his neck brake and he dyed 1 Sam. 4.18 So that good King Josiah 2 King 22.19 20. was suddenly cut off in War 2 King 23.29 30. So the Prophet that came out of Judah whether Shemaiah mentioned 1 King 12.22 or some other Prophet I know not neither ought we curiously to enquire or positively determine any thing where Scripture is silent yet he was a true Prophet as appeareth by his title 1 King 13.1 call'd a Man of God by the Message it self and confirmation thereof by miracles ver 4 5 6. And as a true Prophet so questionless a pious Man yet because he was too credulous in believing the lie of the old Prophet and did eat and drink contrary to God's Command a Lion met him and slew him v. 24. So blessed Stephen stoned in a popular fury was put to a sudden and violent death Act. 7.57 59. Let us not conclude any to be in a damnable state meerly because they die suddenly Indeed God threatens the Wicked with sudden destruction as Job 15.32 33 34. so Job 22.15 16. Psal 37.35 36 38. 55.23 Prov. 10.27 Eccl. 7.17 and elsewhere And I know that wicked men many times are suddenly cut off in their wickedness when they might have lived much longer as to the course of nature But all that die suddenly are not to be reputed wicked men For the Godly as you have heard may dye sudden violent and untimely deaths And the Wise-man tells you Eccl. 9.1 2. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him All things come alike to all there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked c. The Barbarians seeing the Viper on Pauls hand thinking the venom would presently have invaded his heart and vital spirits so that he would have died presently rashly concluded him to be a Murtherer and that Divine vengeance would not suffer him to live Act. 28.3 4 6. Let not Christians like these Barbarians be rash censurers of any that dye suddenly seeing that Gods dear and peculiar People may dye so 2. Consid A sudden death is best if we be prepared for it Octavius Augustus as oft as he heard of any man that had a quick passage out of this world with little sense of pain he wished for himself and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Similem Sueton. such an easie death Suddenness saith that Prodigy of Learning Mr. Hooker because it shortens grief Eccles Polit. pag. 277. should in reason be most acceptable and therefore Tyrants use what art they can to encrease the slowness of death That monster of cruelty Caius Caligula would not permit those that he put to death to be speedily dispatched his command was this Ita feri ut se mori sentiat Sueton. Strike so that they may feel themselves dying and endure the pains of an enduring death Quick riddance out of Life is often both requested and bestowed as a benefit We read Judg. 8.20 21. that Zeba and Zalmunna chose rather to fall by Gideon than by Jether his son either because it was more honorable to be killed by a man like themselves rather than by a boy Mr. Fuller in his Coment on Ruth 1 Chap. Or rather as a learned Divine observes Because the Childs want of strength would cause the more pain And he adds Better to be speedily dispatched by a violent Disease than to have ones Life prolonged by a lingring torture And Erasmus somewhere saith Si pio homini deligere fas esset mortis genus nullum arbitror magis optandum quà m subitum If it were lawful for a godly man to choose the manner of his death I think a sudden death most to be desired and he gives this reason of it because Non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit he cannot dye ill that hath lived well For though death be sudden in its self yet in regard of his preparation for it and expectation of it to him it is not sudden Improvisa nulli mors cui provida vita Sad indeed it is to dye as Onan Absalom Amnon Ananias and Sapphira and several others that we read of in Scripture who were suddenly snatcht away in their wickedness From such a sudden death Good Lord deliver us For it is a speedy downfall to the bottomless-pit of Hell But if a man live as he ought to do in continual expectation of death and so set his house and his soul in order surely sudden death is best for him for it prevents much torturing pain which others met with upon their beds of languishment and besides this it is a speedy passage into Life Eternal 3. And lastly Consid Be thy Friends death never so sudden and violent it is that death which God in his providence hath allotted him God ordaineth our end by an immutable decree See Jer. 43.11 When he commeth Dr. Abbot on Jonah 4.3 4. Lect. 26. pag. 543 he shall smite the Land of Egypt and deliver such as are for death to death and such as are for captivity to captivity and such as are for the sword to the sword This intimates that by the Providence of the Lord who did set that King on work several persons in their times are determined to their several ends We must not attribute any friends death as the Philistines would their destruction to Chance 1 Sam. 6.9 Homer speaking of Achilles that slew many worthy Grecians saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad α. v. 5. Joves will was fulfilled Homer though blind as some report yet saw the hand of God in their destruction And Mr. Fuller in his Coment on Ruth 2.3 4. some observe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fortune is not used in all his Works It was only the ignorance of true causes that made the name of Fortune Nullum numen abest si sit prudentia sed te Nos facimus fortuna Deum Juven Sat. 10. For there is nothing fortuitous in it self seeing Gods Providence orders all events Indeed some things are said to happen in Scripture Ruth 2.3.4 Luke 10.31 but this is spoken not in respect of God but in respect of us because oft-times they come to pass not only without our purpose and forecast but even against our intentions and determinations but yet those things which thus fall out are ordered by the secret working of Gods providence We read 1 Kings 22.34 A certain man drew a Bow at a venture or according to the Orig. in his Simplicity 2 Sam. 15.11 not intending to bit Ahab yet God's purpose was to have Ahab slain and accordingly it came to pass for he smote the King of Israel between the joynts of the harness and the King dyed vers 37. Thus providence orders even casual events Christ's death with the manner was decreed by God Acts 4.27 28. Of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together
breaking no more doth righteousness the rich workmanship of God's blessed Spirit Ephes 2.10 preserve any man from mouldring to dust Moses Joshua David Job Daniel c. are dead and gone Dorcas that woman full of God works and almsdeeds which she did fell sick and died Acts 9.36 37. Holiness is no armour of proof to keep off the dart of Death The shield of faith and brest-plate of righteousness which are able to resist the fiery darts of Satan Ephes 6.16 yet are not able to defend a man from the dart of Death The best persons are not persons priviledged from the arrest of Death that surly Sergeant 2. Consid God can raise up other good men in their stead A Phoenix may arise out of the ashes There may hopeful branches come in their stead Uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus simili frondescit virgâ—metallo Virgil. See 2 Epist of John 1st 4th verses compared That Elect Lady that worthy Matron honoured for her wealth and liberality to the poor had Children constantly professing the true Religion and living according to it who might succeed her in works of charity and piety Buxtorf floril Heb. p. 204. The Jews have a saying Quandò occidit Sol vir illustris utilis oritur Sol viz. alius similis ipsi That never doth there die any illustrious man but there is another born as bright on the same day To which they accommodate that place See Mr. Patricks Serm. on Psa 90.12 Eccles 1.5 Nay they observe further that he makes some Star or other arise before the Sun be set as Joshua began to shine before Moses his light was darkned And before Joshua went to bed Othniel the Son of Kenaz was risen up to judge Eli was not gathered to his fathers before Samuel appeared to be a most hopeful youth and among the other sex they also note that Sarah was not taken away till Rebeccah was ready to come in her stead Furthermore we find in Scripture how Elisha succeeded Elijah Eleazer Aaron Haggai and Zechary supplyed the loss of Daniel and Christ arose in John Baptists stead And hopeful Timothy in the room of Paul the aged Consider then that others as good and useful in their generations may succeed in their stead 3. Lastly consid The happiness that a good man is estated in at death The righteous like Stars though they set in one place yet they rise in another These trees of righteousness are translated into the Coelestial Paradise so that though they be not with us yet they are with God If we truly love them we cannot but congratulate their feasts of joy their rivers of pleasures their palms of victory Dr. Stuarts Cathol Divin pag. 158. Aug. Manuals c. 7 de gaudio their robes of majesty their crown of glory O vita vitalis vita sempiterna sempiternè beata ubi gaudium sine moerore requies sine labore sanitas sine languore opes sine amissione perpetuitas sine corruptione In heaven there is life indeed an eternal blessed life where there is joy without sorrow rest without labour health without sickness riches without loss everlastingness without corruption Even Balaam saw the happy condition of such as dye in the Lord which made him cry out Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 23.10 Let us not then weep immoderately for those from whose eyes God hath wiped away all tears Let us rejoyce in their joy as we are commanded Rom. 12.15 and not weep as though we envied their happiness Indeed we have great loss when good men are taken away but let us not look altogether upon our loss but likewise on their gain and let the one at least counterballance the other 14. And last Apology answered Another cryes out 14th Apology answerd This Friend or Relation of mine lived an openly profane wretch and he died without any shew of penitential sorrow As he lived sottishly so for ought I could see he died securely I fear he is a damned creature and this troubles me Answ This complaint usually Parents take up over their wicked Children And if Parents have the least spark of grace or true love to their Children they cannot chuse but grieve to see their Children cut off in their wicked courses Sad it is to consider that their Children should be companions with Divels that their own flesh and blood should be fuel for the fire of Hell Indeed this is just matter of humility but not of discontented sullenness mourn under it you may but you must not mourn immoderately or murmur through discontent To this end let Parents consider 1. Consid Many of Gods dear Servants have had wicked Children Our first Parents Adam and Eve as Divines generally observe had laid hold on that promise Gen. 3.15 and were renewed by faith and repentance yet they had a very wicked Son their first-born Cain was an hypocrite and a murderer Gen. 4. So Noah a just man and upright in his generation and one that walked with God Gen. 6.9 had a cursed Cham. Gen. 9.22 Abraham whom God boasts of Gen. 18.19 had a persecuting Ishmael Gen. 16.12 Gal. 4.19 Isaac a good man had Esau a prophane wretch Heb. 12.16 Jacob who wrestled with God in prayer and prevailed Gen. 32.28 had Simeon and Levi as well as Joseph and Benjamin Samuel one devoted to the Lord when he was old made his sons Judges over Israel but they walked not in his wayes but turned aside after lucre 1 Sam. 8.3 David a man after Gods own heart had not only Salomon that was beloved of God but likewise incestuous Amnon ambitious Absalom and treacherous Adonijah 1 King 1.5 Josiah that good King left wicked sons behind him Jehoahaz 2 King 23.30 31 32 and Jehoiakim vers 34 36 37. so Jer. 22.18 Many more examples might be brought out of Scripture to prove this but in a point so clear and known to be too true by daily experience let these suffice Be content then thy case is not singular Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris 2. Consid Gods servants have been patient when God hath before their eyes cut off their children in their wickedness When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord by fire from the Lord as with lightning they were destroyed Livit. 10.1 2. And how doth their Father take it See vers 3. Aaron held his peace either because his grief was so great as that he could not vent himself in answerable expressions Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent or rather he held his peace being convinced of the justice of divine vengeance for Moses had said to Aaron This is that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the People I will be glorified So old Eli's sons were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord 1 Sam. 2.12 though indeed being educated by their godly Father they
rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serm. 46. Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from troubles of condition so from labours of calling as from pain so from pains-taking Mors remedium potiùs poenae quam vindicta culpae saith St. Ambrose for a punishment was it said to man In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread i. e. get thy living but for his comfort was it added until thou return to the Earth for then no more toyling wearying our selves about the things of the world Our sweat aswel as our tears shall then be wiped away Death gives a Quietus est it brings to rest The body shall no longer be worn with care when laid up in the common Wardrobe of the Grave 7. From Ignorance Job 11.12 Man is born like a wild Asses Colt he is a rude and silly creature The most intelligent person may complain with Agur of his bruitishness Prov. 30.2 David compares himself to a worm Psal 22.6 which is a poor sandblind creature The best are ignorant of far more things than they know Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus Our understanding naturally is darkned and we are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us Ephes 4.18 The Devil who was a lyar from the beginning told our first Parents Gen. 3.5 In the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil As though the Tree of Knowledge should be Eye-bright to them but alas by this means they lost their spiritual eye-sight Ever since the fall the Lamp of Reason burns dim how busie is Man to gain a little knowledge and after all his industry how staggering is he in the apprehension of Truth Even God's dear Children whilst in this world see many things darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many things seem to be a riddle and mystery to them which they cannot unfold here they meet with Arcana Naturae Scripturae Providentiae many knots in Nature Scripture and Providence which they cannot untye but hereafter when the dust of mortality is wiped from their eyes and they placed in Heaven then shall they see face to face and know even as they are known then shall they perfectly recover their eye-sight and have the perfect use of their reason In tuo Lumine videbimus lumen In thy Light we shall see light Psal 36.9 And this Light shall be clear without any mixture of Errour 8. And lastly Death frees Believers from Death As it was with Christ the Head being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 so it is with the members being once dead they die no more Indeed while they live here they die daily 1 Cor. 15.31 for our life is in a dying condition Infancy dies in childhood childhood in youth youth in manhood manhood in old age we are never at one stay till dust return to dust But when the Righteous die then they live Rev. 21.4 There shall be no more death Mr. Hill Life-Everlasting p. 75. So that as the Greek Critick said of the Bow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name signifies life but the work was death We may say the contrary of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Its name is Death but it brings to Life everlasting 2 Cor. 5.4 Mortality at death is swallowed up of Life I come now to the positive benefit that a Believer receiveth by death But here I may take up that doleful Query of the captivated Jews Psal 137.4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange Land how should we who are but strangers and pilgrims here on Earth 1 Chron. 29.15 speak of the happiness that Believers are enstated in when this life is ended Had I the tongue of glorified Angels I could not fully express it and had you the hearts of glorified Saints ye could not fully conceive it David cryes out O how great as not able to express it is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.19 And Isaiah saith Isa 64.4 Since the beginning of the World men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And St. John the beloved Disciple that lay in his Master's bosom John 13.23 and 21.20 a place near his heart thence drank deep of the heavenly wisdom tells us Nemo scit Rev. 2.17 No man knows it but he that receives it St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Yea the same person caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 12.4 tells us he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unspeakable words which it is not lawful or possible for a man to utter Whatever you reade of Heaven or future happiness either in this or any other Book whatever you hear of it either from me or any other person falls infinitely short of it and you 'l confess as much when you come to Heaven As the Queen of Sheba said 1 King 10.4 5 6 7. when she had seen all Solomon's Wisdom and the House that he had built c. she said to the King It was a true report that I heard in mine own Land of thy Acts and of thy Wisdom howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told me thy Wisdom and thy Prosperity exceedeth the Fame which I heard So when a Child of God shall come to Heaven and behold a far greater than Solomon Mat. 12.42 even the Lord JESUS hee 'l find that not a quarter of the joy and glory of Heaven was told him All that we can hear speak or conceive of it is but as a drop to the main ocean Yet we who have the Light of God's Word gloriously shining amongst us cannot be altogether in darkness as to the Inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 God's little Children for so Believers are called 1 Joh. 2.12 can lisp forth something though but little concerning their Father's Kingdom To give you then a glimpse for a full sight here is impossible of the happiness that Death invests a Believer in 1. It brings to the beatifical vision and fruition of the blessed Trinity so far as a * Dr. Sclaters Fun. Serm. on 2 Tim. 4.7 8. finite being for our humane nature continues still though glorified may be capable to apprehend of that Majesty which is infinite See Mat. 5.8 John 17.24 2 Cor. 5.8 We reade Gen. 41.14 how Joseph was brought hastily out of the Dungeon and came in unto Pharaoh King of Egypt Sure I am the soul of a Believer is no
