as if he had spoken them himself Matth. 11.2 3. So the Evangelist here reports that the Centurion came to Christ beseeching him meaning not that he came in person but that he came and spake by his messengers as St. Luke explains it and thus the two Evangelists are reconciled Now why the Centurion came not to Christ in person whether it was because he thought he had no right to come for such a mercy being a Gentile or whether the sense of his unworthiness made him afraid or ashamed to come or what other reason there was because it cannot certainly be known therefore it is not wisdom too curiously to enquire The Text is a Narration of Christs miraculous healing the Centurions servant of a deadly disease upon the faith and prayer of his good Master There are three main things which make up the subject of this Narration 1. The Servants mortal disease 2. The Masters miraculous Faith 3. Christs Miraculous Cure In the whole observe these four particulars 1. Here is the Centurions servant lying
the cruelty and injustice that laid me and the Timber answers and cryes Make inquisition for the blood that laid me Oh you that eat the bread of deceit and live upon lyes and injustice were your consciences awakened you might hear the very bread on your tables and the money in your purses and the stones and timber of your houses cry for the vengeance of God against you and yet this infinitely patient God bears with you Lastly the sighs and groans of Gods people cry aloud for vengeance against their Persecutors and Oppressors Exod. 3.7 I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Aegypt and have heard their cry Psal 12.4 For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy will I arise Beloved the godly are hated for their likeness to God this makes the difference betwixt them and the wicked for herein they differ from the world and a man must either make God his enemy and the Devil his father and be content to damn his own soul or else the world and he will never be friends but he that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the spirit Now herein is glorified the patience of God when they that wrong his people rake in the apple of his eye and yet this tender Father stands by and sees his children scorned and loathed and murdered for choosing and honouring and fearing and pleasing him and for a long time bears all Lastly the infinite patience of God appears in that he can always ease himself of his enemies and yet he forbears God complains that the sins of men are a trouble to him Isa 1.14 and that they weary him Isa 43.24 and saith he Amos 2.13 Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Now the Scripture speaks as if God did ease and comfort himself in the destruction of his enemies Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries Ezek. 5.13 I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted Now God can suddenly thus ease and comfort himself let him but command the Pestilence the Fever the Pocks c. they will quickly fetch them to hell never to trouble him more but in his infinite patience and long-suffering he spares them and bears with them Thirdly Informs us of the reason why godly Ministers are so serious in shewing men their danger and pressing them to repentance because they see Almighty God armed with such a multitude of diseases and judgments and deaths against men when a Minister is filled with love to and longing for the salvation of his people and sees the diseases and other judgments which lye at the door of every sinner and knows that the want of his care and faithfulness may be the damnation of a soul or more before another opportunity this must needs make Ministers labour earnestly for the salvation of their people and therefore it is an excellent thing for a Minister to preach and pray and administer Sacraments and live as if he saw God and Christ and Angels and Devils and Death and Judgment looking him in the face to preach as if he were to die preaching and people were to die under his Sermons Hence saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ whence he infers vers 11. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men Beloved we know what Christ will do to us if we preach the word deceitfully and damn the souls whom we are sent to save We know the doom of those who know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.8 9. We know whither drunkards and whoremongers and blasphemers and worldlings and all unregenerate persons are going and therefore knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men we are sent in the stead of Christ to perswade you to heaven and therefore dare not stand in the stead of Devils to flatter you into hell Sirs it is not many weeks since I was even past preaching and I know that death and I must shortly meet again and I know ere long you will be past hearing and therefore I would preach and live so that when sickness and death return I may be found labouring to save my self and them that hear me In the mean time when I look upon God and see millions of deaths in his hands and every death hell following it I dare not but warn you to flee from the wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Beloved a faithful Minister would never tell you of your sins but to cause you to forsake them and the word Hell should not be so often in his Pulpit but that he is afraid lest his people should come there he hath no secret grudge against you neither desires the woful day God knows Jer. 17.16 but he dares not deceive you he dares not be damned for you in preaching you and himself into hell The fourth informs us whence it is that we hear so much of the unexpected deaths of men why here is the cause God commands a disease or some other messenger of death to go and to fetch them away and they are gone if any die God tells all the world who kills them I kill saith he Deut. 32.39 Hence we see great men for a while fill a Country and a frown of their faces and a stamp of their foot makes all to quake about them but they prove like Pharaoh of whom we read Jer. 46.17 Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noise So they make a great noise in the Country a while and then like a sound in the Air pass away Methinks a great man is like a great winde it blows violently and rageth a while as if it would throw down all afore it but it proves but a wind which is soon spent and laid So a furious wicked man he blusters and ruffles a while as if he would blow down God and man but a disease and death comes and he gives up the ghost and where is he David made this observation Psal 37.35 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree Observe he spreads himself he enlargeth his power and riches and greatness But see what follows Yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found for a sickness comes and like a tempest takes him away in a night Job 27.20 and so by the blast of God they perish Job 4.9 So we see others which would be as great sinners but that they are not so great men for instrumenta explicandae nequitiae desunt as Seneca speaks they want instruments to do mischief these curst Kine have short horns and so cannot do so much hurt these men are full of lyes oaths drunkenness and are set on fire against God and godliness sinning with that impudence as if they would out-face and brow-beat God and man and make death
and hell afraid of them but a sickness and death comes and they are driven away in their wickedness Prov. 14.32 whose end Job describes cap. 24.29 Drought and heat consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned So also we see godly people who are the blessing of their Age of whom the world is not worthy Hebr. 11.38 the world deserves not the prayers and counsels and examples of such men yet these perish though few lay it to heart Isa 57.1 for in this case there is one event to all Eccles 9.2 for as they lie at the graves mouth we cannot see the difference betwixt a skull that sleeps in Jesus and a skull that is condemned to hell and therefore it 's true of these gracious ones as was said of the good Patriarch Gen. 47.29 Israel must die or as we read of David Acts 13.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep All these things are from Jesus Christ who sends sicknesses and death at his pleasure and many such things are with him Lastly It informs us of the great mercy of God that we enjoy our health and lives so long when he hath so many diseases in his hands to deprive us of both Hence he is called the Preserver of men Job 7.20 It is the Lord who is our life and the length of our daies who preserves us and keeps us alive Consider the many deaths and dangers we are preserved from that thereby we may see and acknowledge the greatness of this mercy Our Bodies and Souls were no sooner united in the Womb but thousands of deaths were ready to part us again we were liable to all the dangers that our Mothers were in in whose lives our lives were bound up besides multitudes of evils might have kill'd us there and a miscarrying Womb might have loosed us into Eternity And if we look through the whole course of our Age what year or week or day can we name wherein some have not died Oh infinite mercy that keeps us alive in a world of devouring devils and bloody men what multitudes of diseases might have bred in our own bodies what sudden deaths by Falls Fire Water Thunderbolts c. There is never a beam in our houses or beast in our fields or bit of meat on our tables or stones in the streets but methinks it 's like a Pistol charg'd and cockt if God say the word to strike us dead in the place where ever we sit ride walk lie down there is from thence a fall into Eternity We may well wonder when we read of the three Childrens preservation in the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3. and of Daniels safety in the Lyons Den Dan. 6. and yet I tell you our daily and hourly deliverances are as great only they are not so rare for to name no more Devils can as easily kill us as the Fire or Lyons could them and we have no more power to resist or escape these Murderers then they had the merciless Flames or greedy Lyons but as God miraculously preserved them so doth he wonderfully preserve us even in a croud of deaths and dangers Vse 2. Of Reprehension Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who in time of sickness do either for themselves or friends seek to Witches or Wizards for cure Christ makes them sick and they will go to the Devil to make them well but if Christ command all diseases to go and come at his will it must needs be a damnable sin to forsake Christ and the Ordinances appointed by him for our health and to seek help from the Devil This was King Sauls sin though in another case who consulted the Witch of Endor when he was invaded by the Philistins 1 Sam. 28.7 Then did Ahaziah in his sickness send to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron 2 Kings 1.2 And this is the horrid wickedness of many ignorant Atheistical wretches who when they have lost their goods or are visited with sickness seek to Conjurers and Wizards such as they call wise men or wise women to help and relieve them This sin is often condemned in Scripture Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits Observe do not regard them but look upon them as the basest people in the Country neither seek after Wizards See Isa 8.19 Lev. 26.6 Observe the evil and danger of this sin in these four particulars First This is a sin which brings a man under the heavy wrath and curse of God Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Observe for this sin God will set his face against thee all his power and wrath is set and bent against thee O how canst thou hold up thy face when the face of God is set against thee and whereas thou thinkest thou art planted in thy Country and planted in the Church of God and planted in thy Family God will cut thee off from among thy people Thus poor wretch thy disease is perhaps abated and thou rejoycest in thy ease and health but remember thou hast got the Devils blessing and Gods curse Secondly This is that filthy sin of whoredom See again Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits to go a whoring after them Do not you account this a beastly sin for people to go up and down a whoring Well though thou thinkest thou keepest thy self honest and wilt say I thank God no body can touch me in my honesty yet although all thy Neighbours judge thee to be honest the Lord judgeth thee to be a filthy Whore and Whoremonger for though perhaps thou hast not defiled thy body with a Whore yet thou hast defiled thy soul with the Devil Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them and thou mayst be assured that the Devil will not heal thy body except it be to kill thy soul and thou dost hereby joyn that person to the Devil which should be united to Christ thou dost yield thy self to the power and will of the Devil Hence those are the most ignorant sottish prophane or covetous people that seek to Witches Beloved we should do nothing but what we may comfortably go from the doing of it into the presence of God in any duty or to enjoy his presence into Eternity Now as a wife can have no delight to go from a whoremonger into the presence or society of her husband so how canst thou comfortably go from a Wizard to Prayer to a Sacrament or to a Sermon or from a Wizard into Eternity Thirdly This sin is the most abominable sin of Idolatry Lev. 11.31 Regard not â—hem that have familiar spirits I am the Lord your God Implying that they that seek to such do deny God to be the Lord and do disown him from
about the City that is they go about like the Devils beagles hunting Gods people Well saith David vers 14. seeing they love the sport so well At evening let them return and make a noise like a dog and go round about the City that is let thy judgements so afflict them that they may like hungry and angry Curs go crying and yelling about the City so that here the murmuring of a man in trouble is compared to the yelling of a dog so this sin is compared to the roaring of Bears Isa 59.11 We roar all like bears and Zanchy observes that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated murmurers Phil. â— 14 signifies a noise like the grunting of a swine nay this sin makes a man like the very Devil who is a most restless and discontented spirit and therefore is said Matth. 12.43 To walk about seeking rest and finding none And it is true of many on their sick-beds which we read Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me when they have howled viz. like beasts upon their beds Now what a fearful case is this that when in thy sickness thou shouldst have been full of the thoughts and language and savour of a Christian so as to be praying unto and praising and pleasing God and saving and edifying others and quieting and solacing thy own soul that thou shouldst by murmuring and discontent be yelling like a Dog roaring like a Bear howling like a Beast grunting like a Swine and be like a restless and desperate Devil Secondly discontent unfits the soul for every duty you cannot indure to see your children go grumbling to meat and grumbling to School and grumbling to bed and grumbling to ask you blessing so it greatly provokes God to see people go murmuring to prayer and murmuring to Sermons and murmuring to Sacraments Beloved lay this up as a rule and let it always reign in your hearts viz. That a man can never go holily and comfortably to any duty except his heart be reconciled to these three things To God to all men and to all Gods Providences Therefore when a man is quarrelling with God and men and murmuring at all Gods dealings always either complaining that his mercies are too little or his afflictions too great how miserably unfit is such a man to look God in the face in any duty Thirdly murmurers are always miserable according to our Proverb An angry person never wants woe as if a man that hath his body full of sores come in a crowd where he is always jogged and thrust this must needs hurt and vex his sores Beloved a discontented spirit is a sore spirit and the least touch of affliction doth vex it and therefore for such a man to live always in a croud of miseries wherewith he is continually hurt and vext this must needs be a miserable man It is observable that God himself is set to cross such a man Lev. 26.27 28. If ye walk contrary to me I will walk contrary to you As thus God would have you to believe love fear and please him Now you walk contrary to God you deny hate despise and provoke him Well you would have God to bless preserve pardon and save you Oh but God wiâ—l walk contrary to you he will curse destroy and damn you Now they cannot but be in an unquiet condition who have God himself always crossing and thwarting them See Psal 18.26 With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward If you will be cross with God he will be cross with you and therefore observe when you are discontented something falls out from Wife Children Servants or Neighbours to exasperate and fret you more so that I say this sin makes a man spend his days in bitterness and sorrow Lastly murmurers shall be judged at the last day as ungodly men Jude v. 14 15 16. where we see that when the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints one great work of that day will be to execute judgement on ungodly murmurers and complainers therefore as you fear the portion of murmurers then do not live the life of murmurers now Thirdly this Doctrine reproves those who are so stupid and senceless in their sickness as not to own the hand of Christ in their visitation for seeing all diseases come from him we are to receive them as the good messengers of Christ saying with Naomi Ruth 1.13 The hand of the Lord is gone out against me This stupidity of spirit is that sin whereby men slight and despise the judgments of God so as neither to be affected in the sense of their sins nor of Gods displeasure for them We have a clear instance of this sin Jerem. 