this he had said to God Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me When God takes away Relations he testifieth against you as he did against Naomi who had lost her husband and two sons Ruth 1.5 21 compared that something in your lives hath been displeasing to him God oft-times visits the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children Exod. 20.5 34.7 2 Sam. 12.14 1 King 15.29 30. Isa 14.21 Parents may by their sins provoke God to bring upon their children a temporal but not an eternal death for Ezek. 18.20 The soul that sinneth it shall die Indeed all persons as well Children as Parents ow a death to God if not by reason of actual yet of original corruption that is in them Psa 51.5 Rom. 5.12 Yet God many times takes away Children and other Relations not having an eye so much to their sins as to the sins of parents and others that provoke God to inflict a penal evil Well then pray to the Lord to discover to thee thy sin which provoked him so soon to take away thy Friend Psal 4.4 Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still When others are a sleeping do you be a thinking what sins you were guilty of that might cause God to deprive you of such a Relation Search into God's Word and see for what sins God usually punisheth with loss of Friends Now God might take away thy Relation for such sins as these 1. Thy sin might be undervaluing thy Friend May be thou didst not prize him according to his worth and now God will teach thee the worth of him by the want of him You would not follow his good counsels reproofs example c. and therefore God might because you did not work by it put out this burning and shining Light It may be you dealt by him as the Philistines did by Sampson make sport with him and a laughing-stock of him and therefore God took him away Or 2dly Thy sin might be overvaluing thy Friend You might over-love him too much rejoyce in him or trust in him too much God breaks the Conduit-pipes when you forget the Fountain Gustavus the renowned King of Sweden said God would take him away because he was too much admired and his words were too true a prophecy Indeed hopeful Children godly Relations they are Jewels Mal. 3.17 but if you take them and make a golden calf of them and idolize them God may justly break them to pouder as Moses dealt with the golden Calf Exod. 32.3 4 20 compared So Hezekiah brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made when he saw the people give divine worship unto it 2 King 18.4 When you make Idols of Friends and Relations bestowing that love joy and delight upon them which is due to God he may justly break them to pieces Jonah took more delight than he should have done in his refreshing Gourd and that hand that sent it sent a worm to destroy it Fond Parents like foolish Apes kill their young ones with imbraces Or 3dly Thy sin might be foolish indulgence Eli was too indulgent towards his Sons 1 Sam. 3.13 his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not or according to the Original frowned not upon them he was too gentle in his reproofs and corrections as you may see 1 Sam. 2.22 c. and God threatned that all the encrease of his house should die in the flower of their age and his two sons Hophni and Phineas should in one day die both of them ver 33 34. And accordingly it came to pass 1 Sam. 4.17 So David too fondly affected Absolom and he lived to see him come to an untimely death Or 4thly Thy sin might be undutifulness to thy own Parents Absalom even now mentioned had once three sons as you may read 2 Sam. 14.27 but he lived to see them all buried as you may gather from 2 Sam. 18.18 Absalom was an undutiful child seeking to take away the life of his Father and God takes away his childrens lives Or 5thly Thy sin might be Lasciviousness or Wantonness You read 2 Sam. 12.14 The Child gotten in Adultery dieth Solomon loved many strange women 1 King 11.1 and he left but one son behind him as we read of in Scripture Rehoboam by name v. 43. and he no wiser than he should be as you may reade 1 King 12. Or 6thly Thy sin might be Bloodshed or Murder God threatned Ahab's posterity for his murdering of Naboth 1 King 21.21 so God threatned David for his murdering Uriah 2 Sam. 12.9 10. that the Sword-should never depart from his house and he lived to see two of his Children slain incestuous Amnon 2 Sam. 13. and rebellious Absalom 2 Sam. 18. Or 7thly Thy sin might be Oppression See Job 27.13 14 15. God there threatens that the Sword or Famine or some such sudden and fearful Judgment shall sweep away the Oppressors Children So Amos 4.1 2. There is the posterity of Oppressors threatned God may most justly take away the lives of their Children who take away the livelihood of others Children It is seldom seen that a covetous griping Oppressor or Usurer leaves many Children behind him For these and some other sins mentioned before God may suddenly deprive us of dear and near Relations Now what saith Conscience doth it not fly in your face and tell you that you have been guilty of some one or more of these sins With Pharoah's Butler call to mind thy fault this day Gen. 41.9 And having thus found it out 2. Confess it to God be deeply humbled for it and pray heartily for pardon thereof Say as Josephs Brethren did Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Brother Let your uncircumcised hearts be humbled and accept of the punishment of your iniquity as the Expression is Levit. 26.41 Turn sorrowing for your Friend into sorrowing for your Sins that have deprived you of his sweet society We find 2 Sam. 24. David sin'd in numbering of the People and God punisheth him in lessening the number of them See what David doth vers 10. His heart smote him after he had numbred the People and he said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done And now I beseech thee O Lord take away the iniquity of thy Servant for I have done very foolishly No sooner was David convinced of his sin by the testimony of his Conscience acted by the Spirit of God but presently makes his humble addresses to God confessing his sin and heartily bewailing his folly he prayes to God for pardon thereof vers 17. David seeing the People smitten by the destroying Angel he cries out Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done David knew very well that the People were not without their faults justly deserving this and a greater judgment yet reflecting upon his sin as an occasion of this judgment he endeavours to acquit them taking the fault wholly upon himself and
yearning in his bowels with bitter grief that he should be the cause of bringing this destruction upon his dearly beloved People So should we when our sins have been a cause to hasten the death of our dear Friend confess them unto God be deeply humbled for them and pray heartily for pardon thereof And then Thirdly and lastly Let us be careful to avoid these sins for the future This God expects Job 36.9 10. He shews them who are holden in the Cords of Affliction their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded he openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity This the Church hath practised in times of great distress Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes and turn again unto the Lord. Oh! how should our hearts rise against such sins as rob us of our dear Friends If any mortal man had murdered our Father or Mother Son or Daughter Brother or Sister or any other near and dear Friend or Relation We would not endure that man but prosecute the Law on him to the uttermost and we would rejoyce to see justice done upon him Our hand would not spare our eye would not pitty him Oh then take an holy revenge upon your Lusts which have provoked God to take away such or such Relations let your hearts be transported with infinite indignation against them 2 Cor. 7.11 Say in the Language of Elihu Job 34.31 I have born chastisement I will not offend any more nor provoke God in this manner by my sins to take away my Friends Mortifie therefore your earthly members fornication uncleanness inordinate affection c. Coloss 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kill or make dead Pursue these sins with a deadly implacable hatred not only odio aversationis but inimicitiae Oh! let not your sins survive any longer but as they have killed your Friend so let them be buried with him in his Grave Use 4 4. Imitate deceased Friends in what is good There is no Friend so universally bad but there is something of good in him worth imitation some good might be distil'd from him if we put under the fire of Charity Who so deeply buried * Refined Courtier p. 58. saith a learned man under the rubbish of his own ruines that something of goodness may not be discerned by a charitable Surveyor We find David commending Saul in that Panegyrick or Funeral Oration mentioned 2 Sam. 1. Do not like the silly Sheep leaping off a Bridge follow one another in irregular wayes to your destruction Nequaquà m facere nos improbos improbitas debeat aliena Salv. Salv. de Gub. Dei lib. 7 p. 241. What you find in any materially good follow it but chiefly imitate your godly Friends Phil. 3.17 But in as much as they have their failings as pure Gold hath its dross and the purest Wheat its Chaff follow them so far onely as they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 Make then your godly Parents your Paterns as * Mr. Dugard in Epist deâ—icat to his Sermon on Ps 89 48 Constantines Sons are said to resemble him to the life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Write after those good Copies which deceased Friends have set you Jerom having read the Life and Death of Hilarion who died Christianly as he lived Religiously Well said he Hilarion shall be the Champion whom I will follow Zeno Cilliaeus consulted with the Oracle how he might live well and he received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he was of the same colour with the dead This he interpreted to mean That he should get and read all the antient Books that he could hear of and then steep and die his mind in those sacred Notions A * Mr. Patrick in his Serm on Psal 90.12 Reverend Divine saith of this Sentence what St. Paul did of Epimenides's Sentence Tit. 1.13 This testimony is true If you would live well Look as like to the dead in the Lord as ever you can and labour to turn your Souls into their shape As living Examples are to be followed so the dead are not to be forgotten Heb. 6.12 Be not slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises It is said of Abel Heb. 11.4 That being dead yet speaketh which as it may be understood of his blood calling for Vengeance Gen. 4.10 Heb. 12.24 So likewise of his example calling for our imitation Heb. 12.1 Well then was thy Friend a strict observer of the Sabbath a constant frequenter of the Ordinances a diligent reader of God's Word a faithful Instructer of his Children and Servants Was he a lover of good Ministers a reliever of good People a reprover of Vice an encourager of Vertue Was he much in praying laborious in his Calling Was he serviceable to his Neighbour faithful to his Friend a forgiver of his Enemies In a word Was he temperate meek patient peaceable humble honest heavenly-minded c If these and the like vertues were conspicuous in thy Friend Go thou and do likewise Luke 10.37 Though your Friend be dead and buried yet let his vertues live in your practice Use 5 5. Admire Gods goodness who as yet continues thee in the land of the Living Life is a mercy that we ought to bless God for Psal 66.8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard who holdeth our soul in life So Ps 103.1 2 3 4. The Psalmist there amongst other mercies blesseth God for healing his Diseases and redeeming his life from destruction Indeed God's delivering our Soul from Death is an effect of his bounty as ye may gather from Psal 116.7 8. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 For God to maintain that radical moisture that Oyl that feeds the Lamp and Light of thy Life is as * Mr. Goodwin on Rom. 2.4 5. one saith as great a miracle as the maintaining the Oil in the cruse of the poor famished Widow 1 Kings 17.16 When thou therefore hearest of the death of any Friend Neighbour or Relation consider with thy self it might have been thine own case thou art made of no better Mould then he was 'T is God only that preserveth the House of Clay from falling to the ground As thou accompaniest him to the Grave to pay the last office of Love consider thou mightest have been carried forth and others have accompanied thee Is it not a miracle of mercy that the Dart of Death should kill many round about thee and yet miss thee Conclude that the Hand of God guides it and it is his meer mercy that thou art yet spared When Lot as I told you before had his Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt and his Sons in Law swept away by a fearful showr of Fire and Brimstone he took it for a great favour that God had spared his life Gen. 19.19 Behold now thy Servant hath found grace in thy sight and
the Righteous when the night of Death approachcth after all their hardship and sore labours have their bodies laid down to rest in the Grave where they sleep quietly until the Resurrection Chear up then ye Servants of the Lord under all your Grievances your Afflictions cannot continue long because your life is short See 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Weep as if you wept not for it will be shortly better with you than now it is God will wipe away all tears from your eyes Rev. 7.17 21.4 As Athanasius said of his Banishment so may you of your Affliction what ever it be * Bp. Pilkington on Neh. 4.16 it is but Nubecula cito transitura a little Cloud that will soon be dissipated and blown over Niceph. 10. cap. 19. Thus as the Psalmist saith Psal 30.5 Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning After a wet night of Affliction comes a bright morning of Consolation which no night shall ever overtake Though Spectacles of Mortality administer Comfort to the Righteous under Affliction yet they may strike terror into the hearts of impenitent Wretches for they may reade their own death in the death of their Friends They must shortly die aswell as others Job 24.24 Psal 37.35 36. 49.10 And though Death put a period to the sorrows of the Righteous yet it is an inlet to the wicked man's misery See Job 20.5 6 c. The Lord laughs at the cruel wicked man for he seeth that his day is coming Psal 37.13 The day of vengeance is drawing on therefore envy him not v. 1 2. Neither be afraid of him Isa 51.12 To end this we read Dan. 5.5 6. There came forth fingers of a mans hand and wrote over against the Candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the Kings Palace and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote These fingers did not snuff the Candle of Belshazzars joy to make it burn the brighter but quite put it out for the King's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his bones were loosed and his knees smote one against another Methinks every Spectacle of Mortality should be to wickedmen as this Hand-writing upon the wall to Belshazzar It should make them crest-faln stand in fear For Death like Israels Pillar of the Cloud Exod. 14.20 as it brings Light to the Godly so Darkness to the Wicked Prov. 13.9 The Light of the Righteous rejoyceth but the Lamp of the Wicked shall be put out Use 12 12. Let death of Friends make us careful to do all good with as much speed as we can It is said Gen. 47.29 The time drew nigh that Israel must die So the time of thy Departure draws nigh therefore whatever thine hand finds to do do it with all thy might Eccl. 9.10 hide not thy Talent in a Napkin thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be called to an account assure thy self when a night of Death comes no man can work John 9.4 Why stand you idle the day of your life being for ought ye know well-nigh spent A man cannot think to have his money when he hath spent it you cannot spend your time and have it As you have therefore opportunity do good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luk. 16.9 and as Solomon adviseth Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Say not to thy neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3.27 28. Be provident to lay up something for Wife and Children Prov. 13.22 1 Tim. 5.8 We hold our life with great uncertainty be careful as may be with a good conscience to lay up something for posterity to live upon Joseph in a time of plenty laid up against dearth and scarcity Gen. 41.48 especially labour to promote the spiritual welfare of Relations and others whom you converse with lead an exemplary life reprove rebuke instruct and pray for them Ministers should do so ex officio they are called and appointed hereunto Isa 58.1 2 Tim. 4.2 Private Christians should likewise do it ex charitate out of christian care and charity Levit. 19.17 so 1 Pet. 4.10 And for encouragement consider Prov. 11.30 He that winneth souls is wise And Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many unto righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever So Jam. 5.19 20. Brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Furthermore if we endeavour the conversion of souls and do not effect it yet the Apostle tels us for our comfort we shall not lose our reward 1 Cor. 3.8 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour It is not said according to success but according to labour Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love This comforted the Prophet Isa 49.4 Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work or reward with my God However as another Prophet shews Liberavimus animas Ezek. 3.17 18 c. we free our selves from that guilt which we might have contracted through negligence Well then hast thou a treasure of spiritual Wisdom and Grace labour to communicate it betimes for Death ere long may stop either your mouth or the ears of others and then it will be too late to make Dives's motion to forewarn your Brethren lest they come into the place of torment Luke 16. latter end The Apostle Peter was diligent in putting people in remembrance of good things knowing that shortly he must put off his tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.13 14 15. And St. Paul is earnest in his exhortations and spiritual directions to Timothy especially knowing the time of his departure to be at hand 2 Tim. 4.5 6. Mr. Perkins his Motto was Hoc age do the business you are about what concerns you most Abel-Redivivus in Life of Mr. Perkins do it speedily exactly And truly that good man as if presaging that his life was likely to be short for he dyed at the 44th year of his age husbanded his time with double diligence to God's glory and the good of many others Oh then let us consider the taper of our life may be almost spent and therefore tanquam ultimus lucernae fulgor let us now shine most gloriously to the good of others And truly as some think if there were grief in Heaven it would be most of all for this that Believers did no
should bestir themselves who have as we say one foot in the Grave already A * Omnis motus naturalis velotior est in fine Stone the nearer it comes to the Center the swifter it moves The nearer any come to Death the greater should their preparation be for it It is * Abel Rediv in life of Mr Perkins observed of the Birds of Norway that they having in Winter very short dayes fly swifter than other Fowl in other Countries as if principled by the instinct of Nature thriftily to improve the little light allowed them and by the swiftness of their Wings to regain the shortness of their time How speedy and earnest should old men especially be in preparing themselves for Death who if they have neglected God in their youthful dayes have a great deal of work to do in a very short time 3. Constanter 3. And lastly Prepare your selves for Death Constantly so long as life shall last This God calls for 1 Cor. 15. last verse Be constant and immoveable alway abounding in the Work of the Lord. This was David's resolution Psal 119.112 I have enclined my heart to keep thy Statutes alway even unto the end So it was Job's Job 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come So Job 27.5 6 Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My Righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live The like did Saint Paul as you may read Acts 20.24 Phil. 3.13 14 15. 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. God hath promised to give the Crown of Glory or Eternal Happiness to such as persevere in a Christian course of life see Rev. 2.10 so Rev. 3.11 12. Heaven is not got per saltum at one sudden leap you must set out betimes and advance forward in the race of Christianity so long as you live You must run and not be weary walk and not faint Isa 40.31 Charles the fifths Motto Ulterius becomes every Christian he must advance still forward for he that runs half the Race and then gives it over Ioseth the Wager as well as he that never set forth See what is said Ezek. 18.24 When the Righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die If any man draw back saith God Heb. 10.38 my Soul shall have no pleasure in him and again ver 39. They draw back unto perdition Let Christians then who expect the Crown fight manfully under Christ's Banner against the World Sin and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Souldiers and Servants unto their lives end Let them do that in their Spiritual what Caesar is said to do in his Temporal-Warfare Nil actum credens siquid superesset agendum Lucan Pharsal Lib. 2. Be still doing as though they had done nothing till all be done Now there will be alway something for a Christian to do till Death give him his Quietus est a Writ of Ease Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours There must be no resting till death We should be Volunteers in God's Service till Death disband us When William the Conqueror landed his men in Sussex he caused all Ships to be sunk that all hope of flying back might be taken away We are here landed saith an ingenious * Dr. Boys in his Postils on Rev. 12.7 Divine in this Valley of Tears we must neither faint nor fly but fight it out valiantly till Death the last Enemy be destroyed 1 Cor. 15.26 Good Christians are like Wine full of Spirits that continues good to the last drawing yea the older they are like good Wines the better they be Lâ—k 5.39 They are compared to Trees in Scripture Psal r. 3. so Isa 61.3 called Trees of Righteousness because filled with the Fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1.11 These Trees are never past bearing They shall bring forth Fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing Psal 92.14 It is an honour to be thus gray-headed in Religion Prov. 16.31 The hoary-head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousness God highly prizeth a Mnason an old Disciple as he was Acts 21.16 that hath served him from his youth upwards Well then let us put the former directions constantly into practice Let us pray continually 1 Thess 5.17 Let us have our * Stata tempora set-times for Prayer and at least morning and evening let us offer unto God the sacrifice of Prayer Let us daily mourn for the sins we daily commit Nay those sins which God hath pardned we should reflect upon with grief of heart and pray for a farther manifestation of pardoning Grace so did David For the one and fiftieth Psalm was pen'd by David after he had gone into Bathsheba and after Nathan had brought him the news of a Pardon 2 Sam. 12.13 Some * Mr. Smith in his Doctrine of Repentance p. 105. observe after God had cast Adam out of Paradise he set him e regione Horti over against the Garden in the very sight and view of the place where he had offended that so oft as he lookt towards the Garden he might remember his sin and lament for it Let us constantly avoid such sins as we do lament So did St. Paul Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have alway a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Let us do good works constantly Gal. 6.9 2 Thes 3.13 Let us constantly put on the vertues of Christ growing in number measure and exercise of grace Let us daily act faith upon Christ If we do thus not only begin well but continue in thus doing until death we shall when we have acted the last part of our life upon the Stage of this World every one of us apart here that joyful Sentence pronounced by Christ himself Eugè bone serve Well done thou good and faithful Servant Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matth. 25.21 Thus you see the forementioned Directions are to be practised Early Earnestly and Constantly these three Ingredients make our Services a sweet Perfume But because we are so backward to these things I shall in the next Chapter lay down a few Considerations to quicken us to the performance of the whole and so conclude CHAP. IV. Containing certain Motives to move us to prepare for Death NO Man can truly say of mine advice touching preparation for Death as Hushai said of Ahitophel's 2 Sam. 17.7 It is not good at this time Sure I am advice to it or practice of it is never unseasonable for this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main business that we come into the World
sickness but Epaphroditus did not regard his life to supply the Philippians lack of service towards Paul Heming in Phil. 2.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat perperam consulere uti faciunt qui se in apertum vitae periculum conjiciunt Epaphroditus was willing to hazard health and life to supply St. Pauls wants And as Hemingius saith Hoc facere in loco pro Christo non est stultitiae aut imprudentiae sed verè coelestis sapientiae c. Thus to hazard life is not folly but true wisdom And as Musculus saith of Epaphroditus's sickness Muscul in Phil. 2.27 Id omnium erat optimum quòd in tà m pio verè Christiano opere incidit in hanc morbum beati sunt qui hoc mortis genere auferuntur ex hoc saeculo It was best of all that he fell sick in so good a work and happy are all they that die thus in the Work of the Lord Rev. 14.13 I end this point with that of our Saviour John 12.25 He that loveth his * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 66. Luk. 14.26 more then is fitting more then Christ his Church or Truth shall lose it in another World but he that hateth his life in this World loving it less for that 's the hatred here meant Gen. 29.31 then the Truth and Church of Christ shall keep it unto life eternal So much for this time Epaphroditus's Recovery Third Sermon PHIL 2.27 but God had mercy on him Dearly Beloved I Handled in the morning a Doctrine implyed which was this That life and health are mercies And in handling that Point as a Divine though TheologoruÌ„ minimus I shewed you Viam rectam ad vitam longam the true way to health and long life according to the Scriptures I shall not trouble you with repetition of what I then delivered because I have much matter before me and I would willingly finish this Text at this time I come then to the last and chief Point these words import which is this That God doth sometimes graciously recover or mercifully restore his People though they be grievously visited with sickness That God that knockt off Peters Chains and released him from Prison brought forth this Epaphroditus who like a Prisoner was confined to a sick Bed with few Attendants about him That God that ruleth the raging of the Sea Job 38.11 and stilleth the Waves thereof when they arise as it is Psal 89.9 put a stop in his due time to the fury of his Distemper We read of Dr. Willet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in his Journey from London he was forced to take up his lodging at Hodsdon in Hertfordshire having by a fall from his Horse broken his right Leg there being sick he continued God's Prisoner about nine dayes together and died It pleased God as my * Abel Redivivâ—â— in life of Dr. Willet Author speaks who hath appointed to every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own proper and peculiar kind of death and without whose providence not a Leaf falls from the Tree so to dispose of this Godly mans death that as a Pilgrim here on earth he must die in an Inn He was carried thence by Coach to his Town of Barley where he was Preacher and there buried He fell sick not far from home yet recovered not to go alive thither But Epaphroditus who fell sick at Rome above six hundred miles from Philippi through God's mercy was restored to health and returned to his People who were not a little comforted at the sight of him Now that God doth sometimes deliver his when nigh unto death is clear 1. From Scripture Texts see 1 Sam. 2 6. so Deut. 32.39 so Job 5.18 19. Eliphaz speaking of God saith He maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee So saith David Psalm 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all So Psal 68.20 He that is our God is the God of Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad salutes Bythner according to the Original it is Salvations in the plural Number because he delivers several wayes and at several times and is the God of all manner of Salvation Temporal Spiritual and Eternal and then it follows * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exitus i e Domini est educere a morte Bythner in locum Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death in most deadly dangers he oft-times sends in help 2. The Point is clear by Scripture-Examples God recovered Hezekiah who was deadly sick 1 King 20.1.5 So he did Job yea and David oft insomuch that he describes God by this Periphrasis Psal 9.13 Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death That is from the power of death E portis mortis i. e. è potestate mortis sumiter enim porta in Scripturis pro magistratu potestate quòd in portis solerent exerceri judicia Muscul Muscul in Psul 9.13 in loc So Psal 116.6 I was brought low and he helped me So God delivered Paul from deadly dangers as you may gather from 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. Thus it was with Epaphroditus in my Text who being sick nigh unto death the Lord had mercy on him Significat quod attinebat naturae vires actum fuisse de vitâ illius ideóque quòd sanitatè restitutus erat singulari fuisse ope ac virtute Dei factum Muscul Muscul in Phil 2.27 Vbi humanum deficit ibi incipit divinum auxiliums Many thousands in this Nation who have been sick even unto death both in the apprehension of themselves and others have been raised up again by God as so many Acts and Monuments of his mercy I therefore cease any farther proof of this known Point and shall proceed to give you the reasons of it And here for your profit I will take the Proposition into two parts and accordingly to each give in the Reasons of the Point and then I shall put them together again and make application of the whole The first part is this God is the Deliverer of his People And the chief Reasons why he doth deliver them I conceive to be these three 1. Because he is related to them and they to him He is their Husband Head King Master Father c. and they are his peculiar People his Spouse Members Subjects Servants Children and what not that speak thâ—m a People near and dear unto him Surely then as Samuel said 1 Sam. 12.22 The Lord will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People 2. Because of his Promises of deliverance which he hath made to them See Psal 41.3 Psal 50.15 Isa 41.10 1 Cor. 10.13 These are precious Promises 2 Pet. 1.4 which God hath given to his People and in
as my Husband my Wife my Father my Mother my Brother my Sister my Son my Daughter my Friend c. Whereas the truth is they are not ours but Gods he is the absolute owner of them he made them and hath freely lent them to us without any certain time or date or promise of continuance and what is lent freely we cannot deny but may be call'd for most justly at the pleasure of him that lent it May not God most justly say as the Owner of the Vineyard to the murmuring Labourer Mat. 20.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own Well then we hold our Friends non jure sed gratis not by a juridical right but upon favour and courtisie and if we enjoyed our Relations some time we should be thankful to God that hath lent them to us so long rather then murmur that he takes them so soon St. Jerome comforting Paula for the death of her Daughter Bresilla said Durum quidem sed tolerabile quia sustulit ille qui dederat It was a heavy loss but to be born patiently because he took that gave at first This comforted Job when amongst other things he had lost his Children Job 1.21 22. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Job considered that God had taken but what he gave at first and so doth thankfully resign up his losses to him Consid 3 Thirdly consider God hath a hand in death of Friends Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hand saith David times of plenty and times of poverty times of health and times of sickness living times and dying times are in the hand i. e. of the disposal of God He measures time of life in what proportion he pleaseth to some he gives a large piece to others a small remnant Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth Here he puts it by way of question but Job 14.5 There he puts it out of question and takes it for granted That mans dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee O Lord thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass So that when a Friend departs that 's the time that God hath appointed So it is said of David Acts 8.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God fell asleep c. Will of God may be annexed to his falling asleep as well as serving his generation he dyed then by the will of God and was gathered to his Fathers and saw corruption Job saith Job 30.23 I know that thou wilt bring me unto death and to the house appointed for all living Naomi said when she was deprived of her Husband and two Sons in a strange Land The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me and the Lord hath testifyed against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me Ruth 1.5 20 21. compared So Moses speaking of the frailty and shortness of mans life saith Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men Psal 90.3 Gods dixit is his fecit as in the first Creation he said Let there be light and there was light Gen. 1.3 So God here saith Return i. e. he makes them to return viz. to their Original The Body to the earth and the Spirit to him that gave it Eccles 12.7 So David tells us God takes away mens breath and then they dye and return to their dust Psal 104.29 God indeed is the orderer and ordainer of all conditions 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive he brings down to the grave and bringeth up So Isa 45.7 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Our Saviour tells us not a Sparrow falls to the ground nor a hair from our heads without the overruling providence of God Mat. 10.29 30. Here is Argumentum a minore ad majus If not a Sparrow a bird of small price and account or an Hair which is no essential part but made for convenience and ornament if these fall not to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father surely a Friend cannot dye but God wills it Let us then at loss of Friends patiently submit to Gods will The Heathenish Idolaters were loth to cast Jonah overboard but when they had cast lots and found it to be Gods will it should be so they patiently submitted 1 Jonah 13.14 Let not Heathens outstrip Christians Let us say with Christ John 18.11 The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it See Jobs carriage Job 1.20 21 22. He fell down and worshipped not murmured he charged not God foolishly by railing as though he dealt unjustly with him but saith The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken He saw the hand of God in whatever befel him and this was a strong pillar of supportment to his drooping spirit It is no striving against the stream or current of Gods powerful will Job 9.4 Isa 45.9 Let Gods authority over thee prevent impatience in thee God who doth what he will and will do what he pleaseth Psal 115.3 So Psal 135.6 He takes away and none can hinder him who will say unto him What dost thou Job 9.12 Say then when a Friend is dead Truly this is a grief yet I must bear it Jer. 10.19 And as Seneca saith Aequum est ut patientèr feras quicquid corrigere est nefas It is but fit to bear that patiently which we cannot remedy Consid 4 Fourthly consider God intends it for thy good Psal 119.68 Thou art good O Lord and doest good So vers 75. I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me So Psal 145.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misericors The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy or according to Orig. merciful in all his works Plutarch in his Epistle consolatory to his Wife on the death of a Child amongst others hath this Argument We must always think well of what the Gods do Christians should consider that God in the saddest passages of his providence aims at their good Though indeed his ways be sometimes hidden yet they are alway just When clouds and darkness are round about him then righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his Throne Psal 97.2 Though his Providences sometimes seem to cross his Promises yet in the conclusion you shall see all things work together for good as Physick works for the good of the Patient Rom. 8.28 Every Rod like Jonathans 1 Sam. 14.27 hath Honey at the end of it All things even loss of Friends work together for good to those that love God We read how Sampson fetch'd Honey out of the carcase of the Lyon Judg. 14.8 9. So may we find or fetch good instructions from the Carcase of a deceased Friend God it may be took away such or such a Relation as the Widow of Sarepta said when