10.19 I said truly This is my grief and I must bear it In the beginning of the verse the people sadly bewail their present afflictions Woe is me for my hurt my wound is grievous now it aggravates their present misery to be upbraided with their former stupidity I said viz. in my trouble heretofore truly this is my grief and I must bear it off as well as I can implying that they formerly thought that they could easily bear off the strokes of God We often hear the like confident language from many stupid sinners on their sick beds saying Indeed I am not well I am something out of order but I will strive with it and hope to shake it off shortly and so go on with my building or trading or purchasing c. Thus usually men flatter themselves in their sickness talking as if they were but beginning to live when perhaps they are ready to die these strive to put far from them the evil day Amos 6.3 Like those who boasted that they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell Isa 28.15 as if they had made some bargain with Death and Hell and had them in Bond and Covenant not to hurt them this sensless spirit possest those Hos 7.9 Isa 42.25 This sin is forbidden Prov. 3.11 My son despise not the chastening of the Lord. Beloved it is a fearful thing to despise any affliction perhaps yet it is but little but it comes from a great God and upon a great Errand therefore remember Psalm 2.11 If his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Consider further the evil and danger of this sin in two particulars First It doth greatly provoke and call forth the wrath of God Isa 26.11 When thy hand is lifted up they will not see they will take no notice of thy displeasure but they shall see Oh then is the judgment of God fearful on the ungodly when Gods wrath puts them past security when the seared conscience is turned into a gnawing conscience I tell thee sinner if sickness will not awaken thee hell will You know if a Father whip his Childe to humble and melt him it cuts the very heart of his Father to see his Childe laugh in his face So when God visits a
wholly turned and set for the service and glory of God So that in this case a man may improve his knowledge and faith by all the advantages both from Scriptures and Creatures and get his soul filled with the highest thoughts of the infinite power and wisdom and goodness of God and then boldly say This is my infinitely great and good Father and all his glorious power and wisdom and love is on my side then he may look into the world and see all things working busily about him and then conclude that this is the greatest work upon the wheels to bring happiness and salvation to me and to that body of which I am a member And then on the other hand he may look in himself and see all the powers of his body and soul united in this great designe to please and praise and enjoy God So that by these things you may learn what it is to be at peace with God whereby you may also see what is the enmity betwixt God and a sinner it is that whereby a sinner is against God so as to be fearfully bent to hate and deny and despite him and God is against the sinner so as to blast and curse and damn him so that this is thy case sinner if thou art not at peace with God all manner of diseases and all kindes of deaths and dangers yea and all the curses of the Bible are against thee because the God of all these is against thee I would therefore seriously perswade you to come to agreement with God which that you may do let me tell you that I am this day sent as an Embassador of peace from the Lord of life and death who hath committed to me the word of reconciliation So that I have authority from him to offer most blessed conditions of peace viz. if you will this day sincerely turn from sin to God and truely receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel you shall have the great God to be your Father his onely begotten Son the true God to be your Husband and Saviour the infinite and blessed Spirit to be your Comforter you shall have grace and peace to abide with you here and an everlasting Kingdom of glory to possess and enjoy hereafter Sirs are not these blessed and honourable terms Well where lyes the difference Answ In nothing but sin Now what a fearful case is this that after God the Father hath sent his onely begotten Son and after he hath dyed the most shameful painful and accursed death of the Cross and after so many hundred Sermons and offers of peace Wilt thou now break with God for a base lust canst thou indure hereafter to lye among the Devils and damned in everlasting burnings and to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and hear thy own conscience upbraiding thee to all eternity that thou hast lost heaven and dost lye in hell for loving thy cups oaths whores or the dust of the earth better then Jesus Christ O Sirs repent and believe quickly you have more need to do it then either to eat drink or sleep for ought you know you may be in hell before such another offer be made I am sure there are millions of diseases and deaths waiting at your doors to break up the treaty I shall therefore conclude this in the words of Eliphaz to Job cap. 22.21 22 23. Aquaint now thy self with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee the law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles Fourthly prize and improve godly Ministers and people whilst you have them seeing it appears by this Doctrine that you know not how soon they may be sent for to heaven where I am sure they will be better respected Now the greatest honour that you can shew to godly Ministers is to be doers of the Word which they are Preachers of Ministers are more honoured by the conversion though of the poorest servants then by the highest commendations which the most able and learned Doctors are able to express for this is their greatest glory to be instruments of Gods glory in the salvation of poor souls for thereby the Word of God is glorified 2 Thes 3.1 By the applause of men Ministers may be cryed up for persons of excellent gifts and parts but this is their greatest glory when by the salvation of souls the excellencie of the power appears to be of God and not of men But Beloved the ignorant unbelieving world knows not the worth of godly Ministers or Christians because they see not the excellencie of God and Christ and Holiness and Heaven which are the causes which make them so precious The world knoweth us not because it knew him not 1 Joh. 3.1 But whatever the men of the world think who can prize nothing but honours and riches and pleasures to which they should be dead and crucified I tell you godly Ministers and Christians are the blessings of their age and those are the best Kingdoms and Countries and Towns and Parishes and Families which have most of them and which love them best Solomon tells us Prov. 10.11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life I need not tell you what a necessary publick mercy a well of good and wholesome water is to the Town or Family where it springs Now a righteous man is a Well of Life he is a spring of spiritual Aqua vitae Many a poor sinner or sad swounding Christian receives the spiritual life of grace and strength and comfort from the mouth of a godly Minister or Christian Prov. 15.4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life It 's a Metaphor taken from the Tree of Life in Paradise which was Gods Ordinance to preserve man alive had he continued in innocencie Thus a godly man is a tree of life in this evil world he turns a Family into a Paradise where he grows and is prized so that many a man who was dead in sin and many a fainting childe of God is quickned and revived by feeding on the fruit of his wholesome tongue Now my Brethren the serious consideration that these blessings are by sickness and death ready to be taken from us should cause us to esteem and improve their spiritual and savoury company How did Elisha cleave to Elijah when he knew he was presently to be taken from him and therefore we finde that three times Elijah to try Elisha his constancie seemed to shake him off but Elisha every time answers most solemnly As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee 2 Kin. 2.2 3 6. and if you read the story you will finde that it proved well for Elisha that he was so wise and careful to improve that precious opportunity See Acts 20.25 where Paul useth this
you were born children of the Devil and you must be born again if ever you will be the children of God Good children know and love the God that made you and Jesus Christ who died for you to redeem and save you You can be afraid of the Rod and a Bugbear be afraid of sin and hell Perhaps you have godly parents who instruct and catechize you in the knowledge of God Why good children hear the instruction of your fathers and forsake not the law of your mothers God doth not love you as his children because you are pretty or witty children or because you are the children of rich parents but if you will love and fear the Lord then you shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation Good children look on the graves in the Church-yards and you shall see many who were no elder nor taller then you dead and buried before you as young as you are sick and as young as you are dead and as young as you are in heaven and hell therefore be Gods children whilst you are young lest you be sick and dead and damned before you be old 2. Exhort parents to do their duty in endeavouring to prepare their children for sickness and death Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed or nourish your children in the fear of the Lord. Beasts can take care to save their young ones lives but men and women and Christians should be careful to save their childrens souls when thy children dye if thou hast neglected their salvation it must if thy conscience be ever awakened cause stinging reflections in thy soul There is a story of a father who consented that his daughter should commit whoredom which she did and soon after dyed whereupon the poor guilty father cryes out I have damned my daughters soul I have damned my daughters soul Sirs do not teach your children to to lye swear to be drunk or covetous to scoff at Gods children or holiness lest one day you have cause to cry out when it is too late We have damned our childrens souls When your hearts are affected to see your children about you then see diseases and death at your doors ready to make your children orphans or you childless and consider withal how sad it is that such pretty sweet children should be for ever burned in hell Beloved I would not have you worse then Infidels in not providing for your childrens bodies and yet I would have you better then Devils in providing for their poor souls It is a pleasant sight to see parents live as if they were going with all their children to heaven It is comely to see parents sitting in their house and their children about them or to see them sitting in a Congregation and their children about them but how much more glorious will it be to see them sitting in heaven and their children about them though the relation will end yet the comfort of being a means to bring them thither will abide for ever Parents if you cannot make your children heirs of houses and lands labour to make them heirs of heaven do not onely teach your children how to live but also teach them how to dye thou art troubled sometimes to think Alas how will my poor children live I tell thee thou hast more need to think How will my poor children dye for there are few so poor but they can make some shift to live but there are millions so miserable that they know not how to dye 3. Exhortation to young men Vnto you O men I call and my voice is unto the sons of men Prov. 8.4 make it your care to prepare for sickness and death Solomon having taught that childhood and youth is vanity Eccles 11.10 he infers this Exhortation to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth It is necessary for all young people to live as those that know that God will bring them to judgment Eccles 11.9 Consider you are never prepared for sickness and death till you are prepared for judgement Oh young men and women look upon your selves as going to judgment Heark do not you hear the great shout that calls you all to make your appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ Sirs be nothing now but what you would appear to be at that great day Wouldst thou be judged as a Drunkard or Swearer or Whoremonger or Worldling or as an enemy to godly Ministers and Christians at the day of judgment If not then be not such a one now do not think your selves too young to enter into a serious way of godliness For what if sickness and death will not stay till you are old Thou art not too young to be sick or to die Do not then think that thou art too young to go to heaven lest God think thee old enough to go to hell 4. Exhortation to old men to prepare for sickness and death The daies which Solomon calls evil daies are already come upon you Methinks I may allude to that of our Saviour Joh. 4.35 Look on the fields for they are white already unto Harvest When I look on old people I see a white crop of gray hairs which speaks them to be ripe for the sickle of death Sirs diseases and death have done a great deal of their work upon you already they have worn away your colour beauty and strength yet how sad is it to see an old man more unfit to die then a very childe that begins to live He is old and ignorant old and covetous old and malicious old and cruel old and yet a drunkard Oh poor man what hast thou been doing all thy daies Hast thou had fifty threescore almost fourscore years to prepare for sickness and death and to lay up treasures in heaven and hast thou done nothing else but been heaping up wrath in hell Heark old Father for I must needs honour thy hoary head the sick-bed death the grave call for thee Oh then repent and believe presently let not the Devil who long ago perswaded thee thou wast too young now perswade thee thou art too old for as old as thou art yet it is better for thee to go to heaven a young Babe of Christ then to go to hell an old slave of the Devil 5. Exhortation to rich and great men of the world to prepare for sickness and death Sirs there are messengers at your doors to fetch you where mountains of gold are worth nothing your riches cannot guard you against sickness and death God can as easily turn a Bed of Down into a Bed of Languishing as a Bed of Straw and a disease cares no more for the richest Velvet then the poorest Sheep skin and a sickness can as easily catch thee in a Coach as in a Cart and death enters into the stateliest Castle assoon as the poorest cottage Read your case Jam. 1.10 11. As the flower of the grass he shall pass away For the Sun is no sooner