12.9 10. He is cast out Ejectione firmâ and shall never re-enter He sets not his ugly Paw upon the pavement of Heaven The tempter enters not into this Paradise for Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth 3. From Spiritual desertions The Church like the Moon hath her spots and therefore sometimes her Eclipses so long as she wanders in this Planetary world See Isa 50.10 The Prophet there intimates unto us that A Child of God may walk in darkness and see no light So it was with David Psal 22.1 with Asaph Psal 77.7 8 9. with Heman Psal 88. with Ethan Ps 89.46 So it was with Jonah Jon. 2.2 4. Nay it was thus with Christ himself Mat. 27.46 And thus to want the sense of Gods favour must needs be troublesom Psal 30.7 Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled So Psal 104.29 So Cant. 5.6 My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone saith the Spouse and then it follows my soul failed Egressa est anima mea She was as it were without her soul whilst without the sence of Gods favour But Death frees Believers from such desertions They shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 There shall be no more suspensions of the light of God's countenance no more eclipses of his savour never cloud more shall interpose betwixt Heaven and their souls but the Sun of Righteousness shall shine upon them with perpendicular rayes of comfort to all eternity 4. From evil Company It is a sad affliction to live amongst the Wicked Psal 84.10 so Psal 120.5 Wo is me saith David that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar And Isaiah sadly complains Isa 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Sad indeed it is to live amongst them for their wicked manner of living is an heart-break to the Righteous Psal 119.136 Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law And St. Paul could not speak of their sins without tears in his eyes Phil. 3.18 And before this Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.7 8. See Mr. Leigh's Crit. Sac. in vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat oppressus fatigatus graviter afflictus We translate it vexed but according to Orig. He was laboured against He laboured under it as under a burden he was even tired out under their wicked courses Besides the Wicked load the Righteous amongst whom they live with calumnies raylings revilings scoffs jears taunts c. if they run not with them to the same excess of riot see 1 Pet. 4.4 like the troubled Seas they 'l cast forth mire and dirt upon them Isa 57.20 Thus the old world dealt with Noah that Preacher of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2.5 So David was abused for his goodness Psal 69.12 he tells us he was spoken against he was the Drunkards song and v. 19. Lord saith he thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour mine adversaries are all before thee See the complaint of the Church Psal 44.14 so 79.4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us No wonder it is thus with the servant when it was so with the Lord and Master Christ himself was set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as old Simeon said Luke 2.34 He was set for a sign that shall be spoken against To end this The Righteous are the mark at which wicked men shoot their Arrows even bitter words but Death takes them out of their company and from the reach of their malice See Job 3.17 There the wicked speaking of the Grave cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest 5. From bodily Aches and Diseases The body here is the receptacle of innumerable distempers St. Austin tells us de ipso corpore tot exstant morborum mala De Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 22. ut nec libris medicorum cuncta comprehensa No Book that ever Physicians wrote contains a perfect Narrative of all distempers Many distempers daily arise unknown to our fore-fathers One alas lies languishing through a Consumption another's tortured with the Stone another with the Gout another burnt with a Feaver another complains under Head-ach Tooth-ach c. some lie under one distemper some under another So that as one alludes to the speech of our Saviour Luke 17.37 Where the body is there sicknesses and sores as so many Eagles are preying upon it And some by reason of these distempers lie under so great misery that they wish for death but it comes not and would be glad and rejoyce exceedingly if they could find the grave as Job tells you Job 3.20 21 22. Some with Job ch 7.3 4. Possess months of vanity and have wearisom nights appointed for them when they lie down they say When shall we arise and the night be gone And they are full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day And again v. 13 14. saith Job When I say my Bed shall comfort me my Couch shall ease my complaint as sick people think to change their pain with changing their place then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me with visions so that what with frightful dreams when sleeping and evil thoughts whilst waking the sick man takes little rest in his resting-time and finds little ease in an easie bed but now Death frees them from all pain Rev. 21.4 There shall be no more sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Death frees Believers from heats and colds from hunger and thirst Rev. 7.16 17. or any thing else that is painful to the body It is the best Physician curing them of all bodily distempers 6. From troublesome works of Calling Man at first before the fall was to labour Gen. 2.15 Adam was not to live an idle life but to imploy himself like a Gardener in pruning and dressing the trees and herbs of the Garden c. But this labour would not have been a toil but a recreation to him had he not faln into sin For weariness and sweat came as a curse upon him for the commission of sin Gen. 3.17 18 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread c. By sweat we understand all manner of labour whether of body or brain and this he was doom'd unto because he ate of the forbidden fruit What is Mans diet now but bread of carefulness got with the sweat of his brows what disquieting projects hath sinfull man to get worldly things what riding up and down what digging and delving toyling and moyling is there in the world some taking pains in one calling some in another and all to get oyl to maintain the lamp of life but after death there is no such working Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they
whatever we deliver on this point comes as far short of the Truth it self as the Picture of the Sun in the Wall doth of the greatness and brightness of it in its Orbe Gaudium erit in fine sed gaudium erit sine fine Bern. It shall be joy in the end but joy without end Carnal joy of wicked men is bruitish and sensual Eccles 2.2 I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it It is neither true nor lasting It is not true for saith the same wise-man In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful Prov. 14.13 Nor is it lasting for The pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11.25 But now heavenly joy is both true and lasting For Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore And Psal 36.8 9. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of Life They shall lye at the fountain and be for ever bathing themselves in Rivers of Pleasures that flow from the everlasting Fountain The joy that comes streaming into the soul of a Believer that hath made his peace with God it passes all understanding Phil. 4.7 It is joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Yet this is but a dark representation of heavenly joy God indeed gives his People here a little of the hidden Manna of joy but hereafter he will give into their bosoms good measure pressed down shaken together and running over as expression is Luke 6.38 Tanta est dulcedo coelestis gaudii saith St. Austin ut si una guttula diffluerit in infernum totam amaritudinem inferni absorberet The joyes of heaven saith * Mr. Strode's Anatom of Mortality p. 294 295. another are so many that God only can number them so great that he onely can aestimate them of such variety and perfection that this world hath nothing comparable unto them they are so great that they cannot be measured so long that they cannot limitted so many that they cannot be numbred so pretious that they cannot be valued yet we shall see them without weariness love them without measure and praise them without end It is such joy as our Lord and Master hath And because too great to enter into us he bids us enter into it Mat. 25.23 Well done good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. O joy surpassing all other joy when shall I enjoy thee Thus courteous Reader I have like the searchers of Canaan brought thee a cluster of Grapes a taste as it were of the plentiful Vintage which thou mayest expect in the heavenly Canaan Now considering these manifold benefits that come by death both privative and positive we may conclude on better grounds than the heathen did that the dead are blessed Faelices nimiùm quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua Blessed they are and that by a voice from heaven who dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 In Domino i. e. in Domini favore Happy they are that dye in the Lords favour Death is so sanctified in Christs death that of a curse it is changed into a blessing Christ tasted deaths bitter Cup and suck'd out the venom of it Now then to conclude this Chapter if death be so advantagious to Believers upon the account of Christ Let us not sorrow as without hope for those that sleep in him 1 Thes 4.13 14. If the dead in the Lord could speak they would say as our Saviour did to the women that lamented him Luke 23.27 28. Weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your Children You and yours are in the valley of Bochim subject to sin sorrow devils assaults wicked mens rage suspensions of the light of Gods countenance c. weep then for your selves and your children that are thus tossed upon the waves of a troublesome world but weep not for us who are at rest in the Haven of Heaven Me-thinks dear Friends these several Considerations as Davids Harp should charm down all passions and distempers of spirit that arise at loss of Friends They may be called Eshcol for they are a whole cluster of Grapes Numb 13.24 Press them by Meditation and squeeze out the wine that is in them to your comfort CHAP. III. Several Apologies answered NOtwithstanding what I have said to make us patient at death of Friends me thinks I hear several complaining every one thinking their burthen greatest and they want not arguments and pleas to aggravate their sorrows Every sin hides it self under some Fig-leaf Excuse and this sin of Discontent at death of Friends hath several Apologies Let us discuss the chief of them I know most commonly sorrow stops its ears against the sweet charmes of Reason yet for father satisfaction of the discontented I shall give in Replys to several Pleas and according to my ability I shall faithfully debate the case And to begin first with complaints that Parents take up at loss of Children for they usually are most discontented One cryes out My Child was still-born or died presently after it was born 1. Apology answ and which most of all troubles me it died unbaptized Answer To have a Child still-born or suddenly expiring is matter of grief especially to the female Parent Our Saviour observes John 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of her child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world The sight of a living child is the best cordial that can be given to a fainting woman under her pain and travel but if the child be still-born or suddenly expiring the pangs of grief conceived hereat are greater to the tender mother than pangs of travel For the former pangs at most do but rend the flesh but these inward throes do tear the very soul Luk. 2.35 Yet for your comfort consider these ensuing particulars 1. Consider He that hath taken this Child away can give another God gave Eve another seed another son instead of Abel Gen. 4. last God took away Job's children as you reade Job 1. but he gave him as many more afterwards Job 42.13 God's hand is not shortned nor grows he infirm in the latter end of the world He can do the like for thee if it please him 2. Consider If your Child had lived Moses-like it had been exposed to the water of Affliction For as St. Austin saith Aug. Ser. de bono pat Infans nondum loquitur tamen prophetat The poor Infant that cannot speak yet by crying when it comes into the world prophesies of its future condition as very lamentable It cryes as soon as born and cannot laugh as some observe till it hath been forty dayes in the world And little cause it has God-wot to laugh then for
c. 1 Pet. 4.12 2. To wean thee from the world We love to stay where we are much made of God suffers thee to meet with disrespect that as Aloes laid to the Breast of the World it might wean thee from it See Dr. Hamond on that place 3. To drive thee to prayer Psal 69.12 They that sit in the Gate speak against me and I was the song of the drunkards Grave men that sit in the seat of Judicature and as one would have thought should have had more wit and vain men that spend their time in drinking excessively both sorts despised him but how doth David behave himself under this disrespect see v. 13. But as for me my prayer is to thee O Lord in an acceptable time See the like carriage in the same person under the like disrespect Psal 109.2 3 4. 4. And lastly God suffers thee to lie under disrespect to make thee walk circumspectly David walkt so because he had many enemies watched for his halting as you may see Psal 27.11 Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies So Psal 56.5 6 13. compared Thus you see God in his providence orders it for good So that we may say with Luther Mihi maximè prosunt qui mei pessimè meminerunt Lutherus pascitur convitijs Scornful enemies if we have hearts rightly to improve the affliction are our best friends though not intentionally yet eventually 4. Consider To complain of disrespect from the world is unsutable to a Christian and that in three respects 1. It is unsutable to a Christian's Spirit It is below the magnanimous spirit of a Christian to take notice of worldly disrespect Noah met with much disrespect from the Old World yet he binds their jeers taunts and reproaches as a Crown to his head and advanceth couragiously forward in the race of Christianity When the Senate had informed Augustus of some reproachful words and bad usage towards him he replied non tantum habemus otij I am not at leisure to mind such trivial things He thought it not worth while to take notice of worldly disrespect Let not Christians for shame come short of Heathens 2. It is unsutable to a Christians Profession They profess themselves not to be of this World Phil. 3.19 20. and therefore no wonder that they are disrespected by the world John 15.19 so 1 John 3.13 Marvel not my Brethren if the World hate you Believers confess they are Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth Gen. 47.9 1 Chron. 29.15 Heb. 11.13 14 15. Strangers look for no great respect being from home in a far country Strangers are content with mean usage they know they shall be much made of when they are in their own country 3. It is unsutable to a Christians practice Wicked men are desirous of vain-glory witness Phaeroh Haman Herod c. but for the Righteous the more holy the more humble and the less they care for worldly respect A vessel upon the water the more it fills the more it sinks the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest Ezra cryes out Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are encreased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens So wise Agur confesseth he is more brutish then any man Prov. 30.2 So Isaiah confesseth he is a man of unclean lips Isa 6.5 And Daniel cryes out Dan. 9.8 O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face because we have sinned against thee So Paul that eminent Apostle counts himself less then the least of all Saints Ephes 3.8 and of sinners the chief 1 Tim. 1.15 True Godliness dryes up all ambitious humours The righteous have their eyes open to see their wretched vileness sinfulness nakedness worthlesness they are conscious to themselves of many sins committed before conversion and many frailties since conversion and they are so far from wondring at that disrespect they meet with that they wonder they are no more disrespected 5. Consid If you serve the Lord you are not without respect Sin puts vileness upon the person that is great in the worlds esteem Dan. 11.21 Nah. 1.14 A wicked person is called a vile person Psal 15.4 Sin renders a man vile and contemptible and makes him as Jacob said to Ruben Gen. 49.4 that he cannot excell But Holiness renders a man honourable The Righteous are the only excellent Psal 16.3 so Prov. 12.26 The Righteous is more excellent then his Neighbour They are called Vessels of Honour 2 Tim. 2.21 They are Vessels brim-full of honour But more particularly if you serve God 1. God himself respects you Isa 43.4 Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee He calls them his Jewels Mal. 3.17 They are Hephzibah the Lord's delight Isa 62.4 God respects their Persons though never so poor Psal 40.17 I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh on me So Psal 138.6 Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly And as their Persons so their Prayers are precious Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy Voice saith Christ to the Church for sweet is thy Voice and thy Countenance is comly So Psal 34.15 17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer So Psal 106.43 44. and Mic. 7.7 My God will hear me saith the afflicted Church And as their persons and prayers so their tears are precious God bottles them up Psal 56.8 so Psal 126.5 They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy Yea their very death is precious Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Thus you see they that honour God are honoured by God according to his promise 1 Sam. 2.30 so Psa 5.12 Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with ashield Tantus quisque est quantus est apud Deum Being then Gods favourit value not the worlds frowns 2. Good Angels respect you as they rejoyced at your conversion Luke 15.10 so they now flock about you to do you good Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them So Psal 91.11 so Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring Spirits speaking of the Angels sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation The Righteous have Angels for their Life-guard 3. And lastly Good men respect you they speak well of you pray to God for you and are ready to relieve you according to their ability Psal 15.4 a good man honoureth them that fear the Lord. So Psal 16.2 3. My goodness saith David extends not to thee but to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my delight So Psal 119.63 I am a companion saith he of all them that fear thee and keep thy Precepts The
of the World out of a confused Chaos and made Clay and Spittle likely to put out sight a means to recover it this God I say can bring it to pass that what thou thinkest will undo thee shall be a means to promote thy eternal good Oh the admirable harmony of Divine Dispensations in reference to mans Salvation To shut up this you know several herbs have several qualities some of them very bitter yet if a skilful simpler have the mixing of them he will make you a pleasing and wholsom sallade so there are many interchangable passages of Providence and some of them very bitter to flesh and blood yet divine Wisdom and Goodness will so order the matter that they shall in the end be both pleasing and profitable Jam. 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations For vers 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Indeed we read Psal 36.6 Gods judgements are a great deep And again Psal 77.19 Gods way is in the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known Which words some apply to the bringing of his People through the Sea and the waters returning to their course of which you read Exod 14.28 29. Others apply the words to the interchangable passages of Providence in reference to his Church the administration of the World and of every mans Salvation And so Rom. 11.33 How unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out Gods wayes are many times cryptical full of Meanders we cannot trace them they are a compendious heap of intricacies oft going contrary to mans judgment and expectation and to our apprehended rules of common right Yet all his wayes are judgment that is justice and equity for he is a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 Much may be above us because our ignorance is such that we cannot see a reason of his wayes but nothing is unreasonable or evil that proceeds from an holy wise loving and just God I end this with that of the Psalmist Psal 25.10 All the pathes of the Lord how rugged and severe soever to flesh and blood are mercy and truth to such as keep his Covenant and his testimonies They may seem cruelty but indeed they are mercy though thou can'st not see it for the present yet thou may'st hereafter Another crys out 7th Apology answered This relation of mine dyed in the best of his age in the prime of his strength in the acuteness of his parts his Sun set at noon-day he fixed a Period where we made account of a Comma hoping at least half the Sentence of his Life was behind but it was broken off in haste and this troubles me Answ We do not much lament the death of Old persons because we know they could not live long Every mans Life as one saith is a Lease and an old mans Life is an old worn Lease ready to drop into the Land-Lords hand We expect a Taper should go out when the Wax is spent but to see the Lamp of a friends Life extinguished in its brightest and strongest lustre This troubles us But 1. Consid 'T is ordinary for man to dye in his full strength Job 21.23 24. One dyeth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistned with marrow c. King Edward the 6th that hopeful Prince fell asleep before noon and was laid untainted in the Bed of Honour So that good King Josiah died before he was 40 years of age as may be gathered from 2 Chron. 34.1 Nay Christ himself was cut off before he attained one half of the age of man described by Moses Psal 90.10 Nay David tells us Psal 39.5 Every man at his best state whether of age or honour is altogether vanity It being so ordinary for man to dye at or about the vigour of his age it should be the less troublesom 2. Consid If thy Friend had lived to old age what is that but an age of misery a stage of vanity an hospital of Diseases The dayes of Old Age are called Evil dayes by the Wise man Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them q. d. The dayes of old age bring so many aches and troubles along with them that if they be lengthened into years yet a man can find no pleasure or content but whole years together shall be full of weariness and sorrow Nay the very strength of the years of an Old man is labour and sorrow saith Moses Psal 90.10 Old people are oft-times a trouble to themselves and others 3. And lastly consid Thy Friend must at last have died Man's Life is by some fitly compared to a Lamp which may be soon extinguished by some fall or violent blast but if it escape these there is but a set proportion of oyl which will soon be consumed and then it goes forth of its own accord The Clock though it goes slowly strikes surely at last And the Sun in the longest day of its perambulation at last goes out of sight He that walks longest over the graves of others comes at last to his own So that if thy Friend had not died now he must have dyed some other time And if another time why not now Another cryes out 8th Apology answered This Relation of mine was loth to die he died comfortless desperate words idle vain talk unseemly gestures and speeches proceeded from him and this troubles me Answ Was your Relation loth to dye 1. Consid Many of Gods dear Children have at some time or other been loth to depart So was David Psal 55.4 5. and Psal 102.24 And Hezekiah Isa 38.1 And Peter out of a sudden apprehension of death and fear of it denyed his Lord and Master The Godly cease not to be Men by becoming Christians as men they are sometimes afraid of Death which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malum corruptivum destructive to nature God hath imprinted saith a Dr. Abbot Lect. 6. on Jonah p. 126 127. judicious Divine a passionate love betwixt the soul and the body that they grieve to leave one another So that the spirit may be willing yet the flesh is weak What man is he whom God's Spirit hath not in a great measure mortified that feels not in himself oft-times an horror and a quaking to think of his dissolution 2. Consid Thy Friend though he might fear the pain of death yet he might rejoyce at the gain of death as many a man desires the Haven yet trembles at the voyage The pangs of death might a little affright him yet being dead if a good man let us not question his happiness Christ
may read Heb. 11. that Chapter is a little Martyrology ver 35 36 37. how some were tortured scourged stoned sawn asunder slain with the sword c. Mr. Fox or Mr. Clark in his Martyrology will tell you that many Martyrs had their skins pulled off joynts racked bodies torn in pieces c. willing to endure for Christ's sake what the wit of man could invent or cruelty impose Now God might have called thy Friend to such a death which would have been far more sad cruel and painful as to outward appearance Well then consider God might have delivered thy Friend into the hands of cruel man which would have been very sad as appears by David's speech 2 Sam. 24.14 but God cast him on a soft Bed amongst Friends who did carefully attend him and minister unto him 3. Consid The greater thy Friends pain was the more fervent prayers were put up for him You find David in Psal 38. lying under God's afflicting hand what servent ejaculations he sent up towards the Throne of Grace So Asaph Ps 77.2 In the day of his trouble sought the Lord. So Jesus Christ in his Agony prayed more earnestly Luke 22.44 Great Miseries make the loudest Eccho's in the ears of Mercy And as the afflicted party himself so all that saw him or heard of his misery would be ready to pity and pray for him Methinks the sad groans of a dying Friend are sufficient to dissolve an heart of stone into prayers and tears especially godly Friends would pray fervently for him And these are most likely to prevail for Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much That Ship saileth the surest to the haven of Heaven which is driven with the breath of godly mens prayers 4. Consid The greater the pain was the shorter was the continuance of it Dolor si gravis brevis si longus levis We reade how Aeneas kept his bed eight years and was sick of the Palsie Act. 9.33 We read of one that had an issue of blood twelve years Mat. 9.20 and had suffered many things of many Physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5.26 So John 5.5 there we read of one that had an infirmity thirty eight years Now if thy Friend's pain had not been so great he might have continued still a burden to thee and to himself but the greatness of his pain hastened death which put an end to all trouble and grief his great pangs and struglings as throes of a travelling woman made way for deliverance And therefore 5. And lastly Consider Thy Friend is now at rest Rev. 14.13 Let them die of never so cruel a death if they die in the favour of God they are blessed for they rest from their labours It may be thou grievedst but little whilest thy Friend laboured for rest and wilt thou grieve much when he rests from his labours Whilst thy Friend was ground with the Stone or burnt up with a Feaver and rouled upon his bed without sleep thou hadst cause to weep and it was thy duty to sympathize with him Rom. 12.15 but being dead he is at rest Isa 57.2 for death to a Child of God is but a sleep Joh. 11.11 12 13. so Act. 7.60 and being buried he hath laid his head upon the lap of his mother for so the Earth is called Job 1.21 to be awakened again at the last Trump to the everlasting comfort both of soul and body And shall we now weep Surely this sorrow is unseasonable We prayed or else we were to blame whilst our Friend was in pain that God would deliver him and therefore when God by death hath put an end to all his pain we should give thanks to God and rejoyce rather than weep The Church our careful Mother hath taught us as much in the Funerals of the Dead We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother or Sister out of the miseries of this sinful world Another cryes out 10th Apology answerd This Eriend of mine dyed of a sad mischance he fell into the Fire or Water or was kill'd of Lightning fell off a Horse or Cart or was shot in War or otherwise or he was kill'd by Thieves or wicked men c. or he fell suddenly sick groan'd sigh'd dyed And this troubles me that he dyed such a sudden violent and untimely death Answ From sudden death i. e. from death not thought-of and so not provided-for good Lord deliver us not only for our own sakes but for our Friends sakes too they 'l take it the less sudden it is the more patiently See how sadly Jacob takes the supposed death of his son Joseph upon the sight of his bloudy coat he too rashly concluded his son was dead that he was devoured by some cruel beast Significans inâ—ternum animi dilacerationem seu moestitiaeÌ„ And the Text tells you Gen. 37.33 34. He rent his cloaths in token as Pareus saith upon the place that his heart was rent through with sorrow and he put on sackcloth a coarse and sorry stuff which was the usual Mourning-Weed in those times And he refused to be comforted Thus his father wept for him for Joseph who dyed as he thought a sudden death David himself proclaimed a solemn and publick Funeral-Mourning for the death of Abner who was cowardly and suddenly slain when he did least suspect it by one that pretended peace and friendship And David himself laid aside his Royal Dignity and attended the Corps joyning with the People in that sad Consort as you may reade 2 Sam. 3. towards the latter end of the chapter So David weeps excessively for the space of three whole years because his son Amnon dyed so unnaturally untimely unexpectedly being kill'd by Absalom 2 Sam. 13.28 c. And we reade how the true Mother of the living Child had rather her Adversary should have the comfort of her Child than that it should dye a violent and untimely death 1 King 3.26 And in that appeared both the truth of her affection towards it and that she was the true Mother of it v. 27. Job hearing the heavy tydings of the sudden death of his Children could no longer contain but vents his grief in words being more affected with the sudden loss of his Children than all the rest of his Goods Job 1.18 19 20. But for your comfort 1. Consid It hath been the lot of some of Gods dear Servants to dye so Thus righteous Abel was suddenly butchered by his brother Cain Gen. 4.8 So old Eli though indeed he had his failings in not correcting and severely punishing his wicked Sons 1 Sam. 2.23 c. and 1 Sam. 3.13 as he should have done being chief-Magistrate as well as Parent yet questionless was a good man as may be gathered from sacred Story and the manner of his death was sudden he fell off from his seat backward and
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel that is power and providence determined before to be done Wicked men that kill our friends they are God's Sword or his Hand God works by them Psal 17.13 14. Old Eli saw Gods hand in the violent and untimely death of his two sons Hophni and Phineas and he took it patiently 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seems him good Say then with Job whose Children were violently cut off Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Septuag inserts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass blessed be the Name of the Lord. Another cries out 11. Apologie answered My Friend died of the Plague that loathsom disease and there was no funeral solemnity but he was carried forth like some sorry carrion and buried I know not where may be in some sorry pit and this troubles me Answ God lately in our dayes Anno Domini 1665. sent a fearfull Plague amongst us There dyed at London as appeared by the weekly Bill above eight thousand some weeks The Metropolis of this Nation hath been as it were plowed up and sown thick with dead Corpses Great pits were digged where the dead lay together as Sampson said of the slaughtered Philistines by heaps upon heaps Judg. 15.16 A sad time God knows they had Bells sadly toling People sadly sighing crying dying I believe many to this very day have sad thoughts of heart for the loss of dear friends and think they were not buried like Christians because there were no Funeral solemnities I shall therefore to chear up such answer the particulars Did your Friend dye of the noysom Pestilence for so it is called Psal 91.3 1. Consid Gods dear servants have lain under such distempers Hezekiah was sick unto death 2 Kings 20.1 Some think he had the Plague vers 7. there is mention made of his Boyl which some conceive did arise from the Plague Job laboured under a Plague sore Job 2.7 He was smitten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an angry burning Boyl insomuch that his skin was broken and became loathsom Job 7.5 So David cryes out Ps 39.10 Remove thy stroak away from me some render Plagam tuam thy Plague which is a fearful stroak from God Indeed God promiseth Psal 91.3 c. To deliver his people from the noysome Pestilence But this as other promises of outward blessings is a conditional promise God will deliver his People if he sees it makes most for his glory and his Peoples good But God sees it good for them to dye of the Plague which though a sad affliction in it self is a means to hasten their glory God sent a fearful sickness amongst the Corinthians some think it might be the Plague because they did not receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with due preparation 1 Cor. 11.30 and yet they were chastened of the Lord saith the Apostle that they should not be condemned with the World v. 32. Godly Junius and his Wife died of the Plague as some report The Plague that hot burning distemper if God send it to his Children so that they dye of it like Elijah's fiery Chariot is a means to convey them more speedily to Heaven 2. Consid The Plague as all other sickness cometh by Divine Appointment See Exod. 15.26 Numb 14.12 16.46 Deut. 28.21 2 Sam. 24.14 15. Ps 39.10 The Plague is an Arrow of God's shooting a Messenger of God's sending And as the Centurion in the Gospel said to his under-Souldiers Go and he goeth Come and he cometh Do this and he doth it Mat 8.9 so God gives this Messenger charge whither it shall go how far it shall advance what execution it shall do and it faithfully obeys him Therefore say with David Ps 39.9 I was dumb and opened not my mouth he means murmuringly impatiently c. because O Lord thou didst it 3. Consid God prizeth his People let them die of what distemper soever Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints He likes them not the worse for dying of the Plague 4. Lastly Consider They are happy let them dye of what distemper soever if they dye in God's favour Rev. 14.13 Their souls for the present are happy and at Christ's second coming their bodies shall be glorious 1 Cor. 15.43 The body though sown in dishonour is raised in glory Bodies spotted through sickness shall then be made beautiful bodies and all their deformities be done away Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. 13.43 For Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall these also appear with him in glory Was there no Funeral Solemnity Answ It hath been an ancient custom to attend at the Funeral of Friends De Civit. Dei lib. 11. c. 13. St. Austin saith Non contemnenda sunt abjicienda Corpora Defunctorum Bodies of deceased Friends are not slightly and contemptibly to be cast away And again he saith Antiquorum Justorum Funera curata sunt De Cura pro Mortuis Exequiae celebratae Sepultura provisa The Funerals of good men were formerly celebrated with great solemnity Abraham takes care for the Funeral of his Wife Sarah Gen. 23.3 4. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the Cave of Machpelah where his Wife lay Gen. 25.9 10. Jacob made Joseph swear to perform his Funeral Rites Gen. 47 29 30 31. and accordingly it was done with great solemnity Gen. 50 7 8 c. So all Israel lamented Samuel and buried him 1 Sam. 25.1 And David spake it to the commendation of the men of Jabesh-Gilead those loyal and grateful Subjects that they shewed kindness to their Lord Saul and buried him honourably 2 Sam. 2.4 5 6. so Jehoida was buried honourably 2 Chron. 24.15 16. so much people accompanied the Widows son of Naim to his Burial Luke 7.12 And devout men carried Stephen to his Burial and made great Lamentation over him Act. 8.2 Our Saviour Christ who was alwayes moderate in his expences and would have the fragments gathered up that nothing might be lost John 6.12 yet admitted Mary's costly Oyntment because against his Burial Mat. 26.7 c. Indeed it is promised as a mercy to have decent Burial Job 5.26 Thus God promised Abraham that he should be buried in peace and in a good old age Gen. 15.15 And it was promised Abijah 1 King 14.12 13. that all Israel should mourn for him and bury him for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the Grave because in him there was found some good thing c. and it was accordingly performed ver 18. so the like was promised to Josiah 2 King 22.20 and he was peaceably buried though kill'd in War 2 King 23.29 30. It is a part of humane misery to be without decent Burial and it is threatned as a judgment on the Wicked
forbidden Fruit he should surely die Now we know Adam did eat Gen. 3. and the threatning took effect for after that he had eaten every day some part of his life was gone The wise Man tells us Eccles 3.2 There is a time to be born and a time to die What no time to live Truly it may be the wise man thought this life-time was so short that it was not worth taking notice of or it may be he would give us to understand that all the while we live we are in a dying condition An Heathen by the dim candle-light of Nature had a glymps of this for saith Seneca Quotidie morimur quotidiè enim demitur aliqua pars vitae Vita hominum dum crescit decrescit dum augetur minuitur Cylind as a Candle you know is no sooner lighted but begins to waste it is not the last blaze that spends it but it spends all the while it burns So an Hour-glass is no sooner turned but presently the Sand begins to run out The longer a man lives the less he hath to live Oh did we but see the Glass of our Life running many of us would see but little Sand remaining Well then let your going to the House of Mourning and following the Corps to the Grave mind you of your mortality that God will shortly bring you to the Grave The House appointed for all men living Job 30.23 15th and last Use Lastly Let death of Friends put us upon preparing for Death Seneca said Aetate fruere mobili cursu fugit Use time while you have it He meant it not in that sence in which the merry Greeks and voluptuous Epicures take it 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die But he would have us to imploy our short time in doing vertuous actions Labour that the Temple of Grace be erected in your souls before the Temple of your bodies be pulled down I have read how Peter Waldo about the year 1160. a Merchant of Lyons Mr. Fuller in his Holy War rich in substance and learning was walking and talking with his Friends when one of them suddenly sell down dead which lively spectacle of mans mortality so impressed the soul of this Waldo that instantly he resolved on a strict reformation of life which to his power he performed Mr. Dugard in his Serm. on Ps 89 48. pag. 39. Ribad de vita Fr. Borgia lib. 1. c. 9. It is likwise reported of Sir Francis Borgia a Spanish Courtier That having been at the Funeral of the Empress and considering how little a Grave had devoured all earthly Greatness he said when he came home Augustae mors mihi vitam attulit The death of the Empress hath brought me life and forthwith he became a wonderfully reformed man So when Friends die and we return from their burial let us resolve to lay aside worldly vanities and return home more grave and serious Let us set our House and Souls in order Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore ready for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not As we know not the time of our general so neither of our particular judgment It is good for us to stand upon our watch Mar. 13.32 and to improve all our opportunities both of doing and receiving good that so we may be as the wise Virgins Mat. 25. having Oyl in our Lamps Grace in our Hearts and may be fitted and prepared to meet the Bridegroom of our Souls when ever he cometh Now because preparation for Death though last mentioned is a chief and principal use that we should make of death of Friends I shall therefore somewhat enlarge upon it and shew you in the next Chapter wherein it consists CHAP. II. Shewing wherein preparation for Death consists NOW preparation for Death consists in these following Particulars 1. In praying unto God 1. Dir. Praecandos Confess thy manifold sins at the Throne of Grace and pray to God for pardon thereof Moses David Daniel Paul and other good men mentioned in Scripture were conversant in this duty of Prayer Our Saviour himself in the dayes of his flesh offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears Heb. 5.7 The * Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei Publican confessing his sins and most humbly suing out the pardon of them went away justified Luke 18.13 14. How did Christ remember the Thief upon the Cross praying to him Luke 23. 42 43. Jacob was frequent and prevalent with God in prayer Gen. 32.28 even when he was old and weak he humbly presented his devotion to God Gen. 48.31 Heb. 11.21 Stephen that saw Heaven opened Acts 7.56 as he lived so he died praying Abel rediv in life of Luther and Erasmus vers 59. Luther he died praying and resigning his Spirit into Gods hands Erasmus breathed out his Soul in these Ejaculations Mercy sweet Jesus Lord loose these Bands How long Lord Jesus How long Jesus Fountain of Mercy have mercy upon me c. Bishop * Dr. Bernard in life of B. Vsher Usher he died like Mr. Perkins who expired with crying for mercy and forgiveness Pray then to God that he would pardon your manifold sins and fit you for death say with David Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my dayes that I may know how frail I am Pray with Moses Psal 90.12 Dr. Abbot on Jonah 4.2 p. 521. So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom Prayer rightly performed as a learned Doctor saith is the best Sacrifice which the Soul can send up into Heaven 2. Preparation for Death consists in bewailing our sins 2. Dir. Peccata deplorando We should be like Doves of the Valleys all of us mourning every one for his iniquity as the Prophet speaks Ezek. 7.16 A broken and contrite heart saith David O God thou wilt not despise Psal 51.17 The words are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means God highly prizeth a broken and contrite heart under the sence of sin St. Bernard saith Qui non plangit peccata non sentit vulnera He is not sensible of his spiritual wounds who doth not bewail his sinful condition And again saith another Father St. Austin Gravissima peccata gravissimus lamentis indigent Great sins call for great sorrows David saith Psal 6.6 All the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears and Psal 38.6 I go mourning all the day long so that night and day he mourned for his sins And Peter having sin'd he went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26.75 The crowing of the Cock was a Monitor of his fault And some say he never heard a Cock crow after but he wept bitterly for his offence in denying so shamefully as he did his Lord and Master St. Paul complains of a Body of Death Rom. 7.24 * Tertul. lib. de Panitent c. ult