Husband nor enjoy the fruit of thy womb upon earth thou mayst live with Christ and enjoy the fruit of his righteousness in heaven for ever I shall conclude this with that suitable Scripture 1 Tim. 2.5 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety lest poor women should be swallowed up with the sad thoughts of the sin mentioned in the former verse where it 's said that Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the gransgression for which sin disgrace and punishment is fixt to the Sex these words are added for their comfort to shew that notwithstanding that sin and the punishment thereof yet they shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety Poor woman methinks I see thee walking with two souls over eternity and both full of sin Oh therefore hasten to make thy peace with that God whose power alone must take the childe out of the mothers bowels that so thou mayst comfortably depend and call upon him to save both your lives but however to save your poor souls I come now to urge this duty with these seven Motives Mot. 1. It is the will of God that you should be prepared for sickness and death in so doing you do the will of God he commands you to wait and watch and prepare for the day of judgement Matth. 24.42 Mar. 13.33 35. Now it 's a certain rule that all those Scriptures which command us to prepare for the day of judgement do imply our duty to be prepared for sickness and death which are the forerunners of that day and the same preparation which is made for the one will serve for the other Now my Brethren this is a sufficient reason to move you to this duty for it 's the will of God which makes it our duty and binds us to it and must be the reason to us why we do it or we can never be prepared aright Beloved God would have us to be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 to reign with him in heaven and therefore to be always ready against the time that he sends for us thither Mot. 2. It 's a signe of a very wise man to be prepared for sickness and death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man fore-seeth the evil and hideth himself A wise godly man sees sickness and death and the day of judgement before him he knows he must go through all these and therefore he takes care to provide so as to be safe and happy in those great dangers Beloved it 's the greatest wisdom in the world to be wise to salvation It 's better miscarry in a thousand businesses then in the business of Salvation Now he that is wise to salvation prepares against all the dangers that he must be saved from and the greatest danger is at death when a man must go through that door where so many millions fall into hell what a wise man then is he who is prepared so as that door to him is the door of heaven Many that get estates and preferments in the world are much admired for their wisdom and yet when death comes they must be damned for their folly Remember the Parable of the ten Virgins five whereof were wise and five were foolish Now why were those five called wise the reason was because when that great cry was made at midnight Behold the Bridegroom cometh they were prepared and why were the other five foolish because they were unprepared for that great time Beloved when the great God our Saviour shall come out of heaven with his mighty Angels and his glorious Saints and shall shew his blessed face in the clouds and sound a trumpet that will call all the quick and dead before him in the twinkling of an eye certainly they will prove the wisest persons that are so prepared as to stand and triumph and lift up their heads with joy in that great appearance Ah Sirs when Come ye blessed and Go ye cursed hath distinguished and parted the world it will then be known who are wise men and who are fools Mot. 3. Because it 's altogether uncertain when sickness and death will come the Scripture useth this argument Mar. 13.33 Watch and pray for ye know not when your time is Solomon elegantly sets forth the uncertainty of our time Eccles 9.12 For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them As the fishes are sporting in the water and are presently masht in the net and as the birds are hopping in the chaff and are presently caught in the snare so poor man is suddenly and unexpectedly surprised in the snares of death Sometimes a man is fast asleep and sickness awakens him sometimes he is feeding at the table and death comes between the cup and the lip sometimes he is riding a journey and death throws him into eternity and sometimes he is making a purchase and death comes and breaks the bargain sometimes he is marrying a wife and death comes and mars the match Sirs sickness and death are under no rules of civility they care not for disturbing the weightiest business in the world if therefore we cannot say of any thing I will do this or I will have that before I am sick or dead certainly our very next work should be to prepare for sickness and death Mot. 4. Because thou knowest not what kinde of sickness or death may come upon thee We read of a great death 2 Cor. 1.10 Sometimes death comes with great pains and great terrors and great temptations which make it a great death so that the provision of a whole age of grace will not without the mighty support of Gods Spirit keep thee holy and cheerful at such a time It is said Job 18.13 The first-born of death shall devour his strength The first-born is the chiefest and mightiest in it's kinde and therefore the meaning is that death shall come in the most cruel and terrible manner to devour a man Now set before thee those that have dyed in the most fearful pains of body and have been assaulted with the most horrid temptations and consider this may be thy case however prepare against the worst that Sin and Death and Devils and men can do against thee Mot. 5. By thy being prepared for sickness and death thou art also prepared for health and life for there is none so fit to live as he who is fit to dye the same graces which will make thee holy and patient and joyful in sickness will make thee so in health for the same faith love humility meekness and patience which qualifie the soul for passive obedience do also fit the soul for active obedience as the same provision of victuals or money which is made against
cheerful yet look for another fit sickness is like to come again and death will be sure to come shortly therefore take heed of security Lastly that heed of pride and vain-glory this was the sin of good Hezekiah of whom we read that after he was recovered from his sickness his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 22.24 25. and this appeared in that when he was courted by the King of Babylon he did in a bravado shew all his riches Isa 39.2 Poor Hezekiah thou wast in a better frame when on thy sick-bed thou wast turning thy face to the wall but we may see by this sad instance how apt we are after a mercie and deliverance to be puft up with high thoughts and conceits of our selves The last Duty which I shall mention is this Be careful to perform thy sick-bed-vows and resolutions A vow is a solemn promise made to God either of a duty or of something which may further us in our duty to God The matter of a vow is either to do that which God commands or to forsake sin which God forbids or to do something to further our obedience or to abstain from something which might be an occasion of sin and which we may abstain from A vow must not be of a thing unlawful for that were as if we should promise God to hate him or not to love him it must be also of that which we have power to do else we have no power to promise to do it The nature of a vow is a promise made to God which promise brings an obligation upon us to perform it this promise must not be made rashly for a vow must be the fruit of grace and not the fruit of sin and we must not make promises to God in a passion yet I do not deny but such vows must be performed for it 's one thing sinfully to vow and another thing to vow to sin in such a case we must be humbled for the manner of the vow and graciously pay what we sinfully vow'd It hath been the practice of the godly to make vows to God in their troubles Psal 132.1 2. Lord remember David and all his afflictions how he sware unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Now Sirs in the fear of God make conscience to perform your sick-bed-vows Indeed wicked men are forward to make vows when they are sick and as forward to break them when they are well As Pharaoh when the plagues were upon him he would let Israel go but when they were removed his heart was hardned and they should not go But it is the property of a godly man to make good his vows Psal 15.4 Hence saith David Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God Beloved vows are heavy things David felt them lying upon him and pressing him to the performance of them Vows take up a great deal of room in the soul they fill the conscience when a man is tempted to do that which he hath vowed against his vow will be upon him presently that he dare not do it See what conscience David made of his vows Psal 66.13 14. I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Psal 116.14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Sirs if you break your vows your vows will break you I shall conclude this in the words of Solomon Eccles 5.4 5. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay So much for the Exhortation to those who are recovered from sickness My last Exhortation is to exhort you to some Duties to be performed in time of sickness which I shall lay before you in these twelve particulars Duty 1. Own and acknowledge the hand of God in thy visitation as a man in a croud that receives a blow upon his head will presently turn about to see whence the stroke comes so as soon as Gods hand toucheth thee let thy eye be upon him and labour to finde a special presence of God appearing in thy visitation Poor soul thou art now parted from the use of Ordinances in publick and thou must labour to finde Sabbaths and Sermons and Sacraments in thy sickness that is thou must endeavour to finde the presence of God that appears in these Ordinances appearing to thy soul in the aches and troubles and pains of a sickness To this purpose I have read a saying of an holy Minister of the Gospel which he spoke on his sick-bed concerning people that were then worshipping God in publick Oh said he that they did now see what I do now feel we have a choice example of this duty of acknowledging the hand of God in our visitation in Job cap. 1. where we read that after he had stood still and heard the messengers which came one upon the heels of the another with the sad tidings of the loss of his cattel and servants and children the very first thing he does is to turn to God and to fall down and worship him and acknowledge his hand in his affliction vers 20 21. so I say So soon as ever thy disease begins presently own and acknowledge and worshâ—p God who is the cause of thy visitation so did David Psal 38.2 Thy arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore Consider this affliction comes from the Wisdom and Will and Power and Justice of God and by this disease he hath now chosen to come to thee and to appear to thee therefore labour to have thy heart filled with him that all thy words and actions may favour of him Hereby thou wilt see Reason against all Sin and Reason for all Duties and withal a ground for all comforts Duty 2. Labour to have thy heart filled with the thoughts of thy death and judgement it is the great sin of many that in their sickness strive to put the thoughts of death and judgement far from them and labour to fill their hearts with confidence that they shall live and so many poor wretches fall into hell before they did think they should dye But certainly it 's the safest and wisest way so soon as thou art assaulted with sickness to see thy death and judgement standing before thee and to receive the sentence of death in thy self 2 Cor. 1.9 Look upon thy disease as bringing thee to death and after that to a judgement which will settle thee in heaven or hell presently As thou lyest on thy sick-bed look into the other great world where thou art entring see in what state place and company thou art now to all eternity to be fixt Look into hell and see those many millions of Devils that are chained up there Look what a dreadful case the learned great rich strong and beautiful swaggerers ranters
his little Son thaâ— stood by his death-bed Disce mi fili mandata Domini ipse enutriet te Learn mâ— child the commandments of the Lord and he will nourish thee Let thy last words be such that may savour of a heart breathing after the salvation of those that are to come after thee Thou art now standing at the end of alâ— worldly perfections thy stomack is almosâ— closed for ever thy sleep is even gone for ever thou art at the end of all the pleasures of sin at the end of all worldly enjoyments of all the Ordinances and duties of this life and thou hast now but a step to that judgment which will quickly resolve all thy thoughts about thy Eternal Estate Now thou seest what a vanity man is what a lye the world is what a cheat sin is what a lost wretch an unbeliever is what a precious Jewel a Saint is what a treasure grace is what a pearl the Gospel is what a Father God is what a Saviour Christ is what a place Hell is what a portion Heaven is Now thou canst speak of these things with more faith and heart and feeling then ever thy yoke-fellow children brothers sisters friends neighbours have now more then ever their hearts and ears open to thee and who knows what a saving work a savoury word from one that is just in his flight to Eternity may make and therefore speak so as one that earnestly desires that the meeting between thee and all thy sad friends about thee may be joyful when you come together next 9. Pray earnestly that as long as thou hast a gasp to breathe it may appear that thou hast a spirit to pray I dare be bold to say Thou mayst gain more good by one spiritual breathing in prayer then the most prosperous Merchant can by the most successful returns of a whole Age. Pray with obedient submission to Gods Will that he will restore thee to health and life Beg of God to spare thee a little this will sweeten health and life to thee when it is given as a fruit of prayer if thou livest and it will be a sweet testimony that thou dost not leave the world in discontent if thou diest Pray for everlasting salvation See how many miscarry at death and what a great crowd of Men and Women will stand at the left hand of Christ at the day of Judgment and beg of God that for his great Names sake and for the sake of Christs obedience thou mayst finde mercy at those great daies Let thy Faith and Hope be never so strong and thy experiences never so sweet and thy evidences never so clear yet thou mayst see reason and need enough of these prayers Pray earnestly for the Militant Church and particularly for that part of it to which thou hast a more special Relation Believe what a Father and Head and Husband and Saviour the Church hath and what a Body and Spouse and Family the Church is and what an everlasting Covenant of Grace there is betwixt God and his Church and what a multitude of mighty subtil cruel implacable Devils and men there are against the Church and that yet in despite of all Christ will present it to himself a glorious Church It is very good on thy sick bed to set this Body the Church before thee to let thy thoughts walk about Sion and go round about her and tell the Towers thereof and to mark well her Bulwarks and consider her Palaces c. Psal 48.12 13. And see thy self of this blessed Flock and Family and so with all thy might pray for this Church Thus dying Moses cryes to God for his Church Numb 27.16 17. Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation which may go out before them and which may go in before them and which may lead them out and which may bring them in that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd Pray for thy Family Friends and Relations The prayer of Cruciger in his sickness is worthy of our imitation Fac meos Orphanos vasa misericordiae Lord make my poor Orphans Vessels of Mercy Beg of God not to charge thy sins upon thy house and that he will graciously supply the want of thee when thou art gone Pray that thy name graces counsel reproofs and example may be blessed to Gods glory and the good of others that by them even when thou art dead thou mayst be speaking Pray also for thy enemies You know the practice of Christ and Stephen who almost breathed out their last gasps in prayer for their enemies Tertullian makes love to enemies to be a property peculiar to Christians saying Amicos diligere omnium est inimicos autem solorum Christianorum All men may love their friends but none but Christians can love their enemies ad Scapulum cap. 1. Every Christian should be always much in that which will prove him to be a Christian especially now thou art dying and going to heaven be found with thy heart filled with love to and prayer for thy enemies that thou mayst appear to be a childe of thy Father which is in heaven Mat. 5.45 Set before thy heart thy most malicious spiteful and injurious enemy consider he is a man made after the Image of the same God with thy self consider what the Word threatens against him and into what a Hell he is falling and what a blessed instrument he may be if God would please to convert him and labour to finde thy soul filled with love and compassion towards him which will cause in thee strong desires after his everlasting Salvation and do thou earnestly offer up these desires by prayer unto God this will be a sweet testimony of thy integrity and will be a service of a sweet savour to God in Christ and perhaps God may in answer to thy prayers give eternal life to thy poor miserable enemy Duty 10. Fasten by faith on some choice place of Scripture When Mr. John Knox lay dying he called some about him to read Joh. 17. For saith he there I cast my anchor and he also called for 1 Cor. 15. and when it was read he cryes Oh the sweet and saving comfort which God hath refresht my soul with out of this chapter and I have heard it reported that when holy and learned Mr. Blake lay on his death-bed he fastned on those words Act. 13.39 By him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses And cryes out I 'll dye with this I 'll dye with this Thus I say Settle thy soul upon some Scripture which settles pardon of sin and salvation upon thee this will be a sweet evidence that thou dyest in faith And thus believing the promises whilst thou livest thou shalt be sure to inherit the promises when thou dyest Duty 11. Be willing in obedience to God to dye this is