us thankfully acknowledge both spiritual and temporal Mercies to proceed from him as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.20 Giving thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5.18 In every thing give thanks for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you Adam had he continued in Paradise should have sung praise unto God And the Saints now in Heaven as so many blessed Quiristers are continually chanting forth Divine Anthems of praise Rev. 4.10 11. And Dr. Sibs saith They that begin not Heaven upon Earth shall never go to Heaven when taken from the Earth Let us then bear a part here in singing praises to God which is a pleasant and comely duty Psal 147.1 if we would hereafter have admittance into the Coelestial Quire to sing forth perpetual Hallelujahs Future happiness is called Glorification John 13.32 And he that gives not glory unto God here shall not hereafter be glorified by God Let us then be much in thanksgiving for as God saith Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversaition aright will I shew the Salvation of God 10. And lastly to name no more There was in Christ Heavenly-mindedness He lived on Earth as if he had been still in Heaven The gaudy vanities of this World were too pittiful a lure for him to be taken with So Heavenly-minded he was that he extracted many spiritual contemplations instructions from all sorts of earthly objects occasions that were before him Upon the sight of Jacob's Well he preacheth to the Woman of Samaria concerning the Living-Water John 4.10 By which Theophilact understands as we are told 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of the Holy Spirit which refresheth the weary Soul even to life eternal vers 14. So when he had wrought the Miracle in feeding five thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes he teacheth them that sought after him that they should not labour for that Meat that perisheth but for that Meat which endureth to everlasting life John 6.27 And after tells them He was the Bread of Life vers 32.33 so John 15.1 passing through or by some Vineyard he tells them That he was the True Vine and his Father the Husband-man It was Christ's usual manner upon the sight of things temporal to raise Spiritual and Heavenly Meditations Let us play the Divine Chymists and extract Spiritual Instructions and Heavenly Meditations from Worldly Occurrences The Moralist could say Senec. Praefat. in Natural Quest Quà m contempta res est homo si non supra humana se exercuerit What a dung-hill wretch is Man if he mind only earthly things The Apostle tells you The end of such is destruction Nos ut Coelorum cives nos-met gerimus Beza Phil. 3.19 but saith he vers 20. Our conversation is in Heaven Christians are ad majora nati born to look after greater things than the World affords Let us then as we are commanded Col. 3.2 set our affections upon or according to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. let us savour and mind the things that are above and not the things upon earth Let not the Heaven-born Soul be imprisoned in an earthly body See Dr. Boreman's Serm. on Phil. 3.20 or be chained in Fetters of earthly cares but let it be dilated in its ardent desires after Heaven and Heavenly Objects These and the like vertues which appeared in the Life of Christ must appear in our lives and conversations else we cannot be saved 1 John 2.6 He that saith he abides in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked Christ was full of Grace John 1.14 and true Christians that are in Christ not only in regard of outward profession but likewise in respect of saving union they partake of his fulness vers 16. All God's Elect are conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 1 Cor. 11.1 The Oyl poured on Aaron's Head ran down upon his Beard and went down to the Skirts of his Garments Psal 133.2 by which was signified That the very same Oyl of Grace that was poured on the Head Christ Jesus is thence derived unto all even the meanest of his Members As Jacob was blessed by his Father Isaac in the goodly Raiment of his Elder Brother Gen. 27.15 27 compared So must we have on the Spiritual Garment of Christ's Vertues who is our Elder Brother if we expect the Blessing of our Heavenly Father These and the like Vertues are called Glory because they undoubtedly lead to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 View then Christ's Image in the Glass of the Gospel and labour to be transformed into that Image Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and Beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. Col. 3.12 13. And as St. Peter speaks 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 10 compared Giving all diligence add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly-kindness and to Brotherly-kindness Charity for if ye do these things ye shall never fall And thus much for the fifth Direction 6. And lastly Preparation for Death consists in Believing 6th last Direction Fidendo This though◠mentioned last is not the least but chief Direction see John 3.14 15 16 18 36. To this Paul directed the trembling Jaylor Acts 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Christ is the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 He is the Way the Truth and the Life as he tells Thomas John 14.6 He is the true way to Eternal Life Qui aliter vadit cadit He that thinks to go to Heaven any other way will fall short of it For there is none other Name given among men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 See for farther proof of this Gal. 2.20 3.11 1 Pet. 1.5 9. 1 John 5.13 Those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. died in the Faith St. Paul would not be found at the Day of Judgment in the most righteous Work that ever he did Phil. 3.8 9. Nay Bellarmine himself after a long Discourse concerning the merit of Works he overturns all in his last conclusion Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam insolâ Dei misericordiâ reponere He thought it the safest way to put his whole trust in the mercy of God alone Works must needs be a Sandy Foundation to build hopes of Eternal Life upon For our best Works are imperfect they flow from a foul Fountain for there is no mind so illuminated but there is some darkness in it See Bp. Andrew's Serm. on Jer. 23.6 no Heart so sanctified but there is some uncleanness in it and
to perform God sent us not into the World as he did the * Psalm 104.26 Leviathan into the Sea to take our sport and pastime therein but he sent us hither as into a School to learn this one Lesson to die well Yet alas how negligent are most as if unconcerned herein This great concern is the least of their care Tell them of preparing for Death and they are ready to put us off as Felix did Paul Acts 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee but we never read that he call'd for him after I shall therefore Courteous Reader lay before thee some Considerations to move thee to prepare thy self for Death according to the forementioned Directions And here I have a large field before me but as the Disciples passing through the Field of Corn pluckt onely an ear or two and rubbed them in their hands so shall I content my self with three Considerations amongst many and handle them as briefly as I can with conveniency First then Consider 1 1. By this means thou shalt live comfortably 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World Rejoycing and working Righteousness is put together Isa 64.5 What joy and peace is there in believing Rom. 15.13 If the Angels in Heaven rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner as the Scripture affirms Luk. 15.7 10. surely the joy of a sinner converted must needs be very great in his heart How can it otherwise be For such an one is reconciled to God his sins are pardoned whereupon follows peace with God and rejoycing in hope of the Glory of God as you may see Rom. 5.1 2. And this peace of Conscience passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 It is joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 A continual Banquet together with the joy of the Harvest and of such as divide the spoyl are but dark representations of it Prov. 15.15 Isa 9.3 This is Manna in the Wilderness a foretaste and earnest of future Jubilees such an one is even in the Suburbs of Heaven so that the Term of a godly mans life who is continually fitting himself for Death may be truly called Hilary Term for a pure Christal Torrent of Divine Joy comes streaming into his Soul from the God of all comfort What should such an one fear Of whom should he be afraid At what should he be dismaid If he lives he lives to the Lord if he dies he dies in the Lord Living or dying he is the Lords Rom. 14.8 Object But do not we see those who take most pains in fitting themselves for Death most sad and sorrowful mourning for their own and other mens sins do they not meet with most trouble and afflictions so that their lives of all men are most uncomfortable Answ A carnal man can no more judge of a good mans condition than a pur-blind man can of Colours He is not acquainted with a good mans joy Prov. 14.10 The righteous have meat to eat which the World knows not of They have hidden Manna secret joy 2 Cor. 6.10 As sorrowful yet alwayes rejoycing Their weeping for their own and other mens sins Est quedam flere voluptas makes way for spiritual comfort As April-showers refresh the face of the Earth When the Righteous have been shedding tears at the Throne of Grace they oft arise from their knees with their hearts brim full of comfort If they meet with outward trouble as the Waves encrease so doth the Ark of Comfort arise above these Waves See 2 Cor. 1.3 4 5. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ We read Acts 5.41 how the Apostles rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer When Saint Paul was in that great storm at Sea Acts 27. When neither Sun nor Stars in many dayes appeared vers 20. In the midst of that danger his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in a quiet Haven Dr. Boreman in Serm. on Phil. 3.20 p. 33. even in the bosom of God In that great darkness he had a light within the light of joy and comfort because God was with and in him I end this with that of Solomon Prov. 29.6 In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare that strangleth his joy but the Righteous doth sing and rejoyce Consider 2 2. By this means you may die comfortably A man who in his life-time hath been fitting himself for death is not afraid of it when God shall please to send it He can say Come Death come Lord Jesus come and well-come He can say to Death as Adonijah did to Jonathan the Son of Abiathar the Priest 1 King 1.42 Come in for thou art a valiant man and bringest good tydings He knows Death sets his Soul at liberty out of the Prison of the Body as the Angel did Peter out of Prison Acts 12.7 Upon the sight of Death his Spirit revives as Jacob's did when he saw the Wagons that were sent to carry him from a place of penury and misery to a place of plenty and happiness Gen 45.27 When Moses the Servant of the Lord had finisht his course God bids him Go up and die in the Mount Deut. 32.49 50. Deut. 34.5 It is there said He died according to the Word of the Lord secundum os Domini The Jews say that his Soul was suckt out of his mouth with a kiss God dealt by him as a fond Nurse by her Babe kissed him and laid him down to sleep Elijah requests God to take away his life 1 King 19.4 Aged Simeon like a Swan welcomed his approaching death with this melodious Song Sapientis animus totus in mortem prominet hoc vult hoc meditatur hac semper cupidine fertur Sen. ad Marcium c. 23. Nunc dimittis c. Luke 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word c. St. Paul cries out Cupio dissolvi Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better St. Ambrose ready to depart said to his Friends Non sic vixi ut me pudent inter vos vivere sed nec mori timeo quia bonum Dominum habemus He was neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die Old Hilarion being somewhat backward at first to entertain Death he checkt himself for his vain fears Egredore anima quid times Septuaginta annos servivisti Deo jam mori times Egredere Anima Go out my Soul said he what fearest thou Thou hast served God these threescore years and ten
and what art thou now afraid to depart Go out my Soul And with that he laid himself down upon his Pillow and quietly slept in the Lord. That good man Oecolampadius when he lay a dying being asked by some of his friends whether the light did not offend him he clapt his hand on h s breast saying Hic sat lucis est Here is light enough meaning comfort So that solid Divine and eminent Christian Master Bolton said to some of his Friends that came to visit him at the point of death I am said he by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as mine heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ I could produce great store of such like Examples but let these suffice Object But are not some of God's dear Servants unwilling to die as was David Psal 102.24 and Hezekiah Isa 38.1 2 3 Do not some die with little or no comfort Answ As for David and Hezekiah they were publick Magistrates and desired to live longer that they might be serviceable in their Generation and bring glory to God They knew if they had died at such a time the wicked would have insulted and made Songs of Tryumph at their Funeral They feared Distractions both in Church and State which might follow upon their death And haply they were the more unwilling to die because in their apprehensions not sufficiently prepared for Death Possibly by falling unadvisedly into some sins they had blurred their evidences and wounded their Consciences It is therefore good counsel which * Dr. Boreman in Serm. on Phil. 3 20. p. 45. Carthusianus gives and that is so to provide for the coming of Death ut nihil in mente resideat quod Conscientiam mordeat cum quo mori timeat that no sin reside or remain in our breast which may wound and trouble the Conscience and with which we being guilty cannot die in peace and safety Sin like Jonah in the Ship raiseth a tempest in the Soul The reason why many find so little comfort at death is because they are too negligent in preparing themselves for it I end this with that of the Psalmist Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace 3. and last Consider 3. And lastly By this means you shall arise again with comfort That there will be a Resurrection of the Body is clear from Scripture Insomuch that our Saviour told the Sadduces which said there is no Resurrection Matth. 22.29 Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures When Jesus told Martha that her Brother should rise again Joh. 11.23 she replyed vers 24. I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last Day And the Apostle spends the largest Chapter in all his Epistles in proving this Point against some in the Church of Corinth who denied it 1 Cor. 15.12 Well then at Christs second coming to Judgment we must all rise again with our own bodies and give an account of our own Works as you may see 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 14.12 This will be a joyful day to such as have lived in expectation of it and preparation for it For when Christ their life appears they shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 They shall have a Crown of Righteousness conferred upon them 2 Tim. 4.7 8. They shall rise to everlasting life Dan. 12.2 John 5.29 They shall lift up their heads with joy They shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Joh. 2.28 For he who is their Saviour Surety Intercessor Head and Husband will be their Judge He will at that day gather them together and place them on his right hand and pronounce that blessed Sentence Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World They shall be Assessores in judicio like Justices of the Peace upon the Bench with the Judge approving of that righteous Sentence which Christ shall pronounce upon the wicked both Men and Devils 1 Cor. 6.2 3. Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World Know ye not that we shall judge Angels * Psalm 149.9 This and much more honour have all the Saints in that great day They enter upon such happiness as shall never end Dan. 12.3 They shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever see 1 Thes 4.14 c. After the Apostle had spoken of the Resurrection and second coming of Christ he tells us that Believers shall be for ever with the Lord vers 17. And then he adds Comfort one another with these words vers 18. This eternal happiness will make amends for all our pains and care in our Christian course Thus you see how comfortable their condition is that live in continual expection of Death and preparation for Death They live comfortably they die comfortably and they shall rise again with comfort Whereas on the other side if men be careless herein they have no true comfort whilst they live even in laughter their heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 So it was with Belshazzar Dan. 5.4 5. God saith again and again by the Prophet Isaiah That there is no peace to the wicked Isa 48.22 57.21 And if they have no true peace and comfort whilst they live I am sure they have none when they come to die As Ahab said to Elijah so may a wicked man say upon the approach of Death 1 King 21.20 Hast thou found me O mine Enemy Death to him is the King of Terrors as Bildad in Job call'd it Job 18.14 Or as the Philosopher Arist Eth. ad Nic lib. 3. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing is so terrible to him as Death The Soul at such a time is usually full of horrors and heavy apprehensions Pangs of Death horrour of Conscience sense of Guilt and frights of Hell are sufficient to render him perfectly miserable If there be any wicked men that die with little sense of pain and less fear of Death as Psal 73.4 we must know that this is security and sensless stupidity no true peace And if they have no true peace and comfort neither in life nor at death they 'l have none after death nor at the general Resurrection for no sooner is the soul separated from the body but God passeth a particular judgment upon it Eccles 12.7 Heb. 9.27 and dooms it to misery Even as Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an Example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. And at the second coming of Christ to Judgment the body shall rise and be reunited to the soul and Christ will pronounce that dreadful Sentence upon all wicked persons Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels And this Sentence being once pass'd shall never be alter'd Hence it is called
God's dearest Children Jacob was sick Gen. 48.1 So was Hezekiah 2 King 20.1 So Job was smitten with a sore Boyl from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Job 2.7 8. He was so loathsome a Creature none would come near him he was fain to be his own Chyrurgeon and his dressing Instrument was a piece of a broken Pot see likewise Job 7.3 4 5 13 14 15 16. So David was sick nigh unto death read Psal 6. Psal 38. So under the New Testament we read Dorcas that Woman full of good Works and Alms-deeds which she did fell sick Acts 9.36 37. So Paul himself saith We had that Sentence of Death in our selves c. 2 Cor. 1.9 He means the great danger he was in by reason of his Adversaries or by reason of sickness or both Thus he was in deaths oft i. e. in deadly dangers 2 Cor. 11.23 So before this you read of some in the Church of Corinth that were chastned of the Lord by some violent sickness that they might not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.30 32. Timothy had but bad health which made the Apostle to give him this advice To drink no longer Water but to use a little Wine for his Stomachs sake and his often infirmities 1 Tim. 5.23 So we read of Trophimus the Ephesian Paul's Disciple and Companion in travels Acts 20.4 21.29 left of Paul at * This Miletum or rather Miletus Act. 20.17 was a City famous for Wool and Cloathing Nec Miletus erat vellere digna tuo Martial Miletum sick 2 Tim. 4.20 But we need not light up a Candle at noon-day and seek for that which is neither hid nor lost This truth is confirmed or Proposition verified by daily experience I therefore pass on to the Reasons of the Point which may be taken from three heads 1. From their natural constitution The Godly though they be the Sons of God by the grace of Adoption yet they are the Sons of Adam by natural production And as the Wood breeds a Worm that eats it the Garment a Moth that frets it and Fruit that which doth corrupt it so natural bodies produce Diseases to destroy them The bodies of the best are earthly houses 2 Cor. 5.1 which moulder away of themselves The Apostle calls the body even of the best men a vile body because Tot miseriis obnoxium subject amongst other miseries to sickness and distempers Calv in Phil. 3.21 If the humours of the body be but a little stirred they turn to the nutriment of a Disease Our very blood as Dr. Taylor saith wherein our life dwells is the scene under which nature acts many sharp Feavers and heavy Sicknesses Many men saith another * Mr. Byfield on 1 Pet. 2.24 p. 883. Divine that for the present are free from the pains of Diseases yet have their enemies in their bodies in divers parts of them laid as it were in Garison which may and will break out upon them at a time they know not 2. From inherent corruption The best besides original corruption have many actual provocations 1 King 8.46 Psal 19.12 Psal 143.2 Prov. 20.9 Eccles 7.20 1 John 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If the best of us saith he hath no sin he sins in saying so De vero cultu lib. 6. c. 13. for this is sin in the best Nemo esse sine delicto potest quamdiù indumento carnis oneratus est Lactant. Now sin is the procuring cause of sickness Had not sin entred into the World there had been no sickness Had our first Parents continued in a state of holiness they had continued in a state of health and happiness everlasting but their eating the forbidden fruit brought Diseases upon them and their posterity It is sin that brings all mankind even the best to the Grave Rom. 5.12 And no wonder if it cast them upon a sick-bed Sin is the Pandora's Box that filleth the World with innumerable diseases and calamities Like another Jonah it raiseth storms and aestuations in the Body as he did in the Sea Jonah 1.4 7. compared What saith David Psal 31.10 My life is spent with grief and my years with sighing My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed It was sin that weakned him and brought as it were his body into a consumption So Psal 38.3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger Agnoscit morbi istius causam esse iram Dei propter selera sua in se accensam Muscul in loc neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin So vers 5. My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness So Psal 39.11 God with rebukes doth correct man for iniquity Diseases are properly the Rod of the Lord and the Rod for the fools back seems to have been a Proverb amongst the Jews Prov. 10.13 26.3 Hence the Psalmist allusively tells us Psal 107.17 Fools because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities are afflicted The best of men are no wiser than they should be nay they too oft play the fool as David did 2 Sam. 24.10 and no wonder if God chastise them with sickness 3. And lastly From Divine Ordination 1 Thes 3.3 The Devil cannot smite us with sores or sickness without God's Commission or at least without his Permission as you may see in the case of Job Job 2.6 Whatever may be the instrumental or material cause of any affliction yet God himself is the supream efficient Job 5.6 as Eliphaz said Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground By this proverbial Speech he would have us look higher than to secondary causes even to God himself as the Author for so he is Isa 45.7 so Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it It is not to be understood of the malum culpae sed poenae evil of sin but of affliction and punishment God then sends sickness to his Children or he is pleased to exercise them with sickness and such like afflictions for good ends I 'le name two especially 1. For the purging out or preventing of sin Psal 119.67 71. so Isa 1.25 Isa 27.9 so Heb. 12.10 11. God sends sickness as he sent an Angel with a drawn Sword in his hand to Balaam Numb 22.32 to divert us from sinful courses God takes away corporal to recover spiritual health he weakens thee in body to weaken the body of sin in thee If he cast thee into a Feaver or burning Ague it is to refine thee and make thee a Vessel unto Honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work as expressions be 2 Tim. 2.21 I have somewhere read how Basil the Great that holy Man being much troubled with the Head-ach prayed to God to remove it and was at length
assaults as other mens frequently are So vers 5. They are not in trouble us other men neither are they plagued like other men This stumbled him as you may read afterwards but at last he recovers himself having made his resort to the Sanctuary of God vers 17. He learned out of his Word that God governed all things wisely and had Judgments in store for them as you may read vers 18 19 20. God lift them the higher that their fall might be the greater Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant So then though wicked men sleep securely in sin yet their damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2.3 When they say Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a Woman with Child which comes suddenly certainly and painfully and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5.3 The wicked shall be turned into Hell Psal 9.17 Jesus Christ will come upon these with a vengeance and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction as you may read 2 Thess 1.7 8 9. I end this with that of David Psal 11.5 6. The Lord tryeth the Righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth Upon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup. They shall be continually drinking the bitter cup of divine fury There shall be no Lucida intervalla no respite no breathing fits as the Righteous have here in their sickness but their pains shall be continual without either intermission or mitigation Vse 3 3. This consideration should keep us from censuring those for the greatest sinners that are in this kind the greatest sufferers Indeed we live in a censorious Age. The World judgeth those most wicked that are most afflicted we are apt to conclude that God hates those most whom he visits with most sickness Thus the Barbarians dealt with Paul who seeing the venomous Beast hang on his hand said among themselves No doubt this Man is a murderer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live Acts 28.4 Thus David's Enemies by the sharpness and violence of his Distemper concluded God was become his Enemy * Verbum Belial effusum est in ipso i. e. punitur divinitùs ob scelus aliquod commissum Muscul in locum Psal 41.8 Job's three Friends were to blame to accuse Job for an Hypocrite because God had sorely visited him with sickness he calls them truly Forgers of lies and Physitians of no value Job 13.4 They forged lies both of God and Job and like unskilful Physitians applyed Corrasives instead of Cordials And elsewhere he calls them Miserable Comforters Job 16.2 They came as Comforters freely offering themselves he sent not for them Job 2.11 But they were pitiful ones in that sence that Job calls them Miserable comforters for by their censures and bitter speeches instead of lessening they did encrease his burthen instead of easing they did aggravate his grief And God himself was highly displeased with Eliphaz Bildad and Zophar in as much as by their perverse disputings and false reasonings they had wronged even God himself Job 42.7 8 9. Let us then know that God's dear Children as Epaphroditus a dear Servant of the Lord here did may lie under great afflictions and dear affections at the same time Job 1.8 and 2.3 Job even now mentioned whom God boasts of again and again as a None-such for piety was smitten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 2.7 with such an angry burning Boyl as God plagued the Aegyptians with Exod. 9.9 10. and after threatned to punish a rebellious people with Deut. 28.27 If Job had measured God's displeasure by the sadness of his Distemper he might have concluded indeed that God had hated him and cast him off but upright Job doubted not of God's favour under his saddest tryals We read of one Lazarus the Brother of Mary and Martha John 11.3 that was in his extream sickness beloved of Christ And we read of another Lazarus Luke 16.20 who was poor and pitiful lying at the rich mans gate full of sores yet after death carried by Angels into Abrahams Bosom vers 22. Let the words of the wise man shut up this Eccles 9.1 2. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. Vse 4 4. Let this consideration keep us from weeping immoderately when Godly Friends depart this life They are freed from those sicknesses and pains which here they groaned under Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from pain and pains-taking The World to them is as Aegypt to the Israelites a place of pains and sorrow Exod. 3.7 When they die God wipes away all tears from their eyes See Rev. 21.4 There shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things as sin sickness c. are passed away If the dead in the Lord could speak they would say to surviving Friends that follow them to the Grave with sorrowful hearts as Christ did to the Daughters of Jerusalem that followed him to his crucifixion sorrowing Luk. 23.28 Weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children Ye are in the Valley of Tears toss'd upon the Waves of a troublesome World subject as to sin so to sickness and sorrow But as for us we are at the Haven of Eternal-rest Weep not for us but weep for your selves and your Children Indeed did we but seriously consider the manifold miseries that God's dear Servants are subject unto whilst in this World we would give thanks rather then murmer when God by death sets them free The Church in the Funerals of the Dead hath taught us as much We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother or Sister out of the miseries of this sinful World 5. and last Vse But fifthly and lastly for I hasten This consideration me-thinks should put Christians upon sympathizing one with another This God calls for Rom. 12.15 1 Pet. 3.8 see Heb. 13.3 Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversitie as being your selves also in the Body In the Body that is say some as Members of the same Body Rom. 12.5 for so believers are Ephes 5.23 30. so Col. 1.18 they are Members of Christ's Mystical and Spiritual Body And as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12.25 26. The Members should have the same care one for another and if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it So then if we take it in this sence you are members of the same Body and therefore ought to sympathize one with another Others there are that by this expression being your selves also in the body understand it thus as being
and tost upon the Waves of a troublesome World Is not this World like a round Ball stuck full of Pins so that upon what part soever the Godly are cast they meet with trouble and misery According to that of our Saviour John 16.33 In the World ye shall have tribulation So that to have his life prolonged what was it but a prolongation of his misery and an adjournment of his happiness Tiberius Caesar said to one that requested death rather than long imprisonment Sueton. Nondum tecum redii in gratiam he told him He had not such a favour for him The like favour God here denies for the present to Epaphroditus and can this be truly call'd a Mercy Answ It cannot be denied but death is better than life to the Godly and rather to be chosen for it frees from sin sickness Satans temptations c. Yea it brings them to the happy vision and fruition of God to the society of blessed Saints and Angels and puts them into possession of everlasting happiness Calvin in Phil. 2.27 Longum esset enumerare omnia quae faciunt ut mors fidelibus potior sit vitâ optabilior Yet for all this as that learned Author saith Vita per se aestimata est praeclarum Dei beneficium praesertum qui Christo vivunt iis vitam lucro esse dicimus Life considered in it self is a choice mercy of God and advantagious to the Godly And to glorifie God in this bodily life is Non parva dignatio no little savour which God vouchsafeth to us so Calvin And Musculus Muscul in Phil. 2.27 saith Mors ipsa quatenus est peccati stipendium horribilis naturae in seipsâ considerata capax est misericordiae tà m corà m Deo quà m corà m hominibus Death as it is the wages of sin and terrible to nature is capable of mercy both before God and Man Besides as the same Author observes there were several circumstances which would have rendered his death in a sort miserable and no doubt did then trouble his mind Desolatio videlicet perturbatio Ecclesiae as the too much dejection of his people at the sad news of his death and the desolation that might follow upon it and withal the consideration that he could be no longer serviceable to them and to the Apostle in his bonds which he much desired Besides we may farther add that the continuance of a good mans life is a great blessing in this respect that the longer he lives the more good he doth and so his reward will be the greater 2 Cor. 9.6 He that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully There are degrees of glory as may be gathered from 1 Cor. 15.41 42. 1 Cor. 3.8 Secundum non propter opera The most gracious here shall be most glorious hereafter Those that do most for God here shall receive most from God hereafter So that had Epaphroditus died he had had his reward the sooner but living he makes it the greater For those of the longest standing and greatest proficiency in the School of Grace here shall take the greatest degrees of Glory hereafter I end this with the words of that truly pious and learned * Doctor Hammond in Phil. 1.22 Divine Life in it self and for the advantages of serving God and encreasing our Crown is a desirable thing Use and Application Vse 1 1. This may serve to confute or reprove the Manichees or any others that hold this present life in it self is evil Heming in Phil. 1.17 Manichei hanc praesentem vitam ut malum per se damnarunt Heming Surely God would never have made prolongation of life a motive to obedience as you find Deut. 6.2 30.16 c. so Prov. 3.16 4.10 22. 9.10 11. and elsewhere nor would the Apostle here have reckoned Epaphroditus's recovery amongst the mercies of God if this present life had been evil This is such a mercy we ought to bless God for Psal 66.8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard who holdeth our soul in life Muscul in Psal 103.3 4. Nè umbrâ quidem corporis nedum vivo ac sano corpore dignus est c. He is not worthy of the shadow and shape of a body much less of a living and healthful body that doth not look upon life and health as mercies Vse 2 2. This consideration should make us patient under afflictions that befal us So long as we have life and health we have no cause to complain as though God dealt hardly with us We read Gen. 19. that Lot had most of his Goods which he had not time to remove and his Sons in Law consumed in a fearful fire from Heaven and his Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt before his eyes a sad spectacle yet he counted it a mercy amidst manifold miseries that God had spared his life Vers 19. Behold now thy Servant hath found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life It is a mercy thou hast thy health but if this be gone after loss of Goods and Children as in Job's case yet it is a mercy thy life is spared that thou art on this side the Grave and a sad eternity Lam. 3.22 23. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning great is thy faithfulness Therefore as he adds vers 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain A living man hath cause to be thankful but none to murmur life and health being the choicest of outward mercies 3. and last Vse 3. And lastly Let us not if life and health be such choice mercies provoke God to deprive us of them Sin as I told you before is the procuring cause of sickness yea and of death too Rom. 5.12 so Rom. 6.23 Death both Temporal and Eternal is as due to sin as wages to him that earns them Temporal Death 't is true sooner or later will seize on us all yet many by sinning impair their health and shorten their dayes as these places shew Job 15.32 Psal 94.23 Prov. 10.27 Eccles 7.17 But more particularly I shall name several sins some of which in their own nature tend to impairing of health and shortening a mans dayes and others of them God hath threatned with destruction I pray you observe them and learn to avoid them as you love prolongation of health and life 1. Disobedience to Superiours See Exod. 20.12 This fiffh Commandement of honouring thy Father and Mother is said to be the first Commandement with promise Ephes 6.2 It is the first Commandement that hath this special promise annexed to it viz. Prolongation of dayes By Father and Mother we understand Political Ecclesiastical and Natural Parents Take heed then of an irreverent and disobedient carriage towards the King and those that are in authority under him You read Numb 16.