What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Be pleased to accept this poor thing which I humbly offer to you give it a little room in your Study and Closet and let the truths therein have a great place in your hearts Now blessed of the Lord be you and your hopeful posterity for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof and especially for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush NOw for the rest of you my dearly beloved my joy and my longed for It is now thirteen years since upon your free choice and consent I was setled to be your Minister I mourn that I have done you no better service yet I bless God that I have done you no worse Some of you are the people of my joy others are the people of my hopes but God knows you are all the people of my love possibly you may not enjoy my Ministry long though if any thing but death part us it is like for your sakes to be one of the saddest days of my age Some know I might have had better places both before and since I knew you but I never thought my self too good for you the Lord make me better whilst I stay and give you a better when I am gone You will wonder to see me appear to you thus publick my late visitation whereby I was brought down to the gates of the grave and brought up again was the occasion of my preaching these Sermons and the unanimous advice of four godly reverend and learned Ministers all known to you caused their printing without which my own private thoughts of them had never consented to have them licensed for the Press I have devoted this little plain Treatise to the Will of God knowing that if he put power and savour in it it will prosper I expect to be scorned by some but if God say Well done I care not who findes fault I had rather bear the reproaches of thousands then that one poor â—oul should lose the least spiritual and saving good which I may be a means to help him unto I leave it with you as a testimony of my sincere love to you not so much that you may remember me but that you may remember your selves your sins and your souls and that you may remember God Christ Heaven Hell Death and Judgement which are always present before you Brethren I must needs witness that most of you have been constant hearers of the Word and that you have many hundred Sermons to answer for but you must be doers as well as hearers of the word the sins of men and the terrors of the Lord make me afraid that there is a storm rising and I doubt there will be a great fall of many professors and if you will believe our Saviour you shall finde that those onely are built on a rock and shall certainly stand who are both the hearers and doers of the word I refer you to his own words Matth. 7.24 25 26 27. I beseech you let not the world and sin come between your hearts and Christ let nothing keep you from heaven which cannot keep you from hell Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Your servant for Jesus sake Edward Lawrence Baschurch July 11. 1661. Reader THough nothing be more certain and common then Death it is no common thing to be prepared for it or else salvation would be common As there are no Truths that are more necessary to be oft preacht and heard then those which almost all men know so also no duties are more necessary to be urged then those that almost all confess and think they practice who will not acknowledge that preparation for death should be the daily business of our lives and done with the first and most serious of our cares And yet to the shame of corrupted humane nature we must speak it thousands that are uncertain to live an hour and certain to be lost for ever if death surprize them in the state which they are in are as mindless of a serious preparation and of the change which should go before that change as if it were no part of their concernment Methinks it is a very doleful spectacle to see men unprepared to dye as busily taken up with impertinent diversions as if their work were done already One drinking and prating and singing in an Alehouse or Tavern though unprepared to dye another imployed in feasting and complement and such company and discourse as will least trouble him with such thoughts while yet he is unprepared to dye another scraping for deceitful riches or gaping and scrambling for preferment while yet he is unprepared to dye another quieting his carnal heart with meer hypocritical outsides and lip-service as if he could charm an unprepared soul into Heaven by saying or hearing a few words and few will know feelingly what an important work Preparation is till the terrors of approaching death be upon them One of Gods means for mens preparation is to give his Ministers a special fitness to assist them in the work As Christ took part with the children that were partakers of flesh and bloud Heb. 2.14 and in all things must be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest and in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted v. 17 18. so that we have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our of infirmities Heb. 4.15 Even so his Ministers must be mortals frail and subject to like passions as other men James 5.17 and the treasure of the spirit must be in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4 7. They must be sick that they may the better teach you to prepare for sickness and they must be exercised in preparing for death themselves that they may be the fitter to teach you to prepare The God of Comfort comforteth them in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wheâ—ewith they are comforted of God â—nd whether they be afflicted or comforted it is for your consolation and salvation Even when they are pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as they despair of life they receive the sentence of death in themselves that they may not trust in themselves but in God that raised the dead that thanks may be given by many on their behalf 2 Cor. 1.3 4 6 8 9 11. Whereas those that are insensible of their neerness to eternity and in healthful prosperity grow secure are like to be no lively feeling Preachers nor fit to waken others to that serious preparation which they
will and power of him who works with it so that although there be an equal aptness in the instrument to do one thing as well as another yet it is determined in its work according to the pleasure of him that guides it as if a man go with an ax into the wood to fell his trees there is an equal aptness in the ax to cut down one tree as well as another but it is at the pleasure and in the power of him that works with it to determine which tree shall stand and which shall fall So my Brethren sicknesses are the instruments of Gods power to do his will and are equally apt to disease one as well as another but they being all in his hands and over-ruled and guided by him they onely go and afflict those to whom he sends and appoints them God sends the Pestilence into a City now the hand of God carries it into what street or family or person he will It is observable that God makes great use of diseases to do his Will and to serve his designe in the ruine of his enemies and salvation of his people and therefore they must needs be ordered by God where they may work most for his glory as for example God sees how men of the earth as great worldlings are called Psal 10. ult fill a Nation or Country either with Errour and Heresie or with Atheism and Prophaness and these men lift up the horn on high Psal 75.5 crying Who is lord over us Psal 12.4 as if neither God nor man durst speak to them now it 's for Gods honour to shew himself above such and therefore he baffles Job with this argument That he can look on every one that is proud and abase him and that he can tread down the wicked in his place Oh you proud Nimords you mighty Hunters you are out of your place you must come lower God will have you under his feet shortly and will tread you down in your place See Job 40.11 12. Now as a proof of this power and glory of God he often sends a Fever or a Consumption or some other disease and then down falls the great Gallant groaning under the power and torture of his sickness and then look what a sight is here here are magnificent Buildings pleasant Gardens pamper'd Horses c. but the great Master lyes languishing in the midst of all and now the great talk of this mighty man is come to this Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness Again sometimes God looks upon a beautiful person and sees him as it were turning his own Phansie into a Looking-glass wherein he is always looking and admiring and pleasing himself with his beauty Well saith God to a Consumption Go and wither yonder pretty flower and it goes and presently his beauty consumes away like a moth Or else saith God to the small-Pocks or some other disease Go and it goes and scorns and shames his beauty and now the wounds stink and are corrupt and the body is filled with a loathsome disease Psal 38.5 7. and there is burning instead of beauty as it is said in another case Isa 3.24 So sometimes a Minister hath but one or two malicious enemies in a Parish and God commands a disease to fetch away them and what welcome such have in eternity they are like to know best that have a minde to try it Sometimes a Minister hath a gracious man or woman in a Parish which are to him as that gracious couple Aquila and Priscilla were to Paul his helpers in the Lord Rom. 16.3 and when many a malitious Atheist lives it is the good will of God that they dye Sometimes parents have but one childe and God denies to lend them that Sometimes there is but one Life in a Living and a disease comes by the appointment of Christ and spares all the rest of the Family and takes away that but one good Abijah in a house and God calls away him Thus all diseases go to whomsoever they are sent and appointed by Jesus Christ Thirdly Whensoever Christ commands a disease to go it goes This is also plainly implied in the Centurions speech for if he have authority to bid his souldiers go it must be at his own pleasure when he will bid them go now it is clear that Jesus Christ hath this authority over all diseases both because he is a free agent and therefore works when he will upon his creatures and because every thing whose acting depends on the power and pleasure of another works onely then when it is his pleasure to work with it as an arrow onely flies then when the archer will shoot it so diseases which as you have heard are Gods arrows can onely hit us and hurt us when it is Gods will to shoot them into our bodies Beloved God is the Lord of our times the belief of which comforted David when his enemies were conspiring his death Psal 31.13 14 15. I trusted in the Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hands not in my enemies hands It is sweet satisfaction to see clearly our times of life and peace and health and sickness in Gods hands we shall never be sick till our Father be willing to make us sick he fills our times with what changes he will It is observable that in Gods working towards Nations or Families or Persons he haâ—h in his determinate counsel appointed an unchangeable method of providence and in infinite wisdom hath set a sit nick of time for every dispensation so that the glory and beauty of the Providence is much seen in the season of it So in this case God hath set the times for the several changes in the life of man Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth and in all diseases his wisdom and power and justice and mercy is glorified in the season of the Visitation Sometimes God smites a childe in the womb and the poor mother carries a dead corpse instead of a living childe And thus the body and soul are no sooner united but presently parted again and so multitudes flie from the womb into heaven and hell Some die in their full strength Job 21.23 We see many when they were most like to live they presently dye and like the strings of an instrument break when they are best in tune Sometimes when men stand upon the foot of pride Psal 36.11 they are suddenly taken in their pride Psal 59.11 and so fall suddenly from the top of pride to the bottom of hell See a fit instance of this Acts 12.21 22 23. Herod makes a popular Oration and the flattering multitude shout and cry It is the voice of God and not of man and the Lord suddenly smites him with a strange disease and there lyes the Royal Orator as it were in the same breath deified by men
Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos
Christ So saith he 1 Cor. 15.32 I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I die daily He was so acquainted with death that he made it his daily practice to put himself into a frame and posture to die and so many a Christian hath got such acquaintance with death by sickness that he lives in a continual frame and readiness to die besides his sickness makes him less fearful of men for he knows when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do they have done their worst which is no more then an ordinary disease can do and therefore as the Philosopher told the Tyrant when he threatned to kill him that a Fly could do that so Believers need not fear what men can do because they can do no more then a Fever Dropsie Consumption or any other disease can do and thus he is prepared by sickness for other afflictions End 16. To prepare them for great mercy Beloved sometimes mercies are more dangerous for Gods people then afflictions they are often worse in plenty then in poverty in credit then in disgrace more secure in health and ease then in pains and sickness This happens when our mercies are too big for our graces as when we have great credit and little humility or else when our outward mercies do most feed our inward corruptions as when riches do meet with a heart much inclined to covetousness and health and ease are given to a Christian who is apt to be idle and secure now therefore God melts his people in the Furnace of Affliction to prepare them to be vessels of mercy Hence we read Hebr. 12.11 That no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby As whilst a Childe is under the discipline of the Rod he receives the fruit of his dulness and idleness in the smarting of the Rod but afterwards he receives the fruit of his learning and education in honours and preferments So whilst Gods children are corrected with sickness and other afflictions they receive the bitter fruit of their sins of their pride frowardness security and creature-confidence c. and this is not for the present joyous but grievous but afterwards they reap the fruit of righteousness and holiness of faith fear love prayer c. and this is sweet and peaceable fruit we have a pertinent proof of this Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him As the Husbandman in a year of famine when corn is dear and seed scarce he sows he ventures it in the ground but he sows in tears he goes out with his seed weeping Ah thinks he this corn would have made so much bread for my poor wife and children or would have given so much money towards paying my rent Thus with a sad heart he sows his seed but when harvest comes and brings forth a plentiful crop then he reaps in joy and brings home his sheaves with singing shouting and rejoycing Thus it is with Gods childe in affliction as suppose in sickness his grief is great and his pains grievous yet he sows though it be in sorrow he believes in tears and hopes in tears and prays in tears well after comes the harvest of health and he reaps the fruit of faith hope and prayer and he goes about rejoycing and praising God and carrying his sheaves of mercy and comfort about with him Our Saviour speaks fully to this case Joh. 16.20 21. Ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the childe she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world As a woman with childe when the hour of her travel is come is full of sorrow with the throws and pains of her travel but when she is delivered she forgets her sorrow and with a joyful heart falls a kissing and imbracing her childe So my Brethren when the hour of sickness or other affliction comes upon us we are full of sorrow with the pains and travels of our affliction but when we are delivered and see what mercy our affliction hath brought forth the joy and comfort of our graces and experiences and deliverances doth swallow up the sorrow of our affliction We have a special instance of the glorious chain of Gods wonderful Providence towards Joseph to confirm the truth in hand his afflictions lasted about thirteen years for he was seventeen years old when he visited his Brethren Gen. 37.2 and thirty years old when he was preferred in Pharaohs Court Gen. 41.46 Now in all this time his afflictions were sad he was parted from his tender father he was bought and sold after this unjustly defamed and imprisoned he was put like a Rogue in irons Psal 105.18 his afflictions were so great that the afflictions of Gods people were long after and ever will be to the end of the world called the afflictions of Joseph Amos 6.6 yet he was after all this raised up in great mercie and was made a blessed instrument to save the Church and Israel of God from perishing with famine We have another instance in Job I shall say no more of him but onely apply to his afflictions what the Apostle saith of his patience Ye have heard of the afflictions of Job and have seen the end of the Lord for as we read Job 42.12 The Lord blessed the latter end of Job David upon this ground incouraged himself in his afflictions because he believed a good issue out of them Psal 71.20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Consider further that sickness when sanctified exceedingly fits a man both for Spiritual and Temporal mercies for then a man comes out of sickness as one who is raised from the grave and so he is filled with the thoughts of death and eternity and this is a frame of heart which gives a kindly relish to all spiritual mercies this makes him taste God and Christ to be exceeding gracious in the likeness and enjoyment of whom he sees himself blessed and satisfied through all eternity And this also fits him for Temporal mercies for it teacheth him to use friends lands food and all his temporal injoyments for eternity he hereby learns to turn his treasures in earth into treasures in heaven This makes him at the will of God to leave father and mother and lands and life knowing that he shall receive the comfort of all in another world so he cheerfully gives to Christ in his members
knowing that this fruit will abound to his account when Christ and he come to reckon and that this is laid up in store as a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 As a man that intends to transplant himself beyond the Seas turns his stock here into such things which will make his life comfortable when he comes there So a Saint knowing that he is upon a journey beyond this world turns his stock and estate to Gods glory here believing that it will be returned to him a thousand fold in the glory and joys of heaven when he comes there End 17. Which is the last that I shall mention is to gain to himself praise and glory in recovering his people from their sickness Hence we read Job 11.3 4. when it was told Christ that Lazarus whom he loved is sick Christ answers This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Beloved recovery from sickness is a great mercy both to a mans self and others as St. Paul acknowledgeth of Epaphroditus Phil. 2.27 He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not on him onely but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow And therefore upon this reason the hearts of Gods people have been filled with the praises of God Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name And this is one ground of this Who healeth all thy diseases This was Hezekiah his practice in this case Isa 38.19 The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day See also 2 Cor. 1.9 10 11. We had the sentence of death in our selves that is our danger was so great whether by sickness or persecution or rather both I shall not inquire that we looked on our selves as sentenced to dye and this sentence was in us and did fill us but saith he God who raiseth the dead delivered us from so great a death for this end that thanks may be given by many on our behalf Beloved sometimes our sicknesses are very grievous and dangerous as Job cries out cap. 23.2 My stroke is heavier then my groaning and saith Job 10.16 Thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me that is thou exercisest thy marvellous power and greatness in afflicting me Now this should cause us to make the praises of God more glorious for our recovery and therefore in such cases the godly have acknowledged this mercy to be a kinde of resurrection from the dead as Psal 30.3 O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave 1 Sam. 2.6 Who bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Job 33.28 29 30. He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light And this is the Providence that all are to observe and acknowledge Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be inlightened with the light of the living Vses First Vse of Information to inform us of five things First Information is that Jesus Christ is a terrible God this appears in that he hath all diseases at command to bid them go and come and do what he will The Scripture makes known God to be a terrible God Deut. 7.21 He is a mighty God and terrible Nehem. 9.32 The great the mighty and terrible God Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty Psal 47.2 For the Lord most high is terrible And we finde this inference made from Gods visiting men with sickness Deut. 28.58 That thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God Beloved it is one of the most devouring delusions of the Devil to perswade men that God is so merciful that he will never question them for their sins Hence we read that the wicked man who contemns God and his judgements saith in his heart God will not require it Psal 10.13 They think in their hearts and conscience that God will never trouble them for their sins this secure temper of the ungodly is seen by that of the prophet Ezek. 7.7 The morning is come upon thee the time is come the day of trouble is near and not the sounding again of the mountains or as Junius and Termellius read it not the Eccho of the mountains implying that they feared no more the threatnings of the Prophets then a vain airy noise or Eccho in the mountains this makes secure sinners to bear no fear of God Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes Their sins are so notorious and visible that they declare in the very hearts and consciences of the godly that there is no fear of God before their eyes Now to awaken you out of this damnable security I shall propound four Considerations to convince you that God is a very terrible God 1. Consider that when the terrors of all bodily evils are past yet then God falls upon men with everlasting terrors we usually account great men very terrible but God tells the wicked Isa 47.3 I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man thou hast been afraid oftentimes of meeting with thy Creditor or of meeting with the Magistrate c. but consider when thou comest to meet God in his taking vengeance for sin he will not meet thee as a man as a hard Creditor or as a harsh Landlord or a furious Souldier or a severe Magistrate but he will meet thee as a God of wrath and vengeance Upon this ground our Saviour presents God terrible Luk. 12.4 5. And I say unto you My friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you should fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Observe that what our Saviour saith of men is true of all bodily evils when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do then the fear of them is past there is no fear of Pestilence or Fever or Consumptions in eternity but now a wicked man can never say the worst is past because he can never be past hell for God after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell so that when you think it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a merciless Usurer or a cruel Landlord or a bloudy man or to fall into the fire or water or to fall into the Pestilence Fever Dropsie c. then consider that It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Secondly consider God is not onely a God of mercy but also a God of judgment the Devil devours most men by perswading them either that God hath no wrath which makes them presumptuous or that he hath no mercy which makes
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
other affliction to come and bring it down Grace grows to such a strength that now it 's able to bear a trial a storm is ready to fall therefore saith God now it 's to time to fetch my childe home The Christian is grown so ripe that it's time to bring him to heaven as a shock of corn in its season Thus you see for your comfort that sickness and death come from Christ in the best and fittest season Sickness never comes but to bring thee nearer heaven and Death shall never come but to loose thee into heaven Ah Christian heaven and happiness never come out of season Secondly Comfort in respect of the end of all sicknesses and death they come from Jesus Christ for our good We read 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory where we see that in all our afflictions there is a secret Power working us to heaven and salvation As for example in a Fever Ague or Consumption c. we feel a Power working outwardly against us against our health strength case and life so there is a mighty Power working inwardly for us working us from sin and the world to God and Christ and Heaven Hence is that known and tryed Scripture I say it 's a tryed Scripture it hath comforted many thousand hearts I mean Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose Methinks this Scripture is a Spring which always runs with new and fresh comfort and it 's a sure way to finde comfort to look upon all our diseases and other afflictions through this Scripture Now to apply the comfort of it to the present case consider what is that good which all things work together for and this you may know by the following verses wherein the Apostle demonstrates this truth That all things work together for our good therefore saith he vers 31. What shall we say to these things If God be for us who can be against us that is let us look upon all our afflictions and miseries and then look upon our Predestination Vocation Justification and Glorification mentioned vers 29 30. And we may joyfully conclude that seeing God is for us so as to predestinate call justifie and glorifie us and these links can never be broken then nothing can be against us but all shall work for our good so that the great good that all things work for is not to make the godly the great Gallants of the world but to bring them grace and peace here and glory hereafter and all sicknesses diseases and deaths and all other dispensations are united and joyned together in this work to bring Soul-saving good to them that love God And the clear cause of this is in the Doctrine viz. because our Saviour hath the working of all these things he sends and rules and governs them and therefore there must needs be a Fatherly work in them because Jesus Christ as our Father and Saviour sends them to us and orders them for us That of the Apostle makes clearly for this 1 Cor. 3.23 Death is yours and by the same rule sickness is ours and for our good But why ours Answ Because the Lord of sickness and death is ours Hence we read Phil. 1.21 To die is gain Sickness is gain and death is gain to Gods Children Many a Childe of God gains more by a moneths sickness then by the outward mercies of many years and death will bring you more gain in one hour then all the prayers and Sacraments and Sermons of a whole age and therefore labour to see your gains as real and present to the eye of Faith as your pains troubles and losses are to the eye of Sense and in your sad parting with those things which sickness and death take you from comfort your hearts with those things which they bring you unto say Farewel my dear and pleasant Country thou hast fed me well and cloathed me well but I must leave thee for a better Country that is an heavenly Hebr. 11.26 Farewel my inward and faithful friends farewel my dear Jonathans How pleasant have you been to me Your love to me is wonderful Methinks when I am with you I feel the truth of Tertullians saying of the fellowship of the Primitive Christians Animo animáque miscemur Our very hearts and souls do enter into and are mingled and united with one another Many a sweet meeting and sad parting I have had with you but I must leave you a while to go to better friends in Heaven Magnus illie nos charorum numerus expectat I have a great company of dear friends in the other world which look for me and will rejoyce to see me with them with whom I shall always be serious yet never sad always merry and yet never vain Farewel my sweet Sabbaths savoury Sermons melting Sacraments farewel my dear Bible and all the blessed Ordinances wherein I have seen the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I must no longer look in these glasses but go where I shall see him face to face Farewel my dear yoke-fellow parents my sweet children my beloved brothers and sisters I must leave you all to go to a better Father and Husband and Brother in heaven Farewel my good and convenient house my sweet place of secret and Family-worship I must be gone to my house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Farewel my poor but precious body go thou and sleep in Jesus in the earth whilst my Soul is raigning with Jesus in heaven where I shall remember thee and long to see thee till I meet thee again cloathed with Immortality and Glory These things Christians are the comforts of a sick-bed the sweet joys of a death-bed 3. Comfort in respect of the godly who are visited Herein is thy comfort that thou art a true part and member of Jesus Christ from whom all diseases come so that whatsoever Christ doth to thee he doth to himself I was sick saith Christ when his members were sick Mat. 25.36 So when the body is dead the poor ghastly corpse continues still joyned and united to Jesus Christ Hence the bodies of believers are said to sleep in Jesus and are called the dead in Christ 1 Thes 4.14 16. and it 's a most sweet and savoury consideration when a man looks on such a sad spectacle as a loathsome diseased body or thinks on the rotten carkass when the body is dead and sown in corruption then to fix the eye of Faith upon his glorious head at the right hand of the Father As thus look on thy face covered with the Small Pox and then look on the Face of Jesus Christ look on thy bones staring upon thee in a Consumption and then look upon the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ Nay go further look upon
thy self as it were in the grave and see thy ghastly skull lying in the dust among the worms of the earth and then look on thy glorious Head in Heaven and so comfort thy self with this that as vile and loathsome a spectacle as thy diseased body is now and thy dead body will be shortly yet it is a precious member of Jesus Christ who will by his infinite power change and fashion this contemptible dust into the likeness of his glorious body in heaven 4. Comfort in respect of death it comes to the godly without a sting In this we are taught to triumph 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O death where is thy sting Now to clear up your comfort in this consider that sickness and death are said to sting when God as a revenging Judge sends them to execute the curse of the law for sin so that death is compared to a fearful Serpent which kills and devours all the men and women in the world And saith the Apostle the sting of this Serpent Death is sin it 's sin that makes the sting and then he adds the strength of sin is the law The strength that sin hath to sting is from the curse of the Law and the Law hath its strength and power from the wrath of God for the law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 So that by all you see that by the sting of death is meant the dreadful torments of hell which at death come from the wrath of God through the curse of the Law for sin O poor Christless sinner what a miserable case art thou in Look well as thou fittest in thy seat and thou mayst see this stinging Serpent Death lye under thy feet when thou liest down this Serpent lies under thy bed when thou art at meat this Serpent lies under thy table when thou goest out of thy house thou mayst see this Serpent at the door ready to sting thee to heâ— But now here comes in the unspeakaâ— comfort of believers for though death hâ— power to kill them yet it hath no poâ—er to sting them because all the cauâ— of Deaths sting are taken away by Jesâ— Christ 1. Sin is gone for this lamb of Gâ— hath taken away the sins of the world Joâ— 1.29 Observe they are taken away â— if they had never been Hence 1 Pet. â— 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his owâ— body on the tree So that by the righteouâ—ness of Christ given to us by God and received of us by Faith and thereby maâ— our own we are fully cleared and absoâ—ved from sin and God will never impuâ— it to us 2. It follows that the curse of the Law is gone for Christ hath delivered us froâ— the curse of the law being made a curâ— for us So that the law hath no strength tâ— binde us to punishment there being neither sin to binde us for nor punishment tâ— binde us unto 3. The wrath of God which makes thâ— punishment is also taken away for it iâ— God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 and we havâ— thereby peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that God is ours and for us to love bless and save and glorifie us and therefore every believer may with comfort hold up the Blood of Christ in the very face of the King of Terrors and say Here is my Christ my righteousness but O death where is thy sting Nay further Death is now changed from coming to execute the curses of the Law for it comes to fulfil the blessings of the Gospel for death to a believer is a work of a reconciled Father whereby he looseth his childe out of earth into heaven so that we may see death so full of the love and goodness of God that it should even indear it to us and make it lovely and precious to our souls That is a most comfortable promise Joh. 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death It is not meant he shall never die as the Jews understood it ver 52. And I conceive it is not only intended he shall never die the second death but the meaning also seems to be this that a Childe of God shall see so much of God and Christ and Heaven that he may even overlook the fears of death which are swallowed up by God and Christ and Life Lastly Comfort in respect of our glorious victory over all diseases and death at the day of Judgment This victory consists in two things 1. In putting a final period to all diseases and death Sickness shall never trouble us more and death shall never kill us more I warrant thee Christian thy head will never ake in heaven and for certain there will be no Funerals in that Country but corruptible must put on incorruption and mortal shall put on immortality 2. In that the bodies of believers shall then be never the worse for the diseases and death which they have suffered but the bodies which were sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory Beloved a Saint may live comfortably in any condition by living in the joyful knowledge of the day of judgment Hence when the Apostle had propounded this as an argument of comfort that yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He adds this Now the just shall live by faith meaning they shall live a life of holiness and comfort in believing the day of judgment And Saint Paul having made a glorious description of that great day 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. makes this use of it vers 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And in this the godly did comfort themselves Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies This is a most comfortable life to live as those that are always groaning and waiting for the day of judgment A believer may apply this to his comfort against any particular trouble Art thou disgraced and reproached in thy name summon as it were all thy accusers to the day of judgment and believe what a name thou shalt have then and that thou shalt be sure to come off with credit at that day when the glorious Judge of quick and dead shall confess thee before his Father and Angels and Men and as mean and obscure as thou seemest now the world will have other thoughts of thee when they see thee appear with Christ in glory Col. 3.4 And therefore we learn that one great work of that day will be to make a clear and open manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 Art thou troubled with unreasonable and wicked men so that thou mayst say with David My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire Psal 57.4 Consider what Christ will do to them at the day of judgment and what
work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters oâ— the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at thâ— day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thiâ— corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed uâ— in victory Look on this corruptible anâ— mortal body which is now sometimes sâ— loathsome with diseases that a man caâ— scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wilâ— crawl and feed all over it and these verâ— arms and thighs and legs may be throwâ— up and lie like the bones of horses anâ— sheep at the graves mouth yet the day iâ— coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shalâ— exhort all to these six duties grounded oâ— this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense oâ— this truth that the health and lives of alâ— men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at thâ— command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As foâ— our heavenly enjoyments we are best wheâ— we are most fit to enjoy them but as foâ— our worldly comforts we are best when wâ— are most fit to loose them as thus it is ouâ— holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very faâ— into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones oâ— the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this
project to have himself honoured and Mordecai hanged vers 4 6. But in onâ— night God turned the scales by a Divinâ— touch upon the Kings heart and so Mordecai is brought to the honour and Hamaâ— to the gallows Oh what became of thiâ— great Courtiers thoughts when instead oâ— the honour which he expected he had thâ— halter which he deserved And thus wâ— finde that God hath gracious thoughts oâ— love and mercy to his people and the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations But men have thoughts of setting up themselves and throwing down the Church of God but they fade in their ways and their thoughts perish Lastly See your enemies in the hands of Christ What are they all when they may be sick or dead or damned before they can do thee any hurt Isa 51.12 I even I am he that comforteth thee Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man which shall be made as grass We may learn here that a Christians fear of man proceeds from his ignorance of three things 1. Of God therefore saith God I even I am he that comforteth thee Sirs if there be more power and goodness and wisdom in him that comforts us then there is strength and subtilty and malice in them that trouble us what need we be afraid do but believe who comforts thee and thou needst not fear or care who troubles thee for God can take away the troubles of man but man cannot take away the comforts of God 2. Of themselves Therefore saith God Who art thou What thou who art my childe and hast me thy father to comfort thee and yet wilt thou be afraid of a man Oh what a poor-spirited creature art thou to be afraid of a man 3. Of the vanity of man Therefore saith God He is a man and can do no more then a man and he is a man that shall dye and wither as the grass Christians God and Sickness and Death and Hell are nearer your enemies then they are to you and I tell you do but believe Gods threatnings against them and you will see no reason to fear their threatnings against you Secondly live in a holy awe and fear of Jesus Christ Psal 33.8 Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him A man that is a tenant at will can tell you he is afraid of offending his Landlord for saith he I live under him I am at his mercie he can keep me in and turn me out of my living when he will Beloved if we knew the power of Christ as well as we do the power of a Landlord and were as much afraid of hell as we are of loosing our livings the same reason would prevail with us to be afraid of offending him for we live at his mercie and life and death is at his Will let me therefore warn you as God did the Israelites speaking to them of Jesus Christ Exod. 23.21 Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for if you continue in your sins he will not pardon your transgressions for my Name is in him Upon this ground we are required to fear him Psal 2.9 10 11. He will break his enemies with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel Therefore it is made the wisdom of Kings and Judges of the earth to serve the Lord with fear It is very observable that as Gods Attributes give being and life to a Christians graces so a Christians Graces bring glory to Gods Attributes as for example the Power and Truth of God causeth Faith and the Goodness of God causeth Love and the Greatness of God causeth Fear in the hearts of the godly So God hath a peculiar name of praise and glory from the graces of his people because of their faith and hope in him he is called the trust and confidence and hope of his people and because of their delight in him he is called the song and joy of his people and because of their awe and dread of him he is called the fear of his people the fear of Isaac Gen. 31.42 See Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread We have a special instance of this in Job cap. 31. in which Chapter Job by many solemn protestations and serious imprecations asserts his innocencie in several duties as in chastity equity to his servants charity to the poor c. Now he clears himself that the reason of his integrity in these things was not because he was afraid of ever a man alive Hence saith he vers 34. Did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of families terrifie me No no he had a great awe upon his heart vers 23. For destruction from God was terror to me and by reason of his greatness I could not endure How contrary to this is the secure temper of many who rage in malice against God and godliness and fill the land that bears thâ—â— with lyes oaths drunkenness whoredoms injustice Sabbath-breaking contempt of Ordinances c. yet they make no more of God and his Judgements then the very stones or dirt under their feet But oh what work will diseases and death make among these secure and senseless Atheists shortly methinks I hear the wrath of God roaring against them and the Lyon hath roared who will not fear Amos 3.8 Be perswaded then to stand in awe of God for which purpose lay up that Scripture Eccles 8.12 13. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God 3. Labour to make your peace with God you see what he can do against you he can disease or kill or damn you when he will therefore it 's your great wisdom and safety to have this God on your side and to be at peace with him The Scripture perswades to this duty with this argument Isa 27.4 5. Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burâ— them together meaning if my enemies who are but as briars and thorns before me who am a consuming fire will fight it out against me I will burn them up quickly I will have them in hell presently but saith he vers 5. If they will by sincere faith and prayer take hold on my strength and make peace with me they shall make peace with me Now to prevail with you herein consider what this peace with God is it 's that blessed State whereby God in Christ is for the good and happiness and eternal salvation of Believers and whereby they are
time to have a name from the doing of it for it is observable that the actions of men give a name to these three things viz. to themselves to the places and to the times wherein they live 1. Then do nothing but what thou wouldst have a name from the doing of it man loves sin but he cannot endure to be called according to his sins but if thou dost abhor the name of a drunkard swearer lyar why dost thou live in the sins of drunkenness swearing and lying 2. Do nothing that thou wouldst not have the land to have a name from for the land hath a name from the practice of the people a holy people make a holy nation a prophane unclean perfidious people make a land of prophaness of whoredoms of treachery c. What sins thou livest in thou dost not onely make thy self but also as much as in thee lies thou makest the land laothsome to God and men 3. Do nothing which thou wouldst not have thy time have a name from it makes thee have sad thoughts to think of the time of drunkenness whoredom lying c. but times of prayer meditation holy conference c. are sweet 4. Take heed of idleness this sin makes empty and unprofitable times and leaves people unprepared for sickness When Calvin was reproved for inordinate labour he gives this savoury answer What saith he would ye have my Lord finde me idle Sirs would you have sickness and death and the day of judgement finde you idle Our Saviour in the Parable having intrusted his servants with their talents he bids them Occupy till I come Luk. 19.13 See Christ's coming and improve your talents for him till he come Now that you may abhor this sin of idleness 1. Consider that if you be not doing good you will be doing hurt man is a busie creature let a man look at any time within himself he can never see his heart stand still We read of some 2 Thess 3.11 Who work not at all and yet are busie-bodies Sirs the soul is quick at work a man may quickly lay up abundance of treasures in heaven or hell For as Bernard saith well If you are not exercised in the labours of men you are in the labours of devils 2. Make the work of Salvation thy main business labour to turn every day into a day of Salvation Sirs it is an excellent thing for a man to live so in his calling relations recreations afflictions duties of Gods worship as if all the powers of his body and soul were set upon the work of Salvation this will keep a man from idleness For that man will never want business that knows he hath a soul to save 3. Consider what little time thou hast for this great work perhaps it may never be done if it be not done now they were fools that said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye it had been a wiser speech to have said Let us repent believe and pray for to morrow we dye 4. Consider what thou hast to set thee on work and to keep thee from idleness look into hell and see sin and the world and devils thrusting thee therein and thou wilt finde it business enough to save thee from those unquenchable flames Look into heaven and see God and Christ and Ministers and Christians always calling thee thither and see thy own sins carnal friends men devils a world of stumbling-blocks lying in thy way to stop thee from going into that everlasting happiness and thou wilt finde work enough to go to heaven Look into thy self and see what sins thou hast to conquer and bewail what wants to supply what graces to quicken and ripen what duties to perform what storms and troubles to prepare against Look on God on Christ and see what objects are there for all the powers of thy body and soul to be exercised upon Hast thou any time for idle thoughts or words or affections that hast such a God and Christ to think of and to speak of and to set and fix thy heart and love and delight upon Look into the family and town and place where thou livest and see Christless parents or Christless children or Christless brothers and sisters or Christless servants or Christless neighbours and thou mayst have that in thee to speak or do which may save their souls from hell and shall they perish and be damned by thy idleness Look into the Church and Kingdom where thou livest and consider wherein thou mayst serve them and be a blessing to them and how thou mayst be an instrument to fill them with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ Nay look upon every creature about thee the Heavens Earth Waters Birds Beasts Plants c. see them all filled with the Power Wisdom and goodness of God and as it were bringing their praises to thee that thou mayst be their mouth to honour and exalt God Methinks Sirs these things should keep us from idleness 5. That thou mayst fill up thy time take heed of losing a suffering opportunity Beloved a suffering opportunity is a precious opportunity it 's an opportunity to honour God further the Gospel to save thy own and others souls to be a blessing to thy posterity and to leave thy name as a blessed savour behinde thee I would not tempt men to lust after sufferings I know the Devil would have his servants to serve him by passive as well as active obedience yet I would have none so base as to chuse to sin rather then to suffer and to prefer Apostasie before Martyrdom Sometimes a man may fall into such a nick of time that duty may cost him his life and a sin may save his life This case is implied in the words of our Saviour Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it Now that is a sad loss of a suffering opportunity when a man saves himself from suffering by sin Consider the fearful consequences of this hereby thou savest thy estate name life and losest thy soul which is clearly implied in the next words vers 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Remember when thou runnest into a known sin to avoid suffering thou makest a bargain thou makest an exchange thou gettest the world and the Devil and Hell get thy soul Consider further it is the highest improvement of thy name estate and life to sacrifice it to the glory and will of Christ by suffering for him this is the best that thou canst make of thy self Sirs it is more honourable if thou art called to it to be burned at a stake for Christ then to be burned with Fever or to die for Christ in a Prison then to die in a sick bed Consider lastly What a woful case will sickness and death finde thee in
all the powers of my soul â—nd members of my body and I can say â—f many things that I do that they come â—ot from my created nature or corrupted â—ature but from Christ that liveth in me â—nd I am convinced of this by such things â—s these 1. I can look on my sins and finde a â—ower within me that loaths them and would crucifie them and be revenged of them and it 's the greatest burden of my â—ge that I have any thing in me against the will and glory of so good a God and which â—s displeasing to him and makes me so unâ—ike unto him 2. I can look at Gods Commandments â—nd finde a power within me agreeing with them so that they are the very law of my minde I account them all holy just and good and they are for that reason precious to me because they are against my sins and I judge it the best work that I can do to be doing the Will of God revealed in these good Commandments 3. I can look upon the world and upon the Kingdoms and Country where I live and I judge it the greatest happiness and glory of a Nation which I most pray for and in my place and calling contend for to have all places filled with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ 4. I look upon men and I see amongst them a company who are separared from the world and differ from the world and are of another spirit who appear and shine in the image and likeness of the most holy God in whom there is a sweet agreement betwixt their lives and the Scriptures and the life of Jesus Christ is manifested in them Now my heart doth judge these the best people in the world and to be far more excellent then their carnal Neighbours I love and delight in them and desire living and dying to be found with my heart joyned to them Poor soul iâ— thou canst finde these things sincerely in thee thou art certainly a part of Christ and shalt go in peace from thy death-bed to thy head to sit together with him in heavenly places Duty 4. If thou finde on Scripture grounds that thy sins are pardoned and thy peace is made with God then improveâ— thy experience in a spiritual triumph over all the enemies of thy Salvation Say to Death that stands daring anâ— staring thee in the face O death where iâ— thy sting And Death must answer in effect thus When Christ laid down his life I lost my sting but Christ took up again his life but I could never take up again my sting Ask the grave O grave where is thy victory The grave must answer I lost the victory when Christ rose again from me and I must needs give up thy precious Body when it is called for at the resurrection of the just Look on the Devils and see how Christ hath spoiled these principalities and powers and triumphed openly over them Col. 2.15 and now rejoyce thou in the spoil Let that be spiritually fulfilled in thee which was spoken Isa 33.23 The lame take the prey Death and Devils are spoiled by Christ and the poor weak sick Christian takes and triumphs in the prey So that because of this Let the weak say I am strong Joel 3.10 This may make thee even to forget thy aches and pains so that thou shalt not say I am sick because the Lord hath forgiven thy iniquities Isa 33.24 Duty 5. Having thus seen a settlement of my soul and body to all eternity make a godly consciencious and seasonable settlement of thy outward estate this ought to be done if it be not done before and if thou art in a capacity to do it This was part of Isaiah his message to Hezekiah on his sick-bed Isai 38.1 Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Now in making thy Will be ruled by this principle Be sure that thy will be ruled by the Will of God that so thy last Will and Testament which is the signification of thy will may make it appear that thy will is in subjection to the Will of God and that thou doest Gods Will when thou makest thy own will For this purpose observe these three Directions 1. If thou hast got any thing unjustly take order so far as is possible to make restitution do not dye in injustice to go with a curse to hell thy self and to leave the curse of God behind thee upon thy family 2. Be full of love and faithfulness to thy Relations Christ himself is our pattern herein who when he was nigh unto death commended the care of his Mother to his beloved Disciple John 19.27 Then saith he to his disciple Behold thy mother Let thy last Will and Testament witness that thou diest in conjugal love to thy wife Give her of the fruit of her hands Prov. 31. ult endeavour to make thy poor widows life as comfortable as thou canst and although I advise not husbands to leave power in the hands of their wives to wrong and defraud their poor fatherless children for sad experience witnesseth that many widows are so careful to get themselves husbands that they grow careless of their poor children yet however leave no tye upon her to binde her from after-marriage seeing God hath made her free do not thou leave her bound Again provide so for thy children that there be neither want nor strife nor emulation among them and though I advise to nothing to prejudice the first-borns birth-right yet I must witness against it as the great sin of many Parents that are so ambitious to set up their Families that they highly advance the elder brothers and often leave the younger to be as poor as beggars or as bad as thieves 3. Dye in dear love to the Church of God and to the poor that so far as thou art able thy last Will and Testament may savour of good will towards them It is the wickedness of many that they seek to make a Monopoly of the world by ingrossing to themselves and their families and restraining the good and use of it from others but every man keeping to the rules of justice should dispose of his estate so as may make it most useful for Gods glory and to be a blessing unto man And therefore consider that if thou expectest when thou dyest to be received into the everlasting habitation of Gods poor in the other world let their lives be made somewhat more comfortable by thee in this world Duty 6. Use all lawful means to recover thy health though thou art ready to dye yet it 's thy duty to endeavour to live thy life is Gods and he hath bound thee to keep it for him till he call for it and thou art the Churches servant and must not by thy sinful neglect defraud her of her right thou hast yet need to mortifie sin and to grow in grace and to strengthen thy assurance of Salvation and to lay up more treasures in
heaven and thou oughtest to use all lawful means to preserve thy life for these ends grudge not therefore thy self wholesome and fit dyet send for a skilful and careful Physitian and depend upon the God of thy life in the use of them To conclude be ruled by this Principle When life is most sweet be willing to dye and when life is most bitter be wiling to live without this a man lives to himself and dyes to himself Duty 7. Bear thy Visitation patiently The Apostle pleads for this duty though in a more general case Heb. 12.9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them revence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live As it is a most unchild-like temper in children to carry themselves stubbornly under their fathers rod so it is very unchildlike for Gods children to carry themselves stubbornly under the correction of their heavenly Father therefore yeild thy self in patient subjection to thy Father under all his chastisements Now because patience is such a necessary seasonable and proper Duty for a sick man I shall press this Exhortation with some Motives and then by some Directions teach you how to be patient I shall use these five Motives Mot. 1. Now is a special season wherein you have great need of patience Heb. 10.36 for the greater our aâ—â—lictions are the greater is our need of patience now every affliction is greater by how much it comes nearer to a mans life so that a man better bears afflictions in his Estate or Friends then in his own Body and therefore there never appeared a want of Jobs patience till his body was so sore visited Besides there are many afflictions accompany sickness which make our condition more grievous and patience more necessary as for example our enemies are now apt to triumph in our misery Thus they did by David Psal 41.8 An evil disease say they cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lyeth he shall rise up no more So that we have need of patience to bear the insultings and upbraidings of our enemies our friends also may be now estranged from us Thus they were from Job and Heman Psal 88.8 and David complains of this Psal 38.11 My lovers and my friends stand a loof from my sore and my kinsmen stood afar off Nay our dearest relations sometimes deal unkindly with us in this condition This did aggravate Jobs misery Job 19.17 My breath is strange to my wife though I intreated her for the childrens sake of my own body I begged of her Good wife do not forsake me now but remember our poor children which are gone which were the sweet pledges of our Matrimonial Love Yet for all this saith he she was so nice that she could not endure to come near my breath which did stink being corrupted by my disease so that we have upon all these and divers other considerations great need of patience Mot. 2. Your patience will prove you to be compleat Christians Thus the Apostle pleads Jam. 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Beloved many seem to be good Christians till they come to passive obedience but then they cannot endure to be wronged or provoked or to suffer losses or pains in body c. Now here is a want in Christiany and it is better want any where then be wanting in godliness but when a man can with patience bear all sufferings he is a perfect entire Christian and wants nothing because he can patiently want every thing Mot. 3. Thy bearing thy visitation patiently makes thy suffering to be a suffering for the sake of Christ Perhaps thou mayst think Oh if I had the honour to suffer banishment imprisonment yea death it self for the sake of Christ how patiently could I hear it But consider the answer which Cyprian makes to this objection which the Christians did object in his days in a time of great sickness Non sanguinem vestrum Deus quaerit sed fidem God seeks not your bloud but your faith If you did suffer for Christ it is not your bloud and your death that pleaseth God but the faith and patience which you exercise in your sufferings and by these thou mayst exceedingly please God in this Visitation And consider further that a man doth not onely suffer for Christs sake when he suffers for the name and truth of Christ though I confess it is ordinarily taken in that sence yet there is another way of suffering for the sake of Christ which is indeed a clearer argument of sincerity then the former that is when we suffer patiently for the sake of Christs Will so the reason of our patience and submission is because our visitation comes from the Will of Jesus Christ and indeed this demonstrates that the same graces and the same reasons which make thee so patient under this visitation would make thee run with patience through all the suffering which thou shouldst be called unto for the sake of Christ Mot. 4. This puts a great grace upon a Christian to lye quietly and patiently under the hand of God in sickness David gives a relation of his sweet temper in the exercise of this grace Psal 131.2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a childe that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned childe As a weaned childe eats and drinks and plays and sleeps quietly without the breasts so David was obedient and quiet and patient and teachable under all Gods dispensations I tell you in the midst of all nasty and loathsome diseases this spirit of patience puts a beauty and glory upon the very body of a Christian Tertullian elegantly expresseth the comely carriage of a patient Christian under his sufferings thus His countenance is calm and pleasant his face smooth not wrinkled with sorrow or anger his eye-lids let down in a cheerful manner his eyes cast down not with misery but humility his mouth sealed with silence c. De patientia cap. 15. Last Mot. This will be a sure proof to thee that all thy sicknesses and misery will end in heaven Heb. 6.12 That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Observe all the glory of heaven is laid up in the promises and the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Saints which have dyed in all ages are now in heaven inheriting the promises they are enjoyning that happiness which was promised to them in the Scriptures but how came they to inherit these promises why through faith and patience Now we have the same promises made to us which they do now inherit but how shall we come to inherit the same promises those Saints are possest of glory yonder they live and raign but how shall we do to come among them why be followers of them they are gone a little before you away after them follow their
to die to the Lord Rom. 14.18 I tell you a man may with courage and resolution burn at a stake and men burn him to death because of his profession of the truth of Christ and yet this is but the height of hypocrisie and he may hereby dye to himself And though men may commend him for a Saint yet God may justly condemn him for an hypocrite but he that willingly yeilds himself to dye in obedience to God dyes in the Lord and to the Lord and graciously offers up his life as a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God in Christ Consider further thou dost hereby graciously finish all passive and active obedience thou now leavest thy Country and Estate and Father and Mother and Wife and Children to fulfill the will of God So also all that thou hast been doing by Prayer Meditation Sacraments Sabbaths c. thou willingly yeildest to have finisht by death thou art heartily willing that the old man of sin be put off by death for ever and that the new man of holiness be put on for ever Consider thou hast often pray'd to be filled with the likeness and presence of God which can never be till death Christ hath prayed that thou mayst be where he is that thou mayst see his glory Joh. 17.24 and this can never be till thou dyest therefore I say be willing to dye call upon the sad mourners about thee saying to them as Jacob to Joseph Gen. 46.30 Let me dye Dear yokefellow let me dye sweet children let me dye my pleasant Jonathans let me dye and turn thy face to God and say with Simeon Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Lastly Commend thy soul to God this is an act of a Believer whereby he freely gives up himself to God and Christ as his right and due to glorifie and to enjoy him for ever in heaven Now by giving up thy soul to God thou givest up thy body too for the body will be sure to follow the soul if the soul go to hell the body must go thither too if the soul go to heaven the body must be glorified there too therefore see God as it were standing by thy bed-side saying to thee My son give me thy heart give me thy soul give it me from sin and self give it me from the world and devils give it me for I made it and bought it and I will save it Oh then give it up and commend it to God See the infinite and unchangeable love and mercy of God in Christ to thy soul and believe that with this love he will graciously and lovingly receive thy soul and see what God will do with thy soul in what fulness of holiness and joy and glory he will settle it for ever See that thy soul be such as thou mayst comfortably commend it unto God do not present to him a drunken ignorant proud covetous unbelieving soul but a believing loving holy humble soul See thy soul cloathed with Christs righteousness and aâ— such give it up to God to be blessed and glorified for ever in Heaven saying Father into thy hands I commit my spirit FINIS Pâ—al 52.7 Psa 39.11 â—sa 22.17 Psalm 10.18 Job 40.9 1 Cor. 10.22 Job 40.9 Psal 128.3 Jer. 9.21 Job 21.21 2 Kin. 4.40 Psal 94.12 Jam. 5.14 Psal 17.14 Psal 49.7 Job 9.17 Eph. 2.6 Col. 3.4 Luke 12.4 Jam. 5.11 Phil. 4.17 Heb. 10.31 Gal. 4.29 1 Tim. 4.16 Rev. 6.8 Job 23.14 Deut. 30.20 Psal 41.2 â—ct 8.22 â—eut 13. â—1 Job 33.13 Rom. 3.4 Exod. 16.3 17.3 Prov. 23.5 Isa 57.20 Lam 3.19 22. Numbers 12.14 Job 21.23 Prov. 25.15 Act. 23.12 Cor. 3.9 * Cyprian de mortalitate 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil. 3.21 Gal. 3.13 1 Cor. 15.54 1 Cor. 15.43 Heb. 10.37 38. 2 Cor. 5.4 Prov. 27.1 Psa 33.11 2 Cor. 5.19 Jam. 1.22 2 Cor. 4.7 Heb. 3.13 Deut. 34.7 Prov. 12.4 Prov. 1.8 Psal 22.30 Eccl. 12.1 Psal 71.6 2 Tim. 3.15 Matth. 25. Vers 6. Vers 8. Phil. 1.9 10. Job 38.7 2 Tim. 1.18 Luk. 12.20 Psal 88.3 Acts 14.17 Prov. 3.24 Rom. 5.8 Eph. 5.2 Gal. 2.20 1 Joh. 3.23 2 Pet. 3.14 Heb. 11.4 Prov. 23.26
to resist or remove these because the irresistible Arm and Power of God works in them and therefore he may cry in his sickness Help â—riends help riches help honours But if God do not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him Job 9.13 The places of the world are called slippery places Psal 73.18 and they that know what God is and what sin and what the creature is know by the causes the slipperiness of them and see you sliding down as fast as you are rising up And tell me you great men of the earth where is the place which you can name and say Here I can stand and cannot slip into hell I tell you there are standers by can see your magnificent buildings scituated on the borders of hell your beds made at the very mouth of hell your tables spread over the pit of hell your horses prancing with you and Coaches ratling with you at the very edge and brink of hell Ah great vanities where-ever you are the mouth of hell is gaping upon you and there are thousands of diseases and deaths to loose you in We may hence then conclude with David Psal 62.9 That men of high degree are a lye and vanity and if we weigh nothing in the balance with them they will prove lighter then nothing and vanity Thirdly The vanity of strong men Solomon tells us Prov. 20.29 The glory of young men is their strength and men are apt to be very proud of their strength that they can leap and lift and run and wrestle and fight and excel others in bodily exercises But what is all this strength when God comes upon thee by sickness and with his strong hand opposeth himself against thee Job 30 21. Thy bones are now full of marrow and strength but when a disease comes thy strength will be dried up like a Potsheard or pitcher baked and burnt in the fire Psal 22.15 therefore when thy heart is lifted up in the sense of thy bodily strength consider Hast thou an arm like God or art thou stronger then he canst thou fight with a Fever or wrestle with the Falling sickness or out-run a Consumption No no this conflict will prove like that of Jobs with the Leviathan to teach thee to remember the battel and do no more David was a man of such strength that he tells us that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms Psal 18.34 but when he came to grapple with sickness then he was so feeble and sore broken that saith he Psalm 22.14 I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joynt Besides if thou live to it old age will creep upon thee shortly and then the keepers of the house viz. the hands and arms will tremble and the strong men viz. the limbs that support thee will bow as we readâ— Eccles 12.13 and at last death shall devour thy strength Job 18.13 and the very worms of the earth will be too strong for thee Let not therefore the mighty man glory in his might Jer. 9.23 for as David infers from Gods wasting men with sickness Psal 39.5 Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 4. To convince us of the vanity of children these indeed are sweet comforts and it is a great mercy to be instruments in Gods way of bringing such an excellent creature as a man-childe or woman-childe into the world and I have often thought that when some do take too much pleasure in a horse or in a dog as a spaniel or the like that it 's a great blessing to parents to have such objects of their delight as their own children Hence saith Job O that I were as in months past when my children were about me Job â—9 2 6. and truely though the fare be but course yet it makes it more pleasant to have these plants about the table These are indeed sweet flowers but a sickness comes and then like a Posie they wither in thy bosome so that we must conclude with Solomon Eccles 11. ult that childehood and youth is vanity Lastly of the vanity of wealth and riches Oh how bare will sicknesses and death make a man Sirs a dead corpse is but a poor thing How poor doth a rich man go out of the world when sickness and death hath stript him of all his enjoyments and then as he came naked out of his mothers womb so naked must he return Job 1.21 Eccles 5.15 1 Tim. 6.7 look on the world with your hearts filled with the thoughts of sickness and death and then you will see the vanity of it look on thy self as stretcht on a bed of languishing see thy self lying in a Coffin or in a Grave or standing before the judgement-seat of Christ and then see how all the riches of the world appear before thee If a man look on his stately house and buildings what a pleasant dream is he in to see a sweet scituation wholesome air convenient rooms c. but let him see death coming up into the windows and then what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months is cut off in the midst So when a man is feeding himself with the pleasant thoughts of a feast let him remember that death is in the Pot and that death stands between the cup and the lip and then he will not be so apt to make his belly his God like those Phil. 3.19 So when men are proud of their Pedigrees and take pleasure in reckoning up their Kindred and telling of their Families let them take in these with the rest of their Relations saying to corruption Thou art our father and to the worms You are our mothers and sisters Job 17.14 and this will shew all to be but noble dust and rich earth and great vanity So much for the second End of Christs visiting men with sickness End 3. To fill our hearts with the sence of death Sicknesses are fit means for this purpose for sickness it self is a kinde of death for death is a privation of life a separation from that which is our life And now we know we have as it were a life in food friends and estates c. and sickness parts and separates us from these it stops the passage betwixt these and a man so that the pleasure and comfort of these cannot come to the man for his disease but the man stands as it were betweeen the two worlds at the end of this world and at the beginning of the other and all creature enjoyments are shut up from him and the great things of eternity stand open before him So that what the Apostle speaks of persecution is for the same reason true of sickness 2 Cor. 4.12 Death worketh in us when sickness comes death works apace it works away your health it works away your ease it works away your stomachs it works away your strength and at last works you into your graves
for his friends which proved such miserable Comforters to him Job 16.4 5. If your souls were in my souls stead I would strengthen you with my mouth and the movings of my lips should asswage your grief Oh Sirs how sweet and savoury is it to a sick Christian to receive spiritual Cordials from the wholesome tongue of a cordial friend Now this will be a reason and ground of our sympathy if we look on Believers in their sickness in their union and relation to Jesus Christ for saith Christ Mat. 25.36 I was sick viz. in my sick members and ye visited me Consider this diseased Christian is a member of that Body whose Head sits at the right hand of the Majesty of the most High And as poor as this sicK Saint lies here yet he is virtually raised up with Christ and sits together with him in heavenly places As miserable as he appears now yet the next time we see him we shall see him appearing with Christ in glory Come with these considerations when you visit one another and you will account it a mercy and great priviledge if you or any thing of yours be so blest as to be the instrument of ease or health or comfort to such a precious one and you will finde all well improved when Christ shall say unto you Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was sick and ye visited me End 14. Christ visits his people with sickness to glorifie his power and mercy in strengthening and comforting them in their sickness That of the Apostle is true of bodily as well as of spiritual weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 My strength is made perfect in weakness Now is a time for God to shew his strength in the weakness of his people Psal 41.3 The Lord will strengthen him on a bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Methinks that man should lie easily who hath the God that made all the world to make all his bed in his sickness The meaning is God will be the cause of rest and ease and peace to him in this condition Hence Myconius in a fit of sickness writes to Luther Se non lethaliter sed vitaliter aegrotare that he is not sick unto death but sick unto life having so much spiritual life and comfort in his sickness And one of Mr. Dods Converts told him in her sickness That she was full of comfort and could as hardly forbear singing now as she could crying when she was in Child-bearing That of the Psalmist agrees to this Psalm 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever It 's observable that God hath this title in Scripture The God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 because whatever comfort we have from any creature it comes from God through the creature it 's the goodness of God in the creature which makes it a comfort it 's the goodness of God which makes a Wife a comfort a Childe a comfort c. And then he is the God of all comfort because he comforts us against all troubles there is comfort from God through the creatures but this is but some comfort Money comforts a man against his debts and meat comforts him against his hunger but there are other cases as of sickness and spiritual wounds and temptations c wherein these yield no comfort But whatever the trouble be to a Believer there is comfort in God against it we have often God the Holy Ghost called in Scripture The Comforter now it 's a special skill to observe which way God in a most especial manner glorifies his several Titles This Title The Comforter is glorified by Gods exercising his infinite power to comfort the hearts of his distressed people Now sickness is an affliction wherein a man can have nothing to comfort him but God and Jesus Christ this is clear for true comfort is the strengthening of the heart against the present trouble now that which comforts us must be as truly ours as the trouble is ours we must say Our God and our joy as well as Our sickness or else we cannot have comfort And again it must be as near as our trouble for it 's no comfort to an hungry man to know he hath meat if he cannot come at it Now faith sees God and Christ as near to the soul to comfort it as sickness is to the body to trouble it And then lastly that which comforts us must be good enough to take away the evil that troubles us now a mans great trouble on his sick-bed is for fear of losing his poor soul and in this case to shew him riches and honours and pleasures will not comfort him for they can do nothing in the removing his trouble but if God say I am thy salvation now the man is comforted and sings at the very door of death Solomon tells us Prov. 14.32 The righteous hath hope in his death Now his hope is not for some place of preferment or some rich purchase or the like for death brings no such things but he hopes for preferment in the great City that hath foundations Heb. 11.10 where he is for ever to dwell in his house not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 and these sickness and death bring him into That Scripture is sweet Heb. 6.19 20. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither our forerunner is for us entred even Jesus The place within the vail is heaven where the anchor of hope enters and sticks So that though a poor believer lie gasping and groaning on his sick bed or in other afflictions yet this is his comfort he is still anchor'd and fastned to heaven End 15. Christ visits his people with sickness to fit them for greater sufferings As the Martyr Bilney put his finger in the fire to fit him to burn in the flames Christ by sickness makes a man fit to die and then he is fit for any sufferings for he that can obediently sacrifice his life to God can for the same reason offer up his health liberty and estate to God and this made Paul ready to suffer all persecutions because he was ready to die Acts 20.22 23 24. He knew that every where bonds and afflictions did way-lie him but saith he v. 24. None of these things move me I will not stir a step out of my way of obedience for all the bonds and afflictions that the hands of devils and men can make What is his reason because I count not my life dear unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Precious Paul so that he could die in joy and die in duty he did not think his life too dear or too good to be spent for Jesus