place Psalm 68.20 He that is our God is the God of Salvation and to God the Lord belongs the issues from death This God whom the Righteous are related to and have an interest in can help in greatest straits and send in deliverance when they are nigh unto death and stand in most need of help That God that kept Moses's Bush burning yet it was not consumed Exod. 3.2 and preserved Noah's Ark upon the Waters from perishing in the Waters This God can preserve his People under sickness and their saddest tryals and in his due time give them an happy issue out of all afflictions See what the Psalmist saith Psal 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart or according to Orig. The Rock of my heart or according to Septuag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God of mine heart and my portion for ever When the Godly Man's flesh fails health declines strength is weakned then is God ready to support him under sickness and to ease him of his pains either by restoring him to health or by taking him out of the miseries of this sinful World by death So that if we belong to God as Bullinger Bulling in phil 2.27 saith Optimè nobiscum agitur sive revalescamus sive moriamur it will go well with us whether we live or die 2. This Consideration affords comfort not only to believers ' midst personal sickness but likewise to God's Church ' midst national calamities Though Church and State lie as it were bed-rid languishing unto Death under Schism and Division Sin and Errour and other national Calamities Yet let us not despair of help for he that cured Epaphroditus here who was sick nigh unto death can help us even in this extremity See Ezek. 37.11 12 13. God like a skilful Bone-setter or Chyrurgeon can bind up the breach of his People and heal the stroak of their Wound as the expression is Isa 30.26 God hath promised to heal in case we return unto him by prayer and unfeigned repentance Isa 19.22 so Jer. 33.6 None indeed can heal us but he Hos 5.13 All others except God be of the Quorum are Physitians of no value Let us then as it is Hos 6.1 Come and return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Una eademque manus vulnus opemque feret 3. This consideration may afford comfort to such as are spiritually sick and in their apprehensions nigh unto eternal death and destruction That God that raised Epaphroditus who was deadly sick in body can cure thy Soul mortally wounded with sin Let such as are wounded in conscience consider this Though your wounds have been grievous and of a long standing yet they exceed not the skill and power of God the spiritual Physitian God can yea and will cure you if you turn to him and relie upon him Take my word for it Nay it is not only mine but God's Word or I should be loth to speak it in this place See Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way Ezek. 18.27 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon So Matth. 11.28 Come unto me saith Christ all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Come to Christ and wellcome he keeps open house to all comers 4. And lastly Gods dear People that by their sinning have blurred their evidences for Heaven and fallen from some degrees of Grace and Spiritual Comfort as David did Psal 51.8 12. Let them not despair of recovery That God that restored Epaphroditus's sick body to its pristine health Ps 147.3 can restore thy soul to spiritual health peace and comfort Thus he dealt by David Psal 23.3 He restoreth my soul He is the Creator of Peace and Comfort Isa 45.7 so Isa 57.17 18 19. and hath promised in his due time to speak peace unto his People and to his Saints but let them not turn again to folly Psal 85.8 I end this with that of the Evangelical Prophet Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light a Child of light it seems may walk in darkness i. e. have little or no comfort for the present yet let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Let him still wait on God prayingly believingly obediently c. in God's due time which is ever best comfort will come And so much for this Use by way of comfort Vse 2 2. By way of instruction We learn if God cure the body of sickness as he did Epaphroditus here surely it is he that cures the Soul of sin which is a far harder work God upon the account of Christ who as at this time came into the World to undertake for us heals our souls of sin by applying Christs perfect Righteousness to the soul he removes the guilt and by his blessed Spirit implanting in the soul the Seeds of Divine Grace he heals it of the filth of sin Psal 103.3 Who pardoneth all thine Iniquities who healeth all thy Diseases God alone that cures the body of its distempers heals the soul of its spiritual maladies The Scribes and Pharisees acknowledged as much Luke 5.21 The Pope cannot pardon sins The Ministers of the Church of England absolve no otherwise then declarativè as the Embassadors of Christ God doth it autoritativè the authority is wholly his We do but pronounce the Pardon which before we speak is really done in Heaven to sincere Penitents Vse 3 and last 3. And lastly By way of Exhortation 1. To all in general Let us be exhorted to go to God for help in time of sickness It was he that cured Epaphroditus when sick nigh unto death Too too blame are they who in sickness and such like straits consult Astrologers Witches Devils and I know not whom for help It was an inexcusable sin in Ahaziah King of Israel who in his sickness sought to Baalzebub the Godd of Ekron for recovery of his health and for so doing God threatned him and accordingly brought it to pass that he should not come down from his sick-bed but should surely die Read the passage in 2 King 1.2 c. What good got Saul by consulting the Witch of Endor Surely the Wounds of God are rather to be chosen than the Devils Plaisters Indeed their best cures are deadly wounds For if the mortal body should be restored by such unlawful means yet the immortal soul which is the far better part is thereby much endangered Habes hoc loco qui omnes depollit morbos Bul in Phil. 2.27 O do not go about indirectly to wind your selves out of trouble you have a God to repair unto who can help at all straits and at every turn your head cannot ake
knowing Nihil est omnis Medicorum ars opera cura diligentia nisi Deus virtute suâ det sanandi efficaciam that the Prescriptions and diligence of best Physicians are of no worth and efficacy without God David thus praying unto God was healed by him Psal 30.2 3. O Lord my God I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me So Psal 116.3 4 6 8. compared So Hezekiah by prayer unto God had his deadly sickness removed and life prolonged Isa 38.2 Hezekiah having received a message of death turned his face towards the Wall and prayed to the Lord. But why towards the Wall either because by this means he withdrew himself from company his eyes from such objects as might distract and disturb his devotions or as others say Because there was but one single Wall between the Bed of the Kings of Judea and the Altar of God See Caussin's Holy Court p. 1 Juxta parietum Templi Salomon extruxit palatium and they used to pray with their faces towards the Temple 1 King 8.35 48. Dan. 6.10 Psal 5.6 Hezekiah thus turning himself toward the Wall over against the Temple and praying fervently to God was healed as you may see vers 5. Prayer is that which God directs his People unto in sickness and such like straits Psal 50.15 Call upon me in time of trouble and I will deliver thee Job 33.26 He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him So Jam. 5.13 Is any man afflicted let him pray Quest But if God send sickness and for good ends unto his Children is it not a sin in them to pray God to remove it and to heal their bodily Distempers Answ No All flesh naturally desires health and preservation of life And Grace in God's Children doth not abolish but rectifie Nature Deus hoc carni naturaliter dedit ut sanitatem Musculus in Ps 6.2 ubi plura i. e. conservationem sui cupidè petat Piis hanc naturam fides non adimit sed dirigit So then God allows us to pray to him for health so we do it with submission to the good Will of God as Christ prayed three times to his Father in his agony Mat. 26.39 O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt and with a resolution to serve him better if he spare us Pray then that God would be pleased to have mercy upon you in your sickness and to ease you of your pains and restore you to health and bless the means you use in order thereunto if it be his blessed will And as you ought to pray your selves so you should get others Ministers and good People to pray for you see James 5.14 15 16. God hears the prayers of his People and oft-times for their sakes lengtheneth the life and outward prosperity of the wicked God spared Zoar at the request of Lot Gen. 19.20 21 22. Those that sayled with St. Paul in the Ship had their lives spared for his sake see Acts 27.24 for saith the Angel of God to Paul Lo God hath given thee all them that sayl with thee Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will give thee as a favour no less then two hundred threescore and fifteen Souls vers 37. were saved in extremity of danger for Paul's sake and at his request Get then others especially the Godly who are God's Favourites to pray for thee No doubt but Paul was a constant Sollicitor at the Throne of Grace in the behalf of Epaphroditus who lay sick nigh unto death and God had mercy on him 2. Relie confidently upon God Though we make use of the Physitians Directions yet we must not trust in them but in God for means and second causes work by his continual influences and receive their ends from his eternal order As the Psalmist saith Psal 127.1 Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it So except the Lord cooperate means and second causes which receive their being and efficacy from God are vain and ineffectual Faith was required in all those under the Gospel whom Christ cured Mat. 9.2 Luk. 8 48. As we must not neglect means so neither must we trust in them nor relie upon them which if we do it is the ready way to render them useless see Jer. 17.5 6 7 8. He that puts his trust in the Lord saith the wise Man Prov. 28.25 shall be made fat q. d. shall be lusty and well Relie then upon God's mercy for deliverance He that highly esteems of God is high in Gods esteem 3. Be merciful your selves to others in misery if you would find mercy from God when you are in misery Psal 41.1 2 3. Blessed is the man that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Prov. 11.25 See likewise Isa 58.6 7 8. After he had spoken of works of charity he adds Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily So Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Epaphroditus went a long and perillous voyage to minister to the Apostles wants Phil. 2.25 30. and when he was sick nigh unto death God had mercy on him 4. Lastly Be deeply humbled for your sins This humiliation consists in confessing your sins with grief of heart and putting away the sins you have lamented and if we do thus we shall find mercy in sickness David in sickness confessed and lamented his sins with a sorrowful heart as you may read Psal 32.4 5. 38.3 4 5 18. so Psal 41.4 Heal my Soul saith David under sickness for I have sinned against thee What a plea is this Heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee Doth God delight in mens sins Is he thereby allured to do them good One would think as Musculus Muscul in Psal 41.4 saith Magis faceret ad impedimentum quà m ad causam impetrandae sanitatis this should be rather an hindrance then furtherance to his cure But the truth is God who loves not sin yet loves to see sinners confess and bewail their sins and if we do so and withall forsake them we shall find mercy in sickness as David did for Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy If sickness be epidemical Exod. 23.25 Deut. 7.12 15. a general humiliation is a means to remove it Levit. 26.40 41 42. so 2 Chron. 3.14 God sends sickness for sin if sin be removed he 'l remove his stroak but he will not take off the Playster so careful he is till the Wound be throughly cured and corruption purged out Sins are as so many Scotches in the way that hinder the Charriot Wheels of a Deliverance from moving
best for us to pay our Vows Deut. 23.21 Eccl. 5.4 5. we are perjur'd persons truce-breakers if we do not Defer not to put into action what God's Spirit in sickness put into intention Do as David did when he was brought low God helped him Psal 116.6 God delivered his soul from death v. 8. See his resolution v. 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living He devoted himself to God's Service v. 16. Truly O Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant And he likewise resolved to pay his Vows v. 14. so v. 18. so likewise Psal 66.13 14. I will go into thine house with burnt-offerings I will pay thee my Vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Let health strength life soul and body the products of Gods mercy be presented to his service Rom. 12.1 I end this with that advice which Christ gave to one whom he cured John 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee 3. Apply your selves to God in future straits pray unto him trust in him Thus did David Psal 116.2 Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live So v. 17. I will call upon the Name of the Lord. So Ps 56.3 What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee for v. 13. Thou hast delivered my soul from death So Ps 63.7 Thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce See 1 Sam. 17.37 so 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We had the sentence of death saith the Apostle in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us It is good Scripture-logick as * Mr. Reyners Praecepts p. 266. one saith to draw conclusions of confidence from premises of experience Such then whom God hath restored to health when God casts them again into the Prison of a sick-bed let them be still Prisoners of Hope as the expression is Zach. 9.12 Suffer not Faith to flag and Hope to hang wing Lam. 3.26 It is good that a man should both hope and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord. 4. Sympathize with others that are in misery If God have had mercy on thee go thou and have mercy on others Be not straitned in your bowels as some in the Church of Corinth were 2 Cor. 6.12 Oh pity and pray for such as are in sickness and misery and do them all offices of love and kindness that may be Not only God calls for this but the Law of friendship calls for it Job 6.14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend But yet Job's friends dealt very unfriendly with him as you may see v. 15. whom he compares to a Brook which in open weather when people have least need of water promiseth refreshment but in cold weather is frozen up and in hot weather is become dry so that the weary Travellers fall short of their expectation So you may find him complaining how he was forsaken of all Relations Job 19.2 c. insomuch that he begs their pity upon the account of friendship v. 21. Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my Friends for the hand of God hath touched me here is another Argument for if you touch or strike upon the string of an Instrument other strings move too When God strikes another with sickness we our selves should be moved with compassion towards them the sicknesses and miseries of others call for your help Jos 10.6 Acts 16.9 As the Father said of Lazarus's sores Quot ulcera tot ora so many sores so many mouths calling for the rich mans help Yea though they be their enemies you should pity them as David did Psal 35.11 12 13 14. Though compassion begin at the heart yet it should proceed to the hand and mouth help them with your counsels and prayers and purses too Sic mens per compassionem doleat ut larga manus affectum doloris ostendat What the good Samaritan did Luk. 10.30 c. By which passage our Saviour would teach us to have pity on those whether friends or enemies acquaintance or strangers that stand in need of our help v. 37. Go thou and do likewise The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies Alms comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies Pity Alms should be a fruit of pity 1 Joh. 3.17 If you who have known what it is to lie under sickness do not pity such folk who should if you do not who will 5. Lastly Give God the sole praise of all let him have the glory of the cure for to him it belongs and it is a piece of sacriledge to rob God of his due We should not give nor should any man take to himself the glory of a cure Neither Peter nor John Act. 3.12 Paul nor Barnabas Act. 14.11 c. durst take to themselves the glory of a cure Every Physitian should say as the King of Israel in another case said to the Woman crying out to him for help 2 King 6.26 27. If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee The best Physitians can do nothing without Gods assistance Simples are but simple things without the blessing of God upon them Who put medicinal qualities into Drugs but the God of Nature Whence had the Physitian his skill to find out the quality of the Distemper and apply sutable means but from the God of Wisdom Jam. 1.5 Christ said Mat. 4.4 Man lives not by bread alone c. Nor is man recovered by Physick alone without Gods blessing Ps 107.18 19 20. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw near to the gates of death then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble he saveth them out of their distress he sent his Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions It follows v. 21. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men Quest But may we not thank our Physitian Answ Yes and you are too blame if you do not Ingratitude is an odious sin Gen. 40.23 compared with Gen. 41.9 It is one of the sins that makes the last times so perillous 2 Tim. 3.2 The Heathen thought you could not give a man a more odious title then to call him ungrateful Ingratum si dixeris omnia as though it was a compendium of all vices and indeed it is a decompounded sin Ahasuerus was too blame to forget loyal-hearted Mordecai so long who had been a means to save his life till it was almost too late to remember him He was to be commended for conferring civil dignities upon him afterwards as you read he did Esth 6. Let such as are unthankful to Physitians and to such as are a means to save their lives from destruction go to School to those Barbarians Acts 28.8 9 10. from whom they may learn lessons of Civility They honoured Saint Paul who healed many amongst them of many Diseases with many honours and when he with the rest of his company departed they laded them with such things as were necessary Well then you may and ought to thank them as Instruments but remember that God is the supream efficient They are to be rewarded and respected for their pains and care with us but God alone is to be praised for the Cure wrought upon us God is the Fountain they are but as Pipes to convey God's mercies to us Let us then give God the praise of all as the Angels sung Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God on high Luk. 2.14 And as Christ hath taught us Mat. 6.13 For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen That Woman in the Gospel cured of the Distemper called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glorified God as you may read Luke 13.13 There were ten Lepers that lift up their voices and said Jesus Master have mercy on us Luk. 17.13 Yet being cleansed there was but one of them that turned back and with a loud voice glorified God vers 15. But Christ took notice of their ingratitude v. 17 18. There was but one of ten that returned to give thanks 'T is ten to one if God cure us but we prove ungrateful Oh let us not in sickness pray for mercy and in health forget to return thanks for the receit of mercy Non sonet illud tantum miserere Deus sed sonet etiam laus gratianum actio pro accepta illius misericordia Muscul in Phil. 2.27 David was much in praising God for delivering him from deadly dangers as the Psalms testifie Psal 30.1 3 4. 86.12 13. 103.3 104.33 116.6 12 17. 118.14 146. v. 1 2. So Hezekiah being recovered pens a Song of Thanksgiving Isa 38.9 c. Oh my beloved extraordinary mercies call for more then ordinary thanks Exod. 12.42 Communicate your experiences Psalm 66.16 Tell others of the cures God hath wrought Joh. 5.15 Mar. 5.19 The tongue is called our glory Psal 16.9 Let your glory sing praise to God and not be silent Psal 30.12 Wherein is your tongue a glory if not in setting forth the glory of God I end all with that Doxology of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS