of God to please him in all things the neglect of those purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardness Again it lettethin Sathan When the unclean spirit is driven out he goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last be returneth from whence he went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himself Alas how many men are there that for a sit in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sin they have grown secure and careless and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleep was in a spiritual slumber and Christ goeth away She seeks him whome her soul loved but she could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleep their hearts it may be are awake but they walk not with that watchfulness and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thank themselves Christ hath hid himself to teach them to be more watchful And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgments You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their security And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his coming and therefore he eats and drinks with the drunken what is the issue of it He shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held down with secure thoughts of Gods displeasure and thinks it is at peace with God it is an evident sign that wrath is a coming Nay beloved in that measure you are in carnal security in that measure you are under wrath let that therefore be enough to awaken you and say thus with your selves It were better for me a great deal to be among the number of those that complain and are mourning Christians then to be in the number of those that are full of jollity and joviality that rejoyce and sport themselves that put far from them the evil day I might then escape the wrath of God as they do Who are they that escape wrath See in Ezekiel 9. Those that were awake when others slept those that mourned when others laughed those that humbled themselves before God when others hardned themselves those were the men that were marked in the forehead by the Angel and they escaped And in the third of Malachie Those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name in those evil times that spake oft one to another there was a book of remembrance of them and they are Gods jewels he will be sure to keep them safe But how shall we come to be awakened I should have told you some helps for this I will but touch upon a few in a word First I will propound sobriety as a main help Would you be watchful and kept from spiritual slumber take heed that you keep your selves sober I speak not of sobriety as it is opposed to drunkenness though that be one thing Be not filled with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the holy Ghost Ephes 5 As if he should say you cannot be filled with the holy Ghost and with excess of Wine persons that take liberty in excessive drinking certainly they are destitute of the holy Ghost and so of life and salvation But I mean a further sobriety that is as it is opposed to worldly-mindedness Take heed that you plunge not your selves too much in the world and worldly pleasures and cares for these are against the rule of sobriety Be sober in your diet in your apparel in your gaining in your spending in your mirth in your company in every thing that is moderate your selves and your affections in these things A man may soon grow to such a drunkenness by excesse in worldly affections that he may be in a dead sleep neglecting Gods judgements and his own estate as we see men that plunge themselves in worldly business are It takes away the thoughts of those things that concern our spiritual good I say not that you should leave off the business of the world for every man must continue in the calling that God hath set him But I say moderate your affections to the things of the world Do worldly business with heavenly minds in obedience to God Do them with waking hearts to repent for the sins of your callings to avoide the sins of your callings And that that I say of labouring in your callings I say of pleasures and of every thing else we should be watchful and sober as S. Peter saith Be sober and watch Secondly if you would be free from security which is a forerunner of judgement be sure to keep your selves in exercise A man that would keep himself awake will busie himself in some exercise and imployment or other What exercise should a Christian use The exercise of grace and of the duties of obedience Be sure to keep your selves in the exercise of all the advantages that God giveth you in your lives to imploy your graces in In difficulties and straits exercise your faith In provocations to anger and discontent exercise meekness In crosses and troubles and afflictions exercise patience In the miseries and wants of others whether spiritual or corporal exercise mercy And what I say concerning grace I say concerning duty Keep your selves in the exercise of prayer and reading and meditation and conference some one thing or other some holy employment or other that may keep the soul waking For I tell you you shall find that whensoever you let fall spiritual exercise you will at that very instant fall into carnal security in some kind or other Thirdly would you keep your selves from this dead sleep of carnal security then keep your spirits in fear Sorrow and grief makes a man heavy but sear keeps a man waking when Jacob feared Esau he kept a watch that night Sampson feared the Philistims and it wakened him out of his sleep Fear makes a man watchful You may perceive it in your own experience In that measure that the fear of God prevaileth security is expelled Keep fear therefore Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart falleth into evil Mark how he opposeth the hardning of a mans self in carnal security to the fear of God Keep your heart in a constant feare Reason thus Alas shall I do this thing and sin against God
and the same person arising from divers principles In every renewed soul there is is a principle of nature and a principle of grate I speak not now of corrupt nature but of pure nature for we may so speak There is a desire that ariseth from nature and that tendeth to the conservation of a mans beeing and to the conservation of a man in all the comforts and contentments of his beeing This is and may be in a child of God But then it is overswayed by grace which makes a man now resign up this will of his to Gods hand to be content against his own natural desires to be disposed of according to Gods will This we may see in our Lord and Saviour Father faith he if it be possible let this cup pass from me Hear is a desire to keep not onely in his natural beeing but to keep in the comfort of nature and life And this is lawful and a good desire for these affections are the works of God upon the soul of man The will of man moveth naturally by these affections these desires they are the fruits of nature and so the works of God in nature and therefore not simply to be blamed But now that which keepeth them within compass is an over-ruling work of grace whereby the creature is made to acknowledge his distance from the Creatour and that subjection he oweth to God as the soveraign Lord of nature and of all creatures And in this sense our Saviour Christ doth check his natural desires if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt faith he So here is a work of grace ordering and over-ruling nature that it might not exceed that proportion of the creature and those desires that should be in nature So then you see what kind of willingness we mean such a kind of willingness as in the issue and close resteth in Gods will The object of this Patience is Afflictions and the changes of this life Affliction is properly any thing that is grievous to a mans sense any thing that crosseth a mans will There are some things that indeed are Afflictions but not to this or that person because he is not sensible of them or because he is not carried with any desires against them But when a man is crost in his will that is an affliction to him but specially when this is set on him with a change when God brings as Job speaks changes upon him when a man is in another turning and course of life this is an affliction indeed A man that hath tasted the sweetness of prosperity now to be left in affliction this was Jobs case and this is specially the object of Patience You have heard of the Patience of Job But how did Jobs Patience appear in the Afflictions in the changes of his life That notwithstanding he had felt the sweeness of a prosperous estate and the comfort of freinds yea and the comfort of Gods favour shining upon his heart and many other particular mercies yet when God turned his hand and took away the comforts of his life the comfort and society of his freinds the comfortable expressions of his own love to his soul and threatned the taking away even of life it self Job could now in this case resolve to rest in the determination and appointment and will of God Here is Patience now Thus briefly you have heard what the duty is to which the Apostle exhorteth It is Patience that is a willing resigning of our selves to Gods appointment in the changes of our life But now that is not enough the Apostle contents not himself to say Have Patience but let Patience have her perfect work He would have them grow in Patience to grow from one degree to another to abound in Patience as the Apostle speaks of Hope and Joy in Rom. 15.13 that they might not only have patience but have it brought to perfection which in Coll. 1. 11. is called all long suffering that there might not be the least defect that they might have a measure of patience proportionable to the measure of Tryals that look as God increased the measure of their tryals upon them so they might have patience to answer those tryals somewhat to support the heart when the greatest weight should be laid upon the soul to press it down so the word Hipomene that is translated patience signifieth to bear up a man to support him under a burthen that he be not prest down by it So he would have them have such a measure of Patience as might bear up the soul in the greatest pressures that though they were afflicted they might not be broken in their afflictions Thus you have the duty opened Let Patience have her perfect work The reason is that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing That you may be intire Some understand it thus that you may be intire in respect of every grace in respect of all gracious habits that you may have one grace as well as another that as you have knowledge and faith so you may have Patience too that which is so necessary a grace for a Christian as well as any other Others by intireness here and wanting nothing think that the Apostle meant this that they might have that which might supply comfort to their souls in all their wants A man is then said to want nothing when he is content and satisfied with that estate wherein he is as if he had all things So David when Ziglag was burnt his Wives carried away captive his souldiers began to mutiny and threaten him yet nevertheless he seemed to want nothing when he could comfort himself in the Lord his God Godliness is great gain but how with contentment that is there is such a sufficiency with contentment of heart as if a man had the things he wants So then hear is the thing that you may be intire in respect of all gracious habits necessary to the beeing of a Christian that you may have that inward store and supply of comfort that may support your hearts in all outward wants Thus you have the meaning of the words The parts are two An exhortation to duty An argument to enforce that exhortation The duty whereto they are exhorted is that they should be perfect in Patience let Patience have her perfect work The Argument whereby they are perswaded to this duty is that they may be intire and wanting nothing that they may have all that is necessary to a Christian We will observe two Conclusions hence which we shall follow at this time The first is this That Patience is necessary to the perfection of a Christian Or A Christian is not perfect without patience The second is this That every Christian should strive for a perfection of degrees of Patience Or that a Christian must labour to attaine the highest degree and perfection in Patience These two Conclusions we
grows idle and unfit for the exercises of man-hood or of his Calling and the like So it is when a man is immoderately and excessively fast asleep with the cares of this Life the lusts of his heart the pleasures of this present world or whatsoever it is that luls him and rocks this Cradle when he is thus asleep he grows fat and pursie his natural heat is gone he falls from his first zeal and affection and desire and practice Alas Brethren we may speak to the shame and sorrow of many I doubt that hear me that have exchanged their care of godliness that have exchanged their seeking of God in the means with company with good-fellowship with Drunkenness And let the Lords Marriners come to them and say Up sleeper call upon thy God why dost thou not do thy first works Why art thou lazy he grows angry as Jonas was that thought he did well to be angry to the death This is the misery of many that live under the teaching of the Gospel in the light of the Gospel This is another mark and a signe of sleep when we cannot abide of any thing to be wakened To draw to a Conclusion the last Use of this Point it serves to rouze and to raise us from this sleep and security this slumber that is in the best of us And know my Brethren I speak not now to those that are out of the Church and those that are notoriously wicked those that are scandalous and rebellious to good Counsel but I speak to those that live in the bosom of the Church those that profess goodness and godliness yea those that are Disciples and are near the side of Christ let this exhortation be to them to raise and rouze themselves out of this sleep It is time saith the Apostle that we rise out of sleep The sum of this Exhortation I will propound and then draw to a conclusion First consider how unprofitable a man a Christian man is when he is asleep What is a man when he is asleep but that there is hope of awaking and to come to the actions of life again a man that is asleep he lives but the life of a Plant there is nothing but being and nourishment a waking Beast is more profitable but that I say there is hope that afterwards he will awake So when we sleep and slumber and tumble and toss our selves in dead security how unprofitable are we to Gods glory and to our own selves Saint Paul saith that Onesimus was unprofitable before his conversion but now saith he he is profitable both to thee and me A man that is asleep is unprofitable and certainly he that is asleep in security and sin this man is most unprofitable to Gods glory and to his own soul Secondly consider when a man sleeps and slumbers in sin how unfit he is for any Christian duty and exercise for the main parts of Godliness and Christianity How unfit is a sleepy man for the actions of life and of his calling and how unfit and unable and indisposed is a man that sleeps in sin to the actions of spiritual life There be some main parts and branches of our general Calling to which this sleep makes us unable The first of them is the exercise of godliness the main thing in the profession of a Christian to exercise himself in godliness how unfit is a sleepy Christian for this who sees a man that is asleep that works in his Calling that can do any good in it So how can a Christian exercise himself in the actions of his general Calling when he sleeps in his praying in his hearing in his reading if these duties be done coldly what are they worth Actions that are done in a mans sleep they come to nothing so a man that sleeps in sin let him do never so many good actions they are of no value A second main branch of our Christian Calling is the spiritual combate to fight against our corruptions Now alas how unfit is a sleepy man either to expect or to repel an enemy when he is asleep he lies open to all disadvantage Sisera himself a strong and noble Captain was so weak that a silly woman Jael shew him when he was asleep therefore we know this part of our Christian calling cannot hold as long as we sleep in sin Thirdly another part and main branch of Christianity is to expect our Masters return to wait for the coming of our Lord that we may enjoy that sweet blessedness that he hath promised and made us expect and wait for now how unfit is a sleepy man to wait for his Masters coming to set things in order Thus we see in these particular main duties of Christianity they cannot be performed by men that are asleep therefore we had need to wake our selves if we will either honour God or profit our selves if we will be fit to do service to God or to his Church we must keep our selves awake especially in the main duties of Christianity Thirdly consider while we sleep and are secure the enemy never sleeps he is then most watchful against us We may sleep and think we do well enough to take our ease but Satan sleeps not we have a watchful enemy to deal with And then he hath some advantage by our sleeping in Mat. 13. in that Parable The enemy sows tares while men slept he comes into the field of the heart where the word of God the good seed is sown and what doth he do there he sows a crop of thorns and they make the heart of a Christian like the field of Solomons sluggard Prov. 24. I passed by the field of the sluggard and it was all thorns c. Thus is the heart that is neglected of a man that is sleepy and secure in sin When do robbers and theeves assault the house In the dead time of the night when they may take men at advantage in their first sleep then they come and break into the house Shall theeves and burglaries watch at mid-night to break the house and cut mens throats and wilt not thou watch to save thy self Further consider as the enemy never sleeps so Gods mercy never sleeps Gods mercy is ever watching over us to do us good and it watcheth to keep us watchful for what should all the mercies of God do to us but keep us watchful Our God that we serve is not as Baal the God of Idolaters perhaps he is asleep and must be awaked or he is chasing his adversaries No no the strength that keeps Israel slumbers not nor sleeps Therefore let not Israel slumber nor sleep because God watcheth over his children let them watch with him and keep themselves neer to him Fiftly if this will not move thee then consider as Gods mercy sleeps not so Gods judgments sleep not Thaâ—… man that sleeps in sin let him know that Gods judgments sleep not As Balaam when
service of God our reward shall be eternal life not that we deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AIM IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their own pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousness and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiency in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious Inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withal jointly and together as might be manifested by the allegations of Scripture as be not slothful but be ye followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in the Epistle and more especially in the 10 11 and 12. Chapters In the latter end of the tenth Chapt. you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary means to attain everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soul The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessity of Faith to an acceptable walking and well-pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting down the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for then Faith by which saith he they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posterity standing out to this day also many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them be at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle have spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessary to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithful managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessary uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us run the race that is set before us and run with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithful are to make account of sufferings in divers kinds in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunity in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud vers 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his several administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I do but touch upon these things hast ening on to the main thing I intend only desiring to give you a plain and brief Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drink many times of a cup of bitterness yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proof of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take such a course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his dear love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth vers 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all his children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their souls that they are his adopted ones and such as he will one day acknowledge for to be his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth between God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verily for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in several particulars and the preheminency the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First We have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have been contented to undergo the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of
being so common and we apt every moment to fall under some trial or other There be four vertues and special effects that faith works in the soul which will inable us to go through great trials and therefore we should labour to get this grace of faith into our souls First faith gets assurance Secondly breeds submittance Thirdly dependance and lastly conveyance First faith gets assurance it can eye God as our God though the storms be very great yet God can quiet it When a man though he sees his outward comfort dead yet Faith sees it in the hand of a living God Faith assures the soul God will put an end to the trial though there be a changeableness in the outward condition yet there is safety in God and setledness in God Though a man may look with a dull eye upon his loss yet if he can look upon God with the eye of faith as his God the absence of a poor creature cannot so much trouble him as the presence of a gracious and a glorious God can comfort and support him Secondly submittance is another effect of faith which faith works in the soul our outward condition is subject to many changes and many times we meet with them and we are hindered in our comforts and naturally we grow impatient and murmur and quarrel with Gods providence but now there is a vertue in faith it fashions the heart and the mind to the condition faith makes a man submit to God in all estates to make us stoop to our burthen it is the Lord saith Eli. 1 Sam. 3. let him do what seems good unto him and in the 39. Psal saith David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because the Lord did it Observe this unbelief makes a man dumb and faith made David dumb Zachary because he beleeved not the word that the Angel spake he was dumb and David because he beleeved the word of the Lord he was dumb unbelief procures dumbness as a judgment from God but faith makes a Christian dumb from complaining it quiets the soul in silence from murmuring against God it doth not make a person dumb as not to pray and to praise God but dumb in complaint Good is the word of the Lord saith Faith A third effect of Faith is dependance it will make a man trust God in frowning dayes though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Faith we can never lose any outward comfort but Faith can find a better in God though an outward loss may come yet Faith can make it up in God in the want of an outward comfort it will trust God Lord what wait I for saith David truly my hope is in thee Though the Christian estate may be at some time moanful yet at no time it is hopeless A fourth effect that Faith works is conveyance it can convey something to inable the soul to bear it up in all trials as Faith is an active grace to inable the soul to the performance of duty so Faith is a passive grace to strengthen the soul to suffer and bear affliction To you saith the Apostle it is given not only to beleeve but also to suffer for his Name Faith will call in strength enough to bear affliction we see many times a poor Christian by the strength of faith is able to bear a great loss and undergo a great trial God is pleased to exercise a Christian with great affliction but Faith carries the soul along through all remember this Faith bears Gods trials with Gods strength there is a power in Faith which exceeds all outward crosses and losses Faith draws strength from the Promise for there is no cross nor affliction but Faith can find a support in the promise of deliverance Faith makes a man see the affliction as it were come out of the hand of the Lord out of the hand of Mercy Faith can convey comfort to the soul in affliction by making it see the chastisement delivered from the hand of a wise and loving Father that our chastisement is for our profit for our future advantage and that this is sent for our personal good if thou couldest get but a sensible denyal of thy self and by faith see all things measured out by the Lord this would make us with patience take from God what he imposes upon us Faith will make a man conquer himself it will silence all murmuring and make the Soul bear its cross with patience THE PRIVILEDGE OF THE FAITHFUL OR The Joint-Inheritance OF ALL BELIEVERS SERMON XXXIII 1 PET. 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life TO let pass all by-passages you have in this Text the priviledge of Women which is the very same with that of Men especially in relation to the greatest priviledge that belongeth to either of them The very priviledge it self as at the first view of the Text may appear to you affordeth a fit Theam for such an occasion as this is which is the solemnization of the Funeral of a Grave pious and prudent Matron who was indeed while she lived a Mother in Israel in the Church of God who in her life-time testified much love to the Saints of God and in that respect I may say deserved now she is taken away this respect of Gods Saints and Children which by you is now shewed to her in accompanying her to her bed of rest The forenamed words of my Text doth branch it self forth into two parts One setteth out the priviledge it self The other the partakers thereof The Priviledge therein you may observe two points First the kind of it Life Secondly the ground of it grace The partakers of this priviledge are set forth in a compounded Article Joynt-heirs Co-heirs heirs together having relation to Women The simple consideration of the Word shews the right they have to the forenamed priviledge they are heirs The compound shews the extent of it Co-heirs one with another Men and Women heirs together of the grace of life That yet you may a little more distinctly discern the scope of the Apostle in this Text in a word note the inference of it upon that which goeth before or the connection of it therewith Lift up therefore your eyes but a little higher to the words going before and you may observe the Apostle giving a direction to men to honour Women notwithstanding they are the weaker vessels Vessels they are therefore capable of that which God shall be pleased to infuse into them his grace they are weak vessels so are men also they are earthen vessels these are the weaker these comparatively may be said to be as glassie vessels and yet notwithstanding you have a common saying that a glass with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex be brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were
Secondly by newness of life Thirdly by thy continual progress in both First by thy forsaking of sin whether hast thou left those sins thou formerly livedst in As in the Resurrection of the body as soon as the soul is united to the body presently the man leaves the Grave he leaves the society of the dead and comes forth as Lazarus as soon as he was quickned and his soul returned to his body presently he came forth Vers 44. He that was dead came forth out of his grave Examine therefore whether thou be come forth of the grave of sin whether hast thou left the society of sinners of prophane persons and whether hast thou left the grave of thy sin Is there not some lust some sin that still holds thee captive in this Grave to which thou willingly and wittingly obeyest If thou live in any one known sin if thou be ruled by any one lust whatsoever it be be it swearing or drunkenness or uncleanness or covetousness or lying or open and publike prophaning of the Sabbath I say if thou live in the practice of any of these or the like known sins this is a plain case thou art still in the noysome grave of thy sins thou art not risen out of the grave of thy sins and therefore thou art not quickned by the Spirit of Christ and if thou art not quickned then thou art not a member of Christ thou art not a true Christian Again Secondly thou maist know it by the newness of thy life whether dost thou feel a spiritual life wrought in thee and whether doth it appear outwardly Dost thou feel a spiritual life wrought inwardly that spiritual life that Christ restores to the Soul is universally spread through the whole Soul As when the Soul of a man quickens the body it quickens the whole body every member of it so here the Spirit of Grace quickens the whole Soul Therefore examine whether dost thou find spiritual life wrought in thy whole Soul or no whether dost thou find this change wrought in thy understanding and judgement whether hast thou a new judgement and thoughts and opinion of God and of the wayes of God a new opinion of Christ a new opinion of the Members of Christ Whether dost thou find this change in thy heart and affections whether hast thou new desires new affections spiritual inclinations whether are the studies and desires of thy soul set upon heavenly things If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Collos 3.1 Whether are thy affections and meditations heavenly and spiritual Dost thou feel this change inwardly in thy Soul Again doth this spiritual life appear outwardly also by thy speeches and actions Doth it appear outwardly in thy speeches is there a change there canst thou now speak to men in the language of Canaan and to God in the voice of his Spirit crying Abba Father Again is there a change in thy outward actions hast thou left the society of sinners and dost thou converse with living Christians Dost thou love those that excel in vertue and dost thou manifest the graces of the Spirit in the conscionable performance of all the duties of thy general and particular calling As soon as Lazarus was quickened presently as he left the Grave so he conversed with living men and walked in his Calling so examine if thou have left the society of the dead and converse with living Christians and delight in them and whether thou walk on conscionably in the place that God hath set thee in making the Word of Christ the rule of all thy actions If it be thus with thee if thou feel this spiritual life wrought in thy soul and it appear outwardly in all thy speeches and actions this is a good sign thou partakest of the first Resurrection to the life of Grace In the third place thou maist know this also by thy progress in both these First by the progress of thy Mortification Is sin daily more and more mortified in thee Dost thou daily get ground of thy corruptions Is sin in thee like the house of Saul as that waxed weaker and weaker so doth corruption in thee daily Is sin in thee like an old man as it is in every member of Christ and therefore it is stiled the old man an old man grows weaker and weaker till at the last he dyes so it is with sin in every Christian examine if sin be such an old man in you that it grows weaker daily Again thou maist know it by thy progress in thy vivification Dost thou grow in grace daily Is grace in thee as the house of David as that grew stronger and stronger so doth grace in thee Is grace like a young man as it is in every member of Christ and therefore it is stiled the New man because it is as a young and lusty man that daily grows stronger till he come to his full strength doth grace in thee grow stronger daily and dost thou go forward in thy Christian course It is the duty of a Christian to walk on daily in his Christian course Rom. 6.4 we must walk on in newness of life If thou find this progress in thy mortification and vivification it is a good signe indeed that thou hast attained to the first Resurrection of the Soul to a spiritual life Therefore let me intreat you to set upon this work of examination of your own hearts diligently and faithfully Let not the multitudes of worldly business let not the allurement of vain objects and vain company let not the appetite and desire of base pleasures drive these thoughts out of your heads but examine your own hearts whether you partake of the first Resurrection or no. Deceive not thy own soul for though Conscience may now sleep thou maist think thou art in a good estate yet let me tell thee the time will come when thy Conscience will awake that if thou continue to wallow in any one sin if there be no change in thee in thy life in thy heart if instead of growing better thou grow worse and be hardened more and more in sinful courses thy Conscience will tell thee to thy face thou art a dead man thou hast no part in Christ for Christ is the Resurrection the Fountaine of spiritual life thou hast not yet attained the first Resurrection to the life of grace and therefore if thou go on in this course thou shalt not attaine to the second Resurrection to the life of glory So much for that Vse The third and the last Use of the point is for exhortation and direction If now upon examination thou find that thou hast not yet attained to this spiritual Resurrection then let me counsel thee to give no rest to thy soul till thou hast attained it for remember that this is the first step to heaven and if thou set not the first step to heaven surely thou shalt never come thither As the Resurrection of Christ was the
not rightly apprehend the thing Other things I should have added but I am loth to hold you too long A word for the occasion and so I will conclude the departure of our Sister here was the occasion as of this meeting here so of this Text in particular She gave good evidence to those that knew her more inwardly that she was in Christ that the was delivered not onely from eternal death but from fear of tempor all death too It pleased God to exercise her a great while under the fear of death the apprehension of it was of some terrour to her but neverthelesse when God called her to it indeed then the fear of death was hid from her and Christ then applied the fruit of his death in freeing her from those fears She was not freed from them out of a Stoycal Appethy or want of natural affection and passion but out of a spiritual and faithful application of Christ to her selfe upon good grounds She looked upon God as her Father and much delighted to expresse her apprehension of him under that notion and she very often manifested her rejoycing in that interest she had in God as his child no marvel then if the fear of death were taken away we see here in the text that they are children that are delivered from the fear of death When we are in the state of Gods children by adoption and grace then there is rather a desire then a fear of death It is but as our Fathers white Horse so it is called in the Revelation A child at school when he seeth one riding post through the streets as if he would run over him or tread upon him he cryeth out But if he sees that it is his fathers man sent to bring him from school to his Fathers house all his fear is past and he laugheth and rejoyceth So when we are the sons and daughters of God by adoption we apprehend Death as our Fathers pale Horse sent by him to bring us from a place of prison on earth home to our Fathers house a place of liberty in heaven So it was with her She looked upon Christ as her Husband and though she left a husband upon earth yet it was her owne expression she was to go to her Husband in heaven which was farre better for her And therefore I say having these apprehensions of God as her Father and that she was adopted to the estate of a child by grace and looking upon Christ as her husband no marvel she was freed from the fear of Death And that these were upon good grounds those that knew her course best knew that she expressed it by her abundant care to please God by her desire to serve God by her endeavour to mortifie and subdue ill in her selfe by her growth in grace in her latter times these good evidences did shew that it was not a rash and groundlesse perswasion but a true and real apprehension of God and Christ that freed her from this Fear of death Beloved many times the life of Gods servants is uncomfortable to them because for some of those reasons I have spoken of before they are afraid of Death and they apprehend it not with comfort and this they doe because they see not the interest they have in better comforts then Death can take from them I have the rather therefore spoke this of her that you may take notice of it and apply it to your selves And to conclude make this use of all to grow more humble and watchful and holy to strengthen faith more and by dying daily to prepare more for Death For faith is the rectified apprehension of things Death it is not so fearful as you think it is you lose not so much as you think you lose Nay again because this trouble and this fear dishonoureth God therefore when God calleth us to Death he hideth these fears from us as he did from this servant of Christ at this time before us though she were fearful before yet she was exceeding comfortable all the time when the apprehension of Death approached upon her So it shall be with thee if thou be careful to use the means to prepare for Death mind thou the dutie that God enjoyneth thee in thy life and leave the event and issue to him either he will glorifie himself by thy fears or else he will glorifie himself by delivering thee from thy fears THE PERFECTION OF PATIENCE OR THE COMPLEATE CHRISTIAN SERMON IV. JAMES 1.4 But let Patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing IN the second verse of this Chapter the Apostle perswadeth the distrest servants of God to bear their afflictions chearfully My Brethren saith he count it all joy when you fall into divers tentations This Exhortation he presseth in the third verse by shewing the gracious effects of tentations when God sanctifieth them Knowing this that the tryal of your faith worketh patience Yea but if this be all the fruit of our afflictions and tentations that we shall be made patient what great matter is that what great advantage cometh by patience It is but a dull grace it is meerly passive He telleth them that it is such a grace as is necessary to the beeing and perfection of a Christian in the words that I have now read to you Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing I shall speak something for the explication of the terms and phrases used here and then come to elect such points as shall offer themselves to us from them First I will shew what is meant by patience Secondly what is meant by Patience having her parfect work Thirdly what is meant by this that doing of this they shall be perfect and intire wanting nothing Patience in a word it is a grace or fruit of Gods spirit whereby the heart of a beleever willingly submiteth it self to the will of God in all afflictions and changes in this life I say it is a work or fruit of Gods spirit In respect of this work the efficient is called The God of Patience and long suffering which is the same with Patience is made a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The subject of this is the heart The act of this Patience is to submit a mans self willingly to God in afflictions I say willingly for there is a submission which is by force when God subjects a man to himselfe not by a gratious and sweet inclining of the will but by a powerful subduing of the person Now when I say there is such a willing submission to God in afflictions the meaning is thus That there may be in a believer in a child of God a Velietie an inclination of the will a natural desire to be freed from Afflictions yet nevertheless there is in him that willingness that is here the Patience of a Christian There may be a willingness an unwllingness in one
will handle apart in the Explication and proof and joyn them together in the application and use For the first then that A Christian is not perfect without patience Our Saviour exhorting his Disciples to patience in the fifth of Matth. because they should meet with many enemies injuries in the world he concludeth be perfect faith he as your heavenly father is perfect What perfection speaks he of here Such a perfection such a work of Grace as might inable them to carry themselves as became them in the middest of those many enemies and opposites they should meet withal I will not stand upon this I will endeavour to make it appear to you First it may appear thus There is a twofold perfection of a Christian There is a perfection of parts and a perfection of degrees A child is a perfect man in respect of parts but not in respect of degrees because it is not come to that measure of strength for that age is not capable of it which a man hath Now there is a necessity that there should be a perfection of parts First perfection of parts in a Christian is but the making up of all those graces which are necessary to a Christian and without which he cannot obey God nor walk according to the rule All these are necessary Now Patience is one of those parts one of those habits of grace with which every renewed soul is indowed and without which a man is not truly sanctified without which a man expresseth himself not to be regenerate And for this observe what the Apostle Peter saith Ad moreover to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledg temperance to temperance patience to patience godlinesse to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse to brotherly kindnesse love What is the reason of it If these things be in you and abound you shall neither be idle nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord. As if he should say you will be idle and unfruitful professors unlesse that these graces be in you and abound in you Now what are the Graces you shall see the necessity of every one of them The Apostle exhorteth beleevers there to the giving all diligence to the making their calling and election sare to make it certain to themselves that they are effectually called But might some say there are many graces necessary to a Christian but there is one principal which we call the radical and main grace of all Faith I but saith the Apostle there are many others necessary besides that as you must have faith towards God so you must also carry your selves so as may adorne your profession among men therefore adde vertue to faith But they might say vertue that is that that guideth a man in all Morrals in all the course of his life and conversation You shall have many provocations to sin therefore adde to vertue temperance But we have many discouragements to good therefore adde to temperance Patience But what though you should have both temperance and Patience these are but moral vertues Therefore adde to Patience godlinesse that you may in all things you doe ayme at God and approve your selves to him But when we have carried our selves in a holy manner according to the rule and word of God yet nevertheless there are many Christians that require offices of love from us and what shall we doe to these Therefore adde to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse But then again beside that conversation we have with beleevers there are many men in the world that expect certaine duties from us Therefore adde to that Love that extendeth to all men according to their necessities So you see how the Apostle takes all graces as it were into several parcels and sheweth how they cannot be without one parcel of grace they cannot goe through the course of Christianitie except they heve every thing they cannot carry themselves toward God without faith they cannot adorne their profession without vertue they cannot escape temptations without temperance neither can they be encouraged against discouragements without patience Therefore he bringeth patience in amongst the rest as a necessary part and dutie of a Christian without which he cannot goe through the worke of Christiantie and religion Again in the second place as it appeareth by the parts of a Christian and Christianity that a man cannot be perfect without Patience so it appeareth by another argument and that is this A Christian cannot be perfect without that without which he cannot keep that grace he hath Look what ever grace is in the soul a man cannot keep it without Patience By Patience possesse your souls The soul which is the seate and subject of Grace cannot it self be kept without Patience therefore neither can any grace be kept in the soul without Patience because as the riches and treasures in a Castle cannot be kept when the walls are beaten downe so those treasures of grace in the heart of man cannot be kept when once patience which is as the wall of the soul that keeps it from the battery of tentations from the enemie that would steale them away while men sleep I say unlesse these walls these supporting graces specially this of Patience be in the soul it cannot stand intire For indeed let impatience once into the soul and you let in all sin with it impatience is a destroying of all grace a pulling downe of the wall Nay what is sin indeed but impatience in a sense What is pride but the impatience of humilitie What is uncleannesse but the impatience of chastity What is drunkennesse but the impatience of sobrietie Every sin beginneth in impatience when a man cannot bear with that abstinence and forbearance as formerly cannot keep that strict course in his wayes but groweth impatient against the rule of God he runneth into a course of sin presently So you see that for the very preserving the soul the subject of grace and grace the treasure of the soul it is necessary that we should have patience And then again thirdly It will appear thus to you that a Christian cannot be perfect without patience because he cannot doe his worke without Patience he cannot doe the works of Religion the taske that God layes upon him without Patience Looke in what measure Patience is defective in that measure he halteth in his dutie in the very actions of Religion he goeth about Take any one duty of Religion that you can name see whether a man can doe that without Patience Suppose it be Prayer How can a man goe on in the duty of prayer without Patience Sometimes God delayeth the grant of a mans petition A man will now sink and give over in discouragement if he have not Patience to support the soul The Canaanitish woman when she came to Christ and spake once to him and he did not answer a word she had so much Patience as to make her speak the second time to him then he answered her
but churlishly but yet her Patience held her to the third tryal at last she received her desire had she not been Patient to go on with her request she had lost her petition The Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 12. for this thing faith he I besought the Lordthrice He would have given over at the first seeking of the Lord if he had not had Patience to uphold him to the second and third petition to the renewing of his suit twice nay thrice Come from praying to hearing the Word preached how can a man hear the word profitably without Patience therefore the good ground is said to hear the Word and to bring forth fruit with Patience and it is the commendation of the Church of Philadelphia Thou hast kept the word of my Patience There is a necessity of Patience if a man will profit by the Word For first if a man will obey the Word he shall be sure to have many set against him in the world he had need of Patience then or else he will leave the rule of the Word because of the reproaches of the world Again there are many secret corruptions in his own heart that will be met with in the preaching of the Word which a man cannot abide to hear of but he will be vexing and fretting and discontented at it as we see in Ahab and divers others unlesse he have Patience to keep him from raging against the Preacher and preaching of the Word You have need of Patience then as the Apostle faith that you may bear thereproofs and exhortations of the Word Therefore faith the Apostle James Receive with Patience the ingrafted Word or receive with meeknesse the ingrafted Word that is able to save your souls There is no ingrafting the Word in the heart except those forms of impatience those hinderances of the growth of the Word be taken away But further there is yet a further end the whole life of a Christian is a continual exercise of Patience there is a necessity of it for he cannot persevere without Patience it is impossible for a man to begin in the spirit but he shall end in the flesh if he have not Patience to persevere in well doing Therefore faith the Apostle You have need of Patience that after you have obeyed you might receive the promise You have need of Patience for between the time of the making of the Promise and the time of the accomplishment of the Promise to the soul there is a great distance many times therefore ye have need of Patience to waite that after you have obeyed the Word you might receive the promise Let us run with Patience the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith Our Lord Jesus himself had not perfected the worke of our redemption if he had wanted Patience neither can we finish our course of Christianity wherein we must follow Christ and run the race that is set before us except we have Patience added to other graces You see then a Christian cannot be perfect without Patience First because he cannot have all the parts of Christianity that is one thing Secondly because he cannot keep and preserve the graces he hath that is another thing Thirdly because he cannot act and work according to the rule that is the third Lastly because he cannot perservere in the course he is in except he have Patience There is a necessity of Patience to the prefection of a Christian Secondly the second point was That it is the duty of a Christian to strive to bring Patience to the uttermost perfection to be as perfect in the degrees of Patience as he can attain to to make this the strife of his life that Patience may have her perfect work that there may be no defect in it The Apostle prayeth for the Collossians that they may be strengthned in the inward man to all long suffering And when our Saviour setteth God as a pattern before men Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect What aymeth he at in that place but this that we should strive to the uttermost extent and highest degrees of Patience for our Saviour intendeth of Patience in that place This then is the duty of a Christian Why so First because a Christian is to follow the best pattern the best patterns are propounded in the Scripture And God doth not propound examples and Patterns to men in vain but as he giveth them rules to tell them what they should do so he giveth them examples and patterns to lead them to that degree and direct them in the manner of doing Therefore ye have God himself set as a pattern of Patience Follow God as dear children wherein In all those examples wherein you have a rule For all the examples of God and Christ and the Saints bind no further then there is a rule in the Word There are many things wherein we cannot follow God and Christ and we need not follow every one of the Saints but those things that are injoyned by the rule these examples are set to direct us in obedience to that rule Amongst other things the Patience of God is set forth as a pattern for us to follow In that glorious proclamation made of him in Exod. 34.7 8. Among other of his attributes he is set out to be a God long suffering and Patient You see how patient God is faith the Apostle And God that he might shew his long-suffering and Patience bore with the world faith Saint Peter With what world with the world of ungodly men God hath born with the world many Ages of years many thousand years already and yet beareth still with the world The most holy God that perfectly hateth wickednesse yet to shew his Patience he beareth with ungodly ones Yea and he beareth with men too the mighty God that is able to destroy all the world with the very breath of his mouth that as with a word he made the world so with a blast he is able to bring it to nothing yet this mighty God beareth with men this holy God with ungodly men yea and this God that might suddenly destroy the earth as he did the old World with water he beareth so many thousand years with the world of ungodly men that his Patience and long-suffering may appear You have God for an example then And Christ for an example too and you are predestinated for this very end to be like the Image of the Son to be made conformable unto Christ Wherein In all imitable and necessary graces I say in all those graces that are necessary by vertue of a rule and that are imitable wherein we may or can follow him Amongst the rest this is one his Patience See the Patience of Christ In his carriage toward his Father how he bore the displeasure of his Father In his carriage toward men when he might have
why is thy conntenance fallen Or as that great King said to Nehemiah Why is thy countenance sad So if men would put the question to themselves concerning their affections as concerning love why do I set my heart upon such and such things and so likewise concerning their sorrow and anger and every thing Why is it thus As Rebecca said when the children did strive in her womb so when there is a conflict of passion in the soul against reason since it is so why am I thus Who art thou that fearest mortal man saith Isaiah to the Church If men I say did thus they would not break out into such exorbitancy of passions as commonly they do The way then to order any affection aright is to reduce it to the principles of sanctified and rectified reason and judgement Let reason be guided by the Word of GOD and let the affections be ordered by that reason so rectified Thus it was with man in the state of innocency and experience telleth us that in the state of corruption all disorder cometh from the want of this subordination of the affections to reason in their several actions and motions When a man goes hood-wink'd up and down he is in danger of stumbling and falling into one hole or other this is for a man to walk in darknesse then a man-walketh in darknesse when he is not guided in all his actions and affections by the light of truth shining in his understanding A man should therefore strive to check himself and to suffer others to check him Why is it thus If a man cannot give a cause and a reason it is a passion to be rejected a distemper o be repented of This is the first thing He saw no reason therefore he would not do it The second is this It was altogether bootlesse Why should I fast I cannot bring him back again He meaneth bring him back again to live on the earth So Job meaneth when he speaks in the same manner If a man die shall he live again he cannot be brought again to live and converse among men The point I note hence is this That all the actions and opportunities of this life cease in death There is no calling of them back again No bringing of a man back to take new opportunities to enioy the comforts he hath lost and to make use of the means he hath neglected and to redeem the time he hath slackly let passe When the request was put to Abraham by Dives that some might come from the dead to tell his brethren upon earth where he was No faith he that request shall never be granted that a man should come from the dead to give warning to the living much lesse that a man himself should return from thence to begin upon a new score a new reckoning to have a new time appointed when that time is past over They have Moses and the Prophetes let them hear them God hath appointed the means and a time to use the means Now they have Moses and the Prophets After this life they shall have none of these means no time of using them The child shall not come back again nor the man shall not come back again Death is a strict door-keeper all that passe out that way the door is shut on them they shall never return back We read of many several Ages that have gone to the place of silence we never read of any that came thence to tell what is done there we never heard of any yet that came back again to reform his course A friend with all his prayers and tears cannot bring back a friend that is dead It teacheth us a point of wisdom to make good use of our time the time of grace we have We draw neerer death every day then other and when once we are dead we shall never be brought back again upon the earth If a man had all the world and would give it to obtain an hours time upon earth to do what he neglected before he cannot have it therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts yet a little while and you shall have the light saith Christ while ye have the light walk in the light Make use of the means of grace the time may come when ye may wish as Dives is described to wish that some body much more that you your selves might come from the dead Certainly if those in Hell were to come from the dead again though it were to live a hundred years on earth a holy strict and concionable life to watch over all their wayes to keep a good conscience towards God and men they would not omit a duty nor slight a duty they would not omit an opportunity a minute but spend their whole life in working out their salvations with fear and trembling they would sleep and awake with fear lest they should sin they would be careful that they had no sinful thought they would be patterns of the strangest expressions of conformity to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this do you that now which they wish for and wish in vain make use of the time of grace now there is no coming back again afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall go to him As if he should have said I have another business in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall return to him Return signifieth to go back to a place where one was before So David shall return to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soul where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soul to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soul cometh from God and returns to God again Therefore he saith here I shall return to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their principles the body to the earth and the soul to God they are said to return Ye see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest business he hath to do on earth is to prepare for death His business is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the main business of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and be fitted for death for I am going thither We should observe the death of others to stir us up to a serious preparation for our own death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes
sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortisie thy sins now do it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I think he speaks it in respect of afflictions I profess by our rejoycing in Christ Jesus I die dayly If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sin die dayly to sin and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sin he that dieth daily to Sin he hath nothing to do with Death when it cometh Death may come to such a party but cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it cometh And observe it so much sin as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sin that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie evey sin let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it work now it will work fearefully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God will then present and set thy sins in order before thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to hear this Word get thee home and set thy soul in order The love of Sin and the fear of Death seldome part and where Sin is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sin if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome work but remember that those sins which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortisication of sin when death cometh he should have nothing to do but to let his soul loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creator and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to do with Death when it cometh Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approaching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is coming Indeed all the comfort that the soul is capable of is this that the sting of death is took away Now when Death cometh upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of misery he is in here from all that extremity of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that he carrieth about him a body of sin and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death cometh there is an end of this Body of sin thou shalt never sin more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in duty that death that cometh to thee shall pass thee to the fruition of eternal glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternal glory with God THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMY SERMON VII 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is a Subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in such meditations No man can live well till be can die well He that is prepared for Derth is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to be ready for it as to be osten minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speak of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of four things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an Enemy Thirdly that this Enemy is the last Enemy Lastly that this last Enemy shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Ye know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senseless that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach ye concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth ye concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is in absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and Being of Death Death is a deviding of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universal It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poor Death knocks at the Princes pallace as well as at the poor habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatness it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of doors It takes whole Armies as well as one man It scorneth to be resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no means to escape it It is such an enemy as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Again Nature teacheth that death is uncertain A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what means it will setch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to think of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledg of this
doth in gaining the world he loseth himself He that will lose his life shall save it and he that will save his life shall lose it Mark 10. A man never loseth a shadow more then when he followeth it the faster he pursues it the faster still it runneth from him such is the pursuit after anything out of God the more a man pursueth iâ—… the more he loseth himself he is driven so many paces from heaven so many degrees from his own happiness This is the folly and madness of the world whereby Sathan deludeth men leading them after vain shewes of earthly delights in carnal security flattering themselves in the pursuit of the world dreaming of happiness and comfort and in the conclusion imbrace nothing but a shadow and emptiness and comfort and in the conclusion imbrace nothing but a shadow and emptiness This I say is the misery of man Now put both together Consider what we lose that that is truly good that that is blessedness indeed and what we get that that is but a shadow that that is emptiness indeed Men lose that they seem to have 〈◊〉 and want that they pursue after A secret judgement of God because they sought not that that they should do Thus we see the point opened I hasten to the application The first use is for Convictionâ—… Since there is such a truth as this that no man that professeth himself to be in Christ that professeth himself to be a beleever should live to himself that is do any action of his life ayming at himself as the uttermost end in those actions It serveth in the first place to convince us that profess our selves to be Christians and beleevers to be such as know Christ though with these differences some are more weak and some more strong yet I say it convinceth every man to stand guilty before the Lord that if he live to himself he is none of Christs This is the property of every true Christian even of the weakest aswell as of the strongest for the Apostle speaks of all None of us saith he whether weak or strong Christians live to over selves if thou therefore live to thy self thou art none of those the Apostle speaks to thou art none of those that live and die to the Lord thou art none of those that are the Lords whether in life or death Let us therefore first be convinced of this that there is such a sinful disposition in the hearts of men that profess themselves to be Christians and yet live to themselves That is the first thing I would convince you of at this time Secondly I would shew you that whatsoever this disposition is it argueth a soule and sinful heart None of us do so saith the Apostle other men that have no part in these priviledges and comforts they do so they live to themselves Thirdly we will convince you of this life that it is simply necessary That so without delay every one â—…hat is convinced that he liveth to himself may now begin to leave that course to live to himself and hereafter live to God For the first of these To convince us that there are many amongst us that professe our selves to be Christs and yet are thus disposed and have this sinful affection to live to our selves Take this first in the general If there were not such a disposition in mens hearts the holy Ghost would not thus have directed the spirit of the Apostle in expressing this as a note of difference between them and others and as an argument that a strong Christian should beare with the weak because they do not live to themselves The Scripture giveth not rules in vaine But that yet we may see it more clearely you shall find this very thing complained of sometime and sometime forbidden Complained of Phil. 2.21 All seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Such a disposition there was in them that they sought their own they lived to themselves And forbidden 1 Cor. 10.24 Let no man seek his own but every one another mans wealth A thing expresly and in termes so clearely forbidden as no man can hide himself from the light of it He is certainly guilty of the breach of this command that seeks after his own that seeks himself But how shall we know that we may be more sensible of our own case whether it be thus with us or not whether we live to our selves and not unto God I will give you two general rules and tryals whereby a man may discern whether he live to himself or not The first is this Consider when a lust and an occasion meet together how you are I shall shew it in divers particulars Take it thus Sometimes you shall see that a man is put on to a good duty by incouragement sometimes he wants those incouragements Mark now how a man determineth and resolveth to act or to cease his action by vertue of these incouragements Sometimes you shall see that there is a command to a duty but no outward incouragement to that duty that may satisfie the desire of a mans heart in self-respects He must obey God in this command but he shall gain nothing in the world by it he shall neither grow rich nor get more esteem among men or have a more easie or pleasent life in outward things all self-respects fail in this action The question is what a man resolveth upon in this If now his heart start aside from God and fall off from the duty because he wants those incouragements that a man looks after a way for himself fulness to himself then it is evident thou hast respect to thy self Jehu all the while that his zeal to God might further him and the better settle himself in the kingdom of Israel he can call others to come up and see his zeal for the Lord but when his zeal had no such baiteâ—… and allurement to those actions then Jehu turneth against God and falleth to Idolatry and other sins Jehu is not now the man when these incouragements faile that he was before You have abundance in John 6.10 seeking Christ that still discovered a living to themselves in it You seek me saith our Saviour because of the loaves they had some outward advantage by him and therefore so long they sought him So the Lord discovered them in Hos 7. to be such as lived to themselves even in holy duties You cry unto me saith God but it is for corn and wine and oyle for this they cryed but when they had corn and wine and oyle what zeal had they then He that should have been upright when he waxed fat he kicked with the heel as the Lord speaks under the name of Jesurum to Israel That is one case Consider when things come thus that sometime those worldly advantages fall off from a man in the profession and practise of religion if he fall off from the duty
too he is a man that liveth to himself This was the case of the second and third grounds they received the seed with joy that is when they were sensible of comfort they followed Christ but afterward when persecution arose for the Gospel they fell off and took offence Such as these live to themselves they seem to live to God but it is to themselves and therefore when self-respects fail they fall off too Secondly take another instance for the clearing of it Suppose that not only sensible advantages fail but sensible disadvantages come in the world A man is sensible that he shall disadvantage himself much if he go on in the wayes of obedience to God It may be if he make conscience of his wayes he must make restitution of his estate unjustly gotten He must deny himself in a greater measure of pleasures that he hath unlawfully pursued He must empty himself in works of mercy and piety of a great part of his estate for the good of others that God may be glorified by his substance He shall lose some worldly friends some esteem among men Here are sensible disadvantages to a man Now the Question is what he resolveth to do Here is the command of God and here is the thing whereupon the heart of man and his affections are set upon disadvantages in the world These come together Here is an occasion for a lust a sinful affection to express it self If that be laid in the ballance and shall prevaile above the other that rather then I will endure disadvantage in the world I will neglect the way of serving God this party liveth to himself whatsoever good he did before in matters of religion all was done to himself I say when these two come together as you know when two men walk together and one servant followeth them a man knoweth not whose servant he is till they part but then when they part a stranger may know whose servant he is he followeth his own Master and leaveth the other So when God and the world go together God and a mans own advantages go together when their is nothing commanded but standeth with his own advantages so long a mans deceitful heart may flatter and delude and misguide him he may go on in a false perswasion and in a strong conceit that he is in Christ in a blessed estate But when these two part that I shall not only not advantage my self but sensibly disadvantage my self in outward things Here now I say the the Question is what a man doth If I resolve to cleave to my outward advantages and leave God and leave the wayes of God I live to my self A man that liveth to God you shall see it is otherwise with him as for instance David when he might have had the kingdome of Israel somewhat sooner by sin he would not do it his heart smote him for cutting off the â—…appe of Sauls garment though he might have gained the kingdome of Israel by it he would not lay his hands on the Lords anointed And what was the reason of it because he would not advantage himself by disobedience to God he would rather want himself What was the reason that Daniel when he saw he was in an apparent hazard not only of the loss of honour but of his life and that for the performance but of one duty prayer and that but for a short time yet would not omit it no not for a short time though he might by that not only have saved his life but kept his honour in the Court he prayed to God even at that time when he was forbidden Why so because he lived to God and not to himself Had Daniel lived to and sought himself more then God he would have dispensed with this and saved both his life and honour though he had offended God in that particular of omission But this is the disposition of a heart that is faithful and upright with God it will not dishonour God for the greatest advantage that can come to it self it will not neglect a duty to God whatsoever loss it have in the world Thirdly Take another instance whereby we may see what we intend in this tryall Let the will of God and the bent of a mans own will come in competition together God will have me leave this I will hold it God will have me forsake this I will keep it It is a comfort a wordly benefit I lose my comfort if I part with it He that now liveth to himself he will please his own will and be disquieted and vexed against Gods will that crosseth his But he that liveth to God will be contenâ—… that God should cross him in his will because he would glorisie God in his own will in his soveraignty in his purity in his holiness and justice c. See it in the case of Abraham Abraham had a strong love to Isaac and good cause yet nevertheless though he could see a comfort to himself in this son when God telleth him thou must sacrifice thy son Isaac when he had the revealed will of God Abraham now resolveth to shew that he lived to God and not to himself therefore he would part with any comfort of his life for God when he required it So David If the Lord will saith he he can bring me back that I shall see the Tabernacle and the Arkâ—… if not If he say I have no pleasure iâ—… thee loe here I am let the Lord do with me as seemeth good in his owneyes When the case is this when the will of God crosseth thy will what now prevaileth Doth the desire of having thy own will prevail against the desire of submitting to Gods will Doth it raise murmuring and impatiency of spirit So far thou livest to thy self Therefore consider this Here is an occasion now for a lust and a sinful affection to shew it self either a man may advantage himself in an evil course or he cannot but disadvantage himself in a good course or when God crosseth a man in that he desireth and delights in in the world That is the first tryal whereby a man may know whether he liveth to himself Secondly another tryal will be this Consider if their be any part of the truth of God of his revealed will that for self-respects thou art willing to be ignorant of least the knowledge of it should make the do somewhat to thy own disadvantage in this thou livest to thy self See this to be true in all that live to themselves Balaam though he profest that for a house full of gold he would not go beyond the word of the Lord yet notwithstanding he was willing not to take notice of Gods will but to go on rather to curse Johanan in Jer. 42. professeth deeply that he would obey the will of the Lord but when he understood the will of the Lord when it crost his will then saith he to Jeremy It is not the Lord that hath bid
OR THE DESIRE OF THE FAITHFUL SERMON XV. ISAIAH 26.8 9. Yea in the way of thy Judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness THis Chapter is a sweet Song of the Prophet if I mistake not concerning the restauration of the Jews And the words of the Text are the sweet Swan-like Song of our deceased Sister which she desired might be her Funeral Song her Funeral Text at this time and desired it long ago before any thing that is now fallen out came to pass And I have accordingly pitched upon it not onely to satisfie her desire in a just thing but especially because I approve her choice of a fit Text there being not in the whole Scripture a portion that will afford a fitter Character in my apprehension for her person as you shall understand in the close to which therefore I shall deser the speaking to the present occasion The truth is I have handled a good part of this chapter formerly and in this place but now we shall clean go another way than then I did and than I usually do I shall only desire to present so much one of these words without any curious observation or division as may represent to us a perfect character of a sweet Christiin-minded man or woman which may be of singular use and very profitable There be only two things that I shall observe in the whole words I shall but go them over briefly taking out the main points as I conceive for that purpose I shall mention them We have here propounded to to us the compleat duty of a Christian And we have here some effectual motives intimated to stir Christians up to the preformance of that duty There is a general duty to begin with that first that belongeth to Christians at all times And there are some special duties which concerne Christians in some special times Both contained here The general duty I shall not as I said handle it in my former way of observation but only explicate the very words of the Text and that will be enough for me The general duty I say of a Christian and what should be the temper of his heart and spirit at all times we may find expressed at least intimated very sweetly with some excellent directions in the Text in the so thâ—…e circumstances First we may see here what is the true Object upon which a Christian soul should be fixed Secondly we may see the Latitude of the Acts which a Christian must exercise upon that Object Thirdly we may take notice of the manner and of the degree in which every one of these Acts must be exercised I shall but touch these briefly out of the words and then come to the special duties belonging to special times First to begin with the Object The desire of our soul is toward thee and to the remembrance of thy Name God and the name of God is that which should be printed in the heart of a Christian 〈◊〉 should be that to which the Byâ—… and stâ—…am of his whose soul runs First I say it should be fixed upon God We are here in the world placed as it were between heaven and earth Now all the manner is how our Byas is set which way that turns As the Byas is of the heart so the man is Our hearts may be turned downwards to the earth and to earthly things and so we shall run a course of ruin and destruction our hearts again the Byas of them may be settoward heaven and heavenly things and so we shall run the right course that we ought It is God that our souls should breath after Fecisti nos Do nine propter te faith a Father thou hast made us O Lord for thy self and our souls are restless till they return again to thee As they say of Circles The Circle the round figure is the most perfect figure and the most capacious figure because there the line that beginneth in one point goeth round till it return into the same again So this is the greatest perfection of a man when he returneth to his beginning he had all from God and when he reflects himself altogether back again unto God he attaineth his greatest perfection And indeed there will be no more rest for the soul in any thing out of God then there is for a stone or a weighty body in the liquid ayre Hang a stone in the Ayre and do but once remove the force that holds it there will it nill it give but a way to it and it will cut through and never rest till it come to a sollid substance till it come to the earth if it may to the Center of the earth It is so with the soul of man try it in all the fortunes and states and conditions in the world as a great Emperour said I have run through all things and my spirit will rest in nothing and as Solomon giveth us this observation out of all his travel and experiment that he had made Vanity of vanity all is vanity and worse then vanity too vexation of spirit this is the sum of all fear God and keep his commandenents as he concludeth This is the Object upon which our soul should be set we should have an eye to God labouring to approve ourselves to him making our approaches and adresses and returns to him that our soul may rest with him that we may enjoy the light of his countenance here and the fulness and brightness of his glory hereafter This is the first thing in the Object Now if a soul be carried toward this Object toward God and we can out-go and out-grow these worldly things look above them and look down upon them with scorne then the very name of God will be sweet and precious to us To thee and to thy name Every thing which is a memorial a remembrance of God Every thing by which God may be known will be taken notice of All his Attributes his Word and Ordinances and all other things which come within the compass of his Name as I suppose there are not many here but know according to the ordinary explication of Divines of the third Commandement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain and the first Petition hallowed be thy name What is meant by the name of God When the heart I say is set upon God it even will leap for joy at the very name of God the very name of God will be sweet to him To enjoy God is sweet and to have but a glimpse of him to have him but represented by name is sweet too As it is reported of a
mis-interpreted there is a certain truth in it the desire of grace is the grace it self and the desire of God is that which makes some union and giveth us some communion and fellowship with God For it is impossible that the heart should desire and long after God except it be that the heart be pointed with love toward God except the heart love God for desire is nothing but a certain configuration of love Love is the general affection of the soul to any thing that is good in all the postures of it Now if it fall out that the good thing I love be absent from me that I have it not in possession then love is shaped out and sheweth it self in desires It must needs be therefore that where there are desires towards God and desires of grace there is somewhat of God formed in that person there is something of grace begun at least the first lineaments thereof are drawn in some kind of truth This is the second Act that Christians should exercise and take special care to cherish that they have continual pantings and breathings of desires toward God their hearts should work and beat toward him continually But then in the third place there is another thing expressed in the words of the Text and that is these desires are not only according to our Proverb of wishers and woulders ineffectuall desires desires that are meer gaping to see if the thing will drop into our mouths or no without any bestirring of our selves but here is joyned with them if we peruse the words of the Text we shall find it endeavours I have desired thee in the night and I will seek thee early the soul of a Christian desires God in the evening and his spirit will seek him early in the morning for those particulars of the time I shall touch by and by but now I only take notice of that third distinct act here mentioned which is our desires must be joyned with inquiries with indeavours to search after God to see if we may grope by any means to find him out to learn to know what is the way of his good will and pleasure how we may lead a life that may be acceptable to him and how we may come to the possession and assurance of his favour and be accepted in his sight Except there be endeavours it is a shrewd suspition that the desires are ineffectual desires and unformed desires and not those that argue any life and truth of grace But when our desires are joyned with these bestirrings of the soul to seek after God to search him out in his Word in his Ordinances to find his steps and to find his goings and so to maintaine a sweet and holy communion with him that is a sweet act of Grace and a certaine ratification and seal of the truth of it But then let me add the third thing In what height are all these actions to be boyled up or in what manner must we tender these services to God in this kind How must our understandings lay hold upon God and treasure him up in our memories How must our affections and desires work toward him how must our endeavours be carried toward God The manner of all these will make this compleat and so make up the full and compleat Character of a Christian in this general duty First the soul must be carried intimately and most inwardly the inward motions and workings of the soul and spirit must be toward God And therefore the Prophet here expresseth these acts as the acts of the very soul and spirit of a man All outward actions of seeking toward God and making our approaches and addresses toward him they are all such as may be counterfeited a hypocrite may act them There is nothing in the world no shape of any external thing in the world but a Painter with his Pensil can draw the picture of it give a resemblance of the thing and there is no outward action in the world that belongeth to God or to Christianity but it is possible for a Painter for a base hypocrite to represent them with an artificiall pensil But the inward acts of life that no Painter can imitate a Painter cannot make a picture to have heart and entrailes and lunges to have life and motion and spirits and bloud stirring in the veines all those things a Painter cannot imitate he can make shapes but he cannot put the life into them he can make outward formes but he cannot put the inwards to them Now then this is that intended here all those outward actions must be animated actions not dead actions actions that have no further bottome then the teeth out wards that grow upon the house top a word growing upon the tip of the tongue that hath no root in the heart and so for the rest But they must have the root in the heart and soul of a man that must inwardly be carried towards God And when the heart and soul and spirit of a man all which words are here used by a supernatural grace that is implanted in them when I say they are thus carried toward God it is an argument of spiritual life that there is some life Secondly they must be carried sincerely not for any by or base respects When a man makes toward any person or thing and professes love to it and doth it not for the thing it self but for some by end he doth not love that person he makes to but he loveth that thing for whom he makes to that person As for example A man scrapeth and croucheth and keeps a do with a man that he never saw or knew one that he is ready it may be when his back is turned to curse but yet he will do this for his almes for his gain to make a prey a use of him some way this man loveth his almes loveth his prey loveth his bounty but it is no argument of love to the man So it is in this case for a man to make toward God and to seem to own him and to be one of the generation of those that seek his face to address himself in outward confotmity and many other things by which another may charitably if he have no other ground judge of him all this is nothing except a man may discern something that may give him a taste that his spirit doth uprightly and sincerely seek God that he loveth God for God himself that he loveth grace for grace it self he loveth the Commandements of God because they are Gods commandements and because they are beautiful being according to the rule of his Word But otherwise if it be any sinister thing that carrieth a man on toward God it is no argument of the life and truth of grace You know it is so in experience there be many things that move and yet their motion is no argument of life A wind-mill when the wind serveth moveth and moveth
perpetuity it must be a constant assection grounded and established in the heart The Ayre you know is light and yet we call it not a lightsome body because it is lighted by the presence of another and when that light body is removed it is dark you may say it is dark for the Ayre is dark in the night when the Sun is absent as it is light when the Sun is present those we call lightsome bodyes whose light is originated and rooted in themselves So it is in this case such are not godly persons that may have some injections of godly thoughts and godly affections cast into them and be in them for a spurt and for a brunt and for a little flash like a flash of lightning in the Ayre and gone away again presently but it must be rooted and grounded in a man so as that it will continue continue so as that the exercise of graces and duties toward God should be frequent and quotidian as it is here in the Text The desire of our soul is to thee in the evening and our spirit shall seek thee early in the morning Morning and evening frequently daily to have commerce and communion with God to walk with him to set our selves in his presence and to approve our selves to him to make it our constant trade to do so to be Gods dayes-men to work by the day with him and withal to be constant to hold out for perpetuity Only time can discover truth and truth is the daughter of time to us God knoweth it before but we can never know but by the holding out but by the perpetuity I acknowledg there is a great difference between that which the Scripture calleth temporary faith and that which it calleth saving faith there is I say a great difference they do not only differ in this that the one holdeth out and the other doth not hold out but they differ in their vital principles by vertue of which one holdeth out because it hath a more noble nature in it and the other because it is a slighter timbered thing it doth not hold out because the one is a real and true and substantial beauty of grace the other but a superficial and painted beauty substantial beauty that is founded upon nature upon our complexion whether it rain or shine it will hold out in both but painted beauty one fears a little wet will alter the painting another lest a little heat should do it A painted beauty will not hold but true will hold And they that do love true love long as our Proverb saith I am certain it is so here they who do once love God truly love God for ever I will dispatch the rest in a word There be some special duties besides these generals which make the general character of a Christian I say there are some special duties that do concern him according to the speciallity of times Now there is a double time and so a double posture of a Christian in which accordingly he hath several suits of graces to put on and to exercise There is a double dealing of God which is the foundation of it God dealeth sometime in a way of mercy and favor toward his servants and God dealeth sometime in a way of Judgment and wrath and displeasure and he doth so though not as an angry Judg but as a father that is angry even with his own servants Now accordingly as this general temper and frame of spirit should be at all times so it should shew and discover it self in those several times In the time when God sheweth favour then the servant of God is to serve God so much the more chearfully and so much the more fruitfully to run the wayes of Gods commandements because God inlargeth his way and giveth him free scope and more opportunities and advantages for it and to improve those favours for the advancement of his glory that gave them But the particular thing that is especially exprest here though that be intimated too and it is noted as a character here of a wicked spirit that they will do wickedly in the land of uprightness that is in the land where God dealeth very gently and gratiously and uprightly with them every way and squarely that they can no way complain it is a wicked spirit that doth so But that which is specially meant here in the way of thy judgments will we wait for thee is that Gods servants will not only not start if their temper be right from God when he smiles upon them but they will love him when he frowneth they will even then stoop and kiss the rodd they will then obey him Gods children will acknowledg him to be their Father and Lord and submit to him even when he is angry Here is a vast difference between the godly and the wicked as I shall a little touch by and by As the Father speaks even to this very purpose when sweet oyntment is chased it smells the more sweet it delivereth the persume the more excellent but in a dunghill in a filthy place stir it and the more you stir the more it stinks Wicked spirits when God doth but chafe them manifest the filth and corruption that is within them as a man may know money as he saith when it falleth down whether it be silver or brass it will then betray it self so here their language their speech will betray them then and declare what they are The divel thought that Job had been of such a temper that he would have curst God to his face if he would lay his hand upon him and touch him but it was far otherwise because he was of a better mettal and stamp therefore he blessed God in the middest of judgment as he had done formerly in the middest of his mercies And this is that a Christian should do labour to be fruitful in thankfulness and chearfulness of spirit when God sheweth favour and giveâ—… any ease and mercy to him and labour likewise to be faithful and constant to him even when his judgments are a broad But there be divers particulars in that I will but meerly mentich them There be these sour things as so many sleps and degrees of the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment whether they be impendant or incombent whether they be publick or private that concern the Church or particular persons First of all the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment if he be of a right temper is Perseverance to hold out not to be beaten off for a little storm or shock but to keep on his pace to keep on his way Travellers that go to sea meerly to be sick a little or in sport if there arise but a black cloud they presently give over their voyage is at an end they come not to venture shocks and storms and danger they come for pleasure but the Merchant that is bound upon a voyage
up in Armes against this materiall world and to rend himself from this faecaelent matter and out of the greatness of his Spirit and nobleness of his disposition to be altogether ambitious of the presence of God and of these constant and unchangeable good things This is the duty of Christians and are not they Strangers Are not they strangers that have double Impost and double customes and the greatest taxations laid upon them is not this peculiar unto the Saints in this life have they not afflictions laid upon them in the greatest measure must they not through many afflictions enter into the kingdome of heaven Have they not tears and that in abundance for their meat and for their drink Have they not enemies from within and enemies from without Must they not be conformable to their head Christ their elder brother as he had his double portion in this life of afflictions and punishments so must they have as he was sanctified by afflictions so must they also The gold is not pure unless it be tryed nor the water sweet if it have not a currant nor the vessel bright unless it be scoured nor the Saints fit for heaven unless they be prepared by afflictions what man was there that ever set himself seriously either to reform himself or others that found not great opposition from himself and from others and are not these strangers Are not they strangers that are ad placitum Principis to stay in the Land or to be gone according as he shall manifest his royall pleasure by his Proclamation and are not we here in the world upon these termes how soon all of us or any of us shall be dismissed who knows who dares promise to himself the late evening or secure himself of the least atome or moment of time he that dreamed waking of long continuance had scarce liberty to dream sleeping for that night they took away his soul and he himself was branded to succeeding generations with the name of a fool and are not we strangers Did not the Saints of God whose judgements were most refined those that had the honour to approach most near unto God himself alwayes so repute themselves Doth not the holy Patriarch that wrestled with God and hath principality over him Did not he acknowledge that few and evil were the dayes of his pilgrimage Did not he that was a man after Gods own heart that had a special promise that his house should continue for ever Yet did not he acknowledg that he was a stranger as well as his fathers were is it not his earnest prayer unto God I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy Commandements from me as if he had said I am a Traveller upon earth I am speeding to Jerusalem which is above I am to passe through this dark calignous world thy Word is a light to my feet a lanthorn to my steps the rule the square the cannon of all rectitude hide not this light from me lest I run out of the way or linger in the way or stumble or fall in the way I am a stranger upon earth c. What should I instance in particulars are they not summed up to my hand by the Apostle Heb. 11.13 All these Patriarks Prophets Saints all of them did acknowledg themselves to be strangers Examples have in them an universality of Doctrine and instruction especially the examples of the Saints because Praxis Sanctorum is Interpres pracceptorum the practice of the Saints is the best interpretation of the precept Examples have in them a directive force because those that are best disposed in mind and body are a rule for the rest Examples have an incentive force to give life spirits vigour transmitting by a kind of Metem Psychosis the soul the spirits the resolutions the affections of the pattern to him that reads it extorting deep sighs and tears and groans and other alterations at their pleasure And if any Examples have this force have not these much more Other examples have the testimony of men these have the testimony of God himself he is not ashamed a wonderful condiscention of the one and the supream elevation of the other to be called their God the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the Father of the faithful and the God of the beleevers There are examples whereof men boast but God is ashamed of them corrupt examples of wicked the imperfect examples of heathen men of these God is ashamed but of these God is not shamed and shall we be ashamed of them We are then strangers Let me instill into your ears the voyce of that was heard in the Temple before the ruin of it Migremus hinc Let us go from hence Let me say unto you with our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go from hence let us truss up our fardels and on with our sandals and promote our way to heaven Let us depose and lay down all burthens and impediments and make our selves expedite and fit for our journey we are in an Inne let us look about us and leave nothing behind but carry all with us or send it before us we have but an instant of our abode here let us imploy it to the best advantage It is the greatest loss it is the most shameful loss it is the most irrecoverable loss that may be to lose this instant upon which eternity depends eternity of misery or eternity of felicity let us follow our Saviour let us seek his face let us ascend with him let us not rest here Sleep may overtake us a false Prophet may deceive us the snare may intangle us the Armie of the enemy may fall upon us let us be above all these Let us seek those things that are above What where Sun and Moon are nothing less Where then where God is where Christ who is our house our temple our habitation that we may be cloathed with him this is the desire of all the Saints and this leads me to the second point That the Saints desire a true and proper house In this we groan earnestly c. What is meant by this house whether the Joyes of heaven or a Glorisied body is hard to determine by the context I incline to Calvins opinion that both are meant as making up that compleat house which the Saints desire the one as the introition the other as the consummation of their bliss and into both these houses I shall labour to introduce your spirits and affections The first house is the Joyes of heaven a kingdome else-where for the amplitude for the abundant sufficiency for the honour royalty of them yet because many in kingdomes see not the face of the King and of those that see his face few are of his house and family and of those that are of his Court few are familiar with him or converse with him and of those that converse with him few are his sons his heirs Therefore this kingdome is an house wherein all
see the face of God all are of his house all converse with him all stand in his presence all are his sons all are his heirs a house so scituated as never any upon the brow of that hill which is the beauty of perfection the delight not of the whole earth but of heaven it self in the purest ayre that ever was even purity it self free from all malignant vapour a place irriguous with the chrystal streams of Paradise it self a place inriched with all the precious things the heart of man can desire an house not built by man but by God himself not of terrestrial feculent matter not of gold or silver but that which excells all valuation whatsoever the hanging or or naments of which house are not of Arras or Tissue or cloth of Gold or whatsoever is more precious with men but far above these such and so excellent that Neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard neither hath the like entered into the hearts of men The delights of this house are such that if all the contentments and delights that ever ravished the hearts of men in their private houses were put together yet were they but as a candle to the Sun as a drop to the Ocean Oh the stateliness and magnificence of the Hall of this house wherein are Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Saints Angels the blessed Virgin especially all of them praising and lauding God! Blessed are they that dwell in this house they will be still praising thee Here in this life are variety of imployments according to the diversity of mens Callings and their necessities but there shall be no necessity there shall be but one work the work of Praise a duty which in this life is performed with fatigation and weariness but their it shall be done with all sweetness and delight increasing with the continuance of the same No vain thoughts to interrupt this duty no weariness of the flesh to weaken this duty no necessity or indigency to rend us from this duty but as it will be our happiness to love and see God so it will be the exercise of our happiness to admire and to laud God while we are here such is the weakness of our apprehension that we cannot with the same act conceive the work and the workman we cannot think of the benefit and the author of the same then we shall be enabled to joyn both these together so to admire the work as at the same time to praise the author so to contemplate the benefit as at the same time to fall down before the benefactor Oh the stateliness of this presence where the face of God the beauty of God the Majesty of God is seen in so glorious a manner that even Angels and Archangels cover their faces not being able to behold stedfastly the great lustre of the same Oh the loveliness of the chambers of the King made for the soul to repose her self in all spiritual delight after her labour and travel in this miserable world oh the beauty of the Mansions of this house prepared by Christ himself for the soul to refresh her self with all spiritual food and oh the variety and excellency of the food of this house the understanding shall have his food morning and evening knowledg a clear view of all things not in themselves or in their causes but in their exact Idea's subsisting in the essence of God but especially the radiant vision of the face of God the Essence of God the Sun of righteousness The will shall have her food goodness joy delectation not by measure but drowned in the full ocean of these with that stability and confirmation that she cannot will that which is evil The affectiens shall have their food being fully satisfied beyond their desires The Body shall have his food being made an impassible clarified Agil spiritual body defecated and purified from this feculent elementary food and all other alterations common to it with beasts and which is most wonderful the King of Kings shall gird himself to reach out these Joyes unto us they shall be administred unto us Ve jad Hammelek by the hand by the power of a King Did I say this of my self who would give credence unto me but Truth faith it Luke 12.37 Blessed are those servants whom he shall find watching verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them Oh wonderful dignation who ever heatd of the like Stat Cato dum Lixa bibit the Lord stands the servant sits the Lord is girt the servant is loosed the Master is reaching out full bowels and the servant is inebriated with the rivers of these pleasures once he girt himself to wash his Disciples feet and the servant was astonished to see so great a Majestie condescending to so mean ministery shall we not be much more ravished with this ineffable dignation when he shall again gird himself to supply the soul with unspeakeable delight as if God himself intended nothing in heaven but to heap content upon them that sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven This is the fatness the excellency of this house with the weak adumbration whereof I doubt not but that your hearts are so taken that ye have reduced all your desires to this one with the Psalmist One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will desire even that I may dwell in his house and behold the beauty of the Lord. And I wonder not when I contemplate the Mafesty of God I wish my self all fear and when I consider the power of God I wish my self all humility and when I meditate on the goodness of God I wish my self all Love and when I contemplate the Beauty of God and of this bouse I wish my self all desire and so do you also and therefore with unanimous votes you request me to conduct you to the gates of this house whereby you may enter into the same and according to the magnificence of this House so there are many gates whereby we may enter and all of these reaching even to the Earth with the foot of Jacobs ladder There is the gate of Faith by it we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access unto God and that with boldness by this we lay hold on the Throne of Grace by this we prostrate our selves at his feet by this we adhaere and cleave close unto God by this we live in Christ and Christ in us by this our hearts are purified our conscience washed with the bloud of Christ and fitted to see God and to enter into the holy of holies unto which no unclean thing can be admitted This is one Gate Another is the gate of Hope which entreth within the Vail and bringeth us neerer unto God this grace taketh us by the hand and leadeth us through the streets of New Jerusalem and sheweth us the Temple of the Lamb and the Lamb sitting in his
that that not only declares its own excellency but the unrighteousness and obliquity of the contrary therefore Christ shall proceed by the Law because that shall most clear his proceedings For all the world will grant that that is a righteous rule Therefore Micah 6.8 when the Prophet would deal with men that were unrighteous that would walk wilfully and rebelliously against God and then serve him with outward performances wherewith shall I come before the Lord and how before the high God he hath shewed thee O man what is good that is to do justly and to walk humbly with thy God So that now look what rule it is that shews what is good that is the rule whereby the righteous Judge will proceed in judgement Now the Law shewes what is good he hath shewed in his Law what is good therefore he gives a brief sum of the Law there to walk humbly with God that is the substance of the first Table of the Law and to do justice that is the substance of the second Table of the Law therefore saith he he hath shewed thee what is good this is a righteous rule that discerns between good and evil Look what that is that in the directions of life discerns between good and evil that also in the proceeding of the Judge will clear his justice either in rewarding the good or in punishing the evil therefore Christ must needs proceed according to his own Law in judgement Thus the point is opened Now a word or two for application Is it so that Christ will proceed in judgement by his own Law then it serves in the first place for the just reproof of those that neglect the Law that neglect this direction that Christ gives them Alaâ—… is it a small matter thus to slight the Law of God the Word of God why you shall be judged by this God shall judge the secrets of all men saith the Apostle in that day according to my Gospel Rom. 2.16 not only that look what he hath spoken of the judgement shall prove true but that in the judgement there shall be a proceeding proportionable and agreeable to what he hath spoken in that word that he calls his Gospel Therefore take heed how you slight this Word it is a dangerous thing Saith Solomon Pro 13.13 he that despiseth the cammandement shall perish He that despiseth the commandement when God hath revealed his will in matter of duty for the direction of life for that he calls the Commandement there now if a man come to despise this he shall certainly perish saith Solomon When doth a man despise the commandement You know to despise is when a man accounts a thing of no force that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despise not Prophesying The word is account it not a thing of nothing account it not a slight matter Now you know a man accounts a thing as a thing of nothing when he undervalues it when he gives it less acknowledgement then it is worthy of As if a man come to buy a Jewel or a Pearl in the Market and offer a sleight and small matter for it he had as good bid nothing the undervaluing of a commodity is as the accounting of it worth nothing In spiritual things when a man accounts the Law of God below it self that is when he makes it not the chief direction of his life then he accounts it as a thing of nothing and despiseth the Law For either the Law is somewhat by Gods appointment or not at all if it be somewhat by Gods appointment then it must have that place that God hath appointed it or else we give it not any esteem according to the appointment of God but according to our own Fancy I say if we give the Law esteem according to Gods appointment and by vertue of his Word then we will give it the esteem that God hath put upon it that is that it shall rule us in all our actions and that it shall be our supream rule and guide that a man shall account nothing else as the sufficient direction of his life but the Law Now when men come to this that they will prefer their own opinions before the Law when they will prefer the opinion of other men before the Text of Scripture when they prefer the customes of the world before the rule of the Word This is now to despise the Law to make it as a thing of nothing As you see it plain it is ordinary in Scripture thus to tax men as when they would account the traditions of men above the word In vain they worship me saith God they become vanity themselves for accounting the Law vain So when they preferred the customes of their fore-fathers equal with the Law they despised the Law this mixture this joyning of other things with it it is that that the Scripture calls the despising of the Law Therefore it is a dangerous thing to despise the Law is it not dangerous to despise the Judge the Law shall be your Judge that is the rule whereby the Judge shall proceed You know it is the aggravation of the fault of a Malefactor that he not only transgresseth and sinneth against the Laws of the Kingdome but that he hath despised the Law if he have been heard to speak any speeches to the contempt of the Law this is a great aggravation of his sin how much more shall it be in the day of the Lord Mens Lawes are imperfect and therefore are revoked many times and repealed and reversed but this Law of God is a perfect Law and therefore it shall never be reversed it shall never be revoked nor altred Now for a man to sleight and neglect this in any point or degree it is a high contempt against God himself That as a man might say of the Jews when Christ came amongst them he offered himselfe to be their King but being they would not take him for their King who if they had taken him so would have been their Saviour therefore the time shal come that he will be their Judge and not their Saviour So I say concerning the Law the Law now published in the preaching of the Word those that will not now take it to be their counsellor shall find it then to be their condemner If this be a harsh saying as they speak of the command of Christ Joh. 6. This is a hard saying who can bear it If the Commandment of Christ concerning obedience seem harsh then how harsh a saying shall that be depart ye cursed into everlasting fire If it be so hard a thing to stand to the command of the Law how hard a thing will it be to stand under the penalty and censure of the Law Therefore I say let men take heed they shall find that even that very faith commanded that they have slighted it shall prove heavy they sleighted it in obedience it shall prove heavy in the judgement and punishment Secondly it may
it from him O death void of mercy and respect of persons that she should die it was some grief to him but that she dyed in travel that did most trouble him and increase his grief And well might he stile their son Benony the son of sorrow for it was indeed a sorrow to them all to her to him to their issue to their friends and acquaintance to their servants to all that knew them or had any relation to them But Jacob will not exceed the bounds of Christianity he was at the last comforted he refers himself his children his infinite and almost insupportable loss to God Almighties pleasure from him she was received and to him he is content again to return all The mourning and lamenting that he made on her behalf it could not recal her again all the tears he could shed for her were of no force or power at all to make her alive too much sorrow might happily indanger his own life and then he should highly offend against Almighty God Patience and Christian fortitude were the only remedies left him and these he resolves on Let us learn hence as long as the world lasts to know that worldly comforts whatsoever they be and howsoever we may esteem of them they are subject to change Love with unfeignedness what may be so loved but take heed you love not too much for fear the taking of that away from you that was so dearly loved of you make you fall into impatience and sin against God Let us so love that we may think of loss if it stand with Gods pleasure but yet let us so love that we esteem it no loss if he please Let his good will and pleasure ever-more moderate our affections so happily we shall enjoy the thing beloved a great deal longer But if we exceed in lamenting were we as just and righteous as Jacob God will be angry with us for it Not only thy dearest Wife but thy dearest Child thy dearest friend whatsoever is most dear to thee shall then feel the stroak of mortality that the heart may be taught to wish for eternity crying heavily and sighing with a mournful voyce with those words of the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is but vanity There is a threefold punishment inflicted upon all women kind in answer to the three sins committed by our Granmother Eve First because she gave too much credit to the words of the Serpent telling her that both Adam and she should be as Gods knowing good and evil therefore it was pronounced presently upon her that her sorrows and conceptions should be multiplied Secondly because against the express command of Almighty God she did eat the forbidden fruit therefore it was pronounced against her that in sorrow she should bring forth Children every time her hour was at hand she should hardly escape death I need not enlarge my self you all know it to be too true nay sometimes and that oft-times too it costs your lives an example we have here in the Text in Rachel and in our deceased Sister here before us and many others Thirdly and lastly because she was a seducer of her Husband therefore for a punishment all your desires ought to be subject to your Husbands and by the warrant of the Scripture they must rule over you Death is a debt to nature and must be payed there is no avoyding of it no putting it off when GOD thinks it fit it is infallible to all in respect of the matter and end though in respect of the time and manner many times it be divers Some die when they are young some in the middle of their age and some live till they be very old That for the time Some die of Convulsions some of Dropsies some of Feavers and to be short some in Child-bed as Rachel here did and our departed sister But of what desease soever they die that is nothing die they must sooner or later of this infirmity or that it is no matter which when it pleaseth God Let a man make what shew he can with all his glorious adornations Let him have rich apparel and disguised linnen and searcloth and balm and spices let him be inwrapped in lead and let stone immure him when he is dead yet the earth his original Mother will again own him for her natural Child and triumph over him with these or the like insultings he is in my bowels returned to his earth This body returns not immediatly to heaven but to the earth nor to the earth neither as a stranger and altogether unknown to him but to his earth appropriate to him as his own his familiar friend and old acquaintance To conclude we are sinful and therefore we must die we are full of evil and therefore we must go to the grave we have sins enough to bring us all thither God grant they be not so violent and full of ominous precipitations that they portend our sudden ruin portend it they do but O nullam sit in omnia c. I am loath to be redious He should not be redious that reads a lecture of mortality How many in the world since this Sermon first began have made an experimeut and proof of this truth of this sentence that man is mortal and those spectacles are but examples of this truth they come to their period before my speech My speech my self and all that hear me all that breath in this ayr must follow It hath been said we live to die give me leave a little to invert it let us live to live live the life of grace that we may live the life of glory and then though we do die let us never fear it we shall rise from the dead again and live with our God out of the reach of the dead for ever and ever So much for the Text at this time To declare unto you the cause of this present assembly would be altogether superfluous the dumb oratory of that silent object doth give you to understand in a language sufficiently intelligible that we are now met to perform the last rites and duty that we owe to the memory of our dear sister here before us And Christian charity hath been so powerful in all ages that it hath been retained as a pious and laudable custome at Funeral solemnities to adorn the dead with the deserved praises of their life not for any pomp or vain-glorious ostentation but that Gods glory here may be for ever magnified by whose grace they have been enabled to fight a good fight and that the surviving may be encouraged to run the same course when they behold them discharged of this tedious combat and crowned with a crown of glory and immortality This Sister of ours was born in this parish and hath lived in it some thirty four years or there-about eighteen years a single woman and sixteen years a married Wife of whom though upon my own knowledge I can speak but little yet having credible information from
die to see thee who would not die for the present to dwell ever where his hope is If in this life we had only hope then were we of all men the most miserable but our hope is not onely in this life of the things of this life therefore we are not of all men most miserable no not miserable at all I have done with my Text You see the occasion of our present meeting to Inter this little Child in Christian burial the last service and duty we owe to deceased Saints I cannot and I know you expect not that I should say any thing of it It is a Child of the Covenant sealed in the Covenant died in the Covenant resteth according to the Covenant with the God of the Covenant of whom I doubt no more of a happy rest with Christ the mediatour of the Covenant then I do of the Covenant that Christ hath sealed and so I leave it in that rest and return our selves to our own duty and service to call upon God for a blessing THE PLATFORM OF CHARITY OR THE LIBERAL MANS GUIDE SERMON XXXIX GAL. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all especially to them who are of the houshold of Faith IN the sixt verse of this Chapter the Apostle begins to perswade these Galatians to whom he wrote to Beneficence and having in the ninth verse the verse before the Text given them great incouragement in this course Be not weary saith he of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not The words I have now read to you are an inference upon that which went before seeing if we hold out we shall reap in due time then saith the Apostle As we have opportunity let us do good to all c. To speak something for the opening of the words and then to observe the main things the Apostle intends in this place As we have opportunity Cairos signifieth more than time As we have time so the old Translation reads it but the word signifieth more there is a Chronos and a Cairos a time and an opportunity of time There is a time taken in the largest sence there is an opportunity of time restrained to those advantages of times that a man by wisdome may make unto himself for the performing of any duty that God 〈◊〉 of him This must be understood with a reference to what was spoken of before We shall reape if we faint not He shewes there is a time of sowing and a time of reaping and so in Eccles 3. There is a time for all things there is a time to sow and a time to reap Now while the sowing time lasts for that is the opportunity that he now speaks of while the time of sowing lasts let us embrace those times and opportunites for the doing of good Let us as we have opportunity do good to all Do good is of a large extent it is of as large an extent as the law All is good that is agreeable to Gods will revealed Be renewed in the spirit of your minds that you may know what the good and acceptable will of God is But in this place it is restrained to some particular acts of Beneficence towards men towards the servants of God which are theâ—… said to be good deeds and good acts when there is a concurrence between the action and the affection with conformity to the Rule First theâ—… must be actions It is not speaking good nor meaning good only but it is doing good Saith the Apostle If a brother be naked or hungry or cold and you say to him go in peace warm thee but you give him no fire and go and cloath thee but you give him no apparel and go and feed thee but you give him no meat Here are good words now but the deeds are not answerable here are no good deeds at all Solomon compares such complemental charity that is only vernal and in outward expression to Cloudes and winds without rain Not much unlike the boxes of Apothecaries that are adorned with glorious titles without but open them and examin their in-sides you shall find nothing but emptiness Well that is the first thing there must be good actions Again secondly these must have a good rise they must proceed from a good affection too 〈◊〉 else they lose the name of good actions Make the tree good and the fruit shall be of the same condition the actions are not good if the affections be naught and therefore the same God that requires beneficence he commands benevolence also and would have men become tender-hearted and put on the bowels of compassion that they should Sympathize with others and be like affectioned to them to mourn with those that mourn and to be with those that are bound as being bound with them This is that which our Saviour called being merciful Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful He saith not only do works of mercy but be merciful do them from a merciful heart from bowels of compassion that yearn towards those that are in necessity That is the second thing But then thirdly these actions and these affections whence they rise they must hold conformitiy with the Law There is no good but what is conformable to the rule of goodness that is the written word of God and therefore all those will worships and idle ceremonies made according to the inventions of man as a thousand devicies in Popery wherein they intimate a show of great Liberality they are not good deeds because they want that good rule that should uphold and make them so So much shall serve for the opening of it Good deeds then are such actions as rise from a sanctified affection and receive ground and warrant from Gods will revealed in his Word to men Again there is a third term yet Do good to all men What doth the Apostle mean that every man should receive the fruits of our Beneficence There are some men notorionsly wicked and rather to be punished than relieved The Apostle means not such for he giveth you a Caution If any man worke not let him not eate Relieve him not that hath ability to get and will live idly and unprofitably But do good to all men that is to all men so far as you see them in extream want unable to help themselves if their lawful necessities call upon your charity in this respect all men must be looked unto but especially To the houshold of Faith By houshold of faith here he means the multitude of beleevers and not only those that dwell near us and about us but those that are deispersed throughout the whole earth the Churches of God The dispersion spoken of through all the parts of the world are this houshold of faith all the Saints of God in what difference or distance soever one from another yet they are of the same houshold together of the same Church of God
So the Church of God is called the house of God and sometime it is understood of the Church militant and sometime of the Church triumphant Of the Church triumphant In my Fathers house are many mansions There it is heaven the place of the blessed Then for the Church militant Moses was faithful in all his house faith the Text. And Paul exhorts Timothy how he should carry himself in the house of God that is in the Church militant As for those that live above us they need not our good works and actions therefore it is intended of those that are here in the Church militant that is called Gods houshold because there is such a communion amongst beleevers as amongst those that live in the same house that abide under the same roof that live under the same government that eat at the same Table c. So then you have the meaning of all which is no more but this Take those advantages of times which you can obtain or else many will slip unprofitably to be conversant in such actions of mercy which tend to the relief of those that want them If there be extream necessity do good to all but if you may make choyce of persons to whom you may do good choose the houshold of faith Thus you have the substance and the meaning of the words In them you may observe briefly these three parts The first is a determination or limitation of time to which the Saints are tied in the performance of the duties that are in joyned them as you have opportunity and while you have time Secondly there is a declaration of duty do good Thirdly there is a description of the persons to whom this good must be done first more generally Do good to all and then more particularly and with an especial note Especially to those of the houshold of Faith Of these in order First for the determination of time to take the words as they lie while you have time therefore or as you have opportunity the words themselves do render the main point It is the duty of Christians to take their advantages of times to take the best opportunities of their life to do good I will speak somewhat by way of Explication of the point and something by way of Application and so proceed to what follows First for the Explication what is intended or meant in it when we incite you to embrace times and opportunities Briefly these two things are meant in it First that you should be sure not to lose the time of life And Secondly that you should not forego the advantages and opportunities of estates You shall not alwayes have life to do good and it may be if you have life you shall not alwayes enjoy means and ability to do good While you have life therefore and time do good or while you enjoy means and so power to do good embrace these opportunites That is the meaning of the Apostle in this place First then there must be a doing good while you have life let your good works go before you do things while you live and defer not the performance of them till your death Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when you want they may receive you into everlasting habitations He calls that unrighteous Mammon not that it is unrighteously gotten only though that may be meant but that which is unrighteously kept is unrighteous Mammon to you if you procured it never so justly unless you do rightly dispose of it and if you be desirous to do right in disposing of your Mammon of your wealth do it now That when you want that power and those times you may enjoy the comfortable fruit of the well-redeeming of the time of your life to receive you into everlasting habitations In the 25. verse of the 16. Luke it is the challenge of Abraham to Dives Son remember that thou in thy life-time haddest thy goods for so the word signifieth thou haddest thy opportunities of life and of goods too but now thou hast neither life nor goods left thee to do good with and therefore he is blessed and thou art tormented It was the folly of those five Virgins they took not the opportunity of life for that is the thing meant there but they posted over all to the last and hoped that all might be effected in a trice or miniute of their life which would have held them employment enough all the dayes of their lives And therefore they came short of heaven the gates were shut against them as you see when the Bridegroom came If any man imagine because it is said Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them That therefore it matters not so long as a man doth good at his death though he have neglected the wayes of goodness all his life Let them know that by works there is not meant the actions of men but the fruits of their actions Their works follow them not the works they have deferred untill death but the fruits of those works they did while they were living and received not the benefit of them untill death Their works follow them that is the fruits of their works It is more good and pleasant by far to have the actions go before and the fruits and comfortable effects to succeed and follow after But if any man yet suppose that he may make that up in his Will which he hath neglected all his life long and though he have lived miserably covetously and unprofitably all the dayes of his life yet his thoughts may tell him that by the Charitable Requests of his last Testament as bequeathing largely to the Church and Common-wealth and to all sorts of people be may at the last make fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former duties Let no man deceive himself with such a bad resolution for first it argues a sign of infidelity that a man will not trust God for fear he should want in his life-time what is the reason else that he defers the doing good in health unless it be for fear of wanting himself such distrust he hath in the providence of God Besides the same God which bids thee do good when thou hast opportunity and while thou enjoyest the advantage of life he expects it now And it may be truly said of many that neglect those times of doing good while they lived and have now supplyed that defect in their death by the large benevolence of their Wills Their will is good but their deed is naught So much for the first point I proceed unto the second that is thou must not only take the time of thy life but also the opportunity of thy means and thy estate while there is yet a price in thine hand while thou hast opportunity and enjoyest wealth to do good with redeem the advantages and opportunities by employing them in
rendring unto him his due That is the first Vse Secondly let it stir up every one of us to a care of his duty of embracing opportunities And when we perswade you to take opportunities we would draw you a degree higher not only to take them but to seek them for how shall a man obtain the advantage of taking opportunities if he first seek them not and therefore we perswade you to that We see Abraham sitting in the door of his Tent that he might observe opportunities of doing good he stayed not till the men knocked at his door for reliefe but took notice of their passing by that he might call them We see a good old man in Judges 19. As he perceives a stranger passing the streets first takes occasion to question his wants and forbears not till the man complain so willing was he to administer to his necessities and to embrace a fit opportunity of doing him good We see David expressing his thankfulness to God and to Jonathan He enquires if there were any of the house of Saul that he might shew him kindness for Jonathans sake So should we do Is there any of the houshold of Faith as the Text faith and as the Scripture calls them unto whom I may shew kindness for the Lords sake He hath been better to us then Jonathan was to David and yet we are much more backward to Retribution and expressions of thankfulness then David was to Jonathan But the Scriptures are plentiful in this we need not stand on it I say this is a duty that every one should discharge this task not to stay and forbear till the reports of mens wants are brought to them but to be circumspect and seek for all accasions that may deserve the extent of their goodness If you live in a Parish wherein happily there remains not many poor yet you live in a City there are many there if there be not many in the City you live in a Country in a Kingdom doubtless where there are many if there be none there yet thou hast further means to extend thy charity Thou livest in a Church is there any member of the Church in all the World dispersed in Bohemia in the Palatinate in any place of the earth where the poor abide enquire after them that you may know their wants and relieve their necessities I come now to the second from the determination of time to the declaration of duty while we have time Let us do good I told you what this goodness is in the intent of the Apostle in this place Doing good is a releeving those that are in necessity for that is the Apostles meaning as we may see in the context and coherence of these words with the former So then the main Point is no more but this It is the duty of Gods servants as to make advantage of their times so to employ themselves in releeving of others Take it more briesly It is a doing good to releeve others that is the duty of Gods servants and it well becomes them to be employed in this work while we have time on earth and means to do it to employ our selves in doing good and relieving others And there is familiar appearance of this in Scripture and by reasons also By Scripture it is commanded in precept and commended in practise of the Saints If any of thy brethren among thee be poor faith God thou shalt not harden thy heart thou shalt not shut up thy hand against thy poor brother The not opening of the hands to relieve him God accounts that as proceeding from the hardness of the heart Thou shalt not harden thy heart against thy brother c. Cast thy bread upon the Waters for after many dayes thou shalt find it Is not this the fast that I have chosen for a man to give his bread to the hungry and that a man should release those that are in Captivity and to let the oppressed go free The Apostle wisheth that as they abounded in knowledge and in vertue and in faith and goodness so they might abound also in this Grace of God The Grace of God that he there speaks of is the willing readiness to the doing of good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased You see thereby doing good he means distribution the latter word doth prove the former and both explain this Text. You have it likewise commended in the practice of the Saints I need not be large in discoursing to you the carriage of Abraham of Lot of David of Job the practice of Cornelius yea of Christ himselfe The Scripture is plentiful in this I and that which is more to be observed that although Christ himselfe were relieved by others yet out of that he gave a share to the poor It wil appear likewise in reason that this is a necessary duty and these may be taken First from the equity of it for it is equal you should thus employ your time and estate and those advantages of life which God hath made you doner of partly to that purpose and a man commits an injury in neglecting these holy duties and is not only become an unmerciful but an unjust man and so in the plainest phrase a dishonest man he is not just that doth not thus Therefore with-hold not the good from the owner thereof faith God when it is in thy power to give The poor is owner of the estate of the rich so farr as his necessity requires it and it proves but a matter of justice and equity to bestow his riches where it ought to be bestowed and a man is unjust in that respect if he do it not Riches are called unrighteous mammon as hath been expressed before when they are unrighteously with-held from them to whom they should be given as well as when they are unrighteously gotten So that detaining it from those unto whom it is appointed by Gods direction converts that riches perchance honestly procured into the mammon of unrighteousness Secondly as it becomes a matter of justice so it proves likewise a matter of wisedome a man makes wise provision for the present and the future also by this course And therefore it makes way for the felicity of the servants of God to employ their endeavours in the execution of this duty and to lay fast hold on the forehead of opportunity First it proves a consequent of wisedome for themselves in procuring their own good Blessed is the man that judgeth wisely of the poor why so The Lord will consider him in the day of evil and he will not give him over to the will of his enemies What is the thing that a man is most subject to fear in this World but that which David faith concerning Saul I shal fall sometime or other by the hands of some enemy of some mischievous person or malicious person or other You
see the Lord hath here promised a large assurance of safety and protection from the malice of his adversaries in the day of evil if he wisely consider the poor Again it makes much for the good of his posterity The good man is merciful c. and his seed inherits the blessing It may be he perceives not such sensible and apparant fruits or outward success in his own life upon this course yet his seed inherits the blessing and the less he enjoyes the more shall they receive of Gods goodness towards them as a recompence for his benevolent kindness towards the people of God And what greater legacy can man bestow upon his posterity then to leave them by his particular means in the loving favour of the Almighty And as it is so for the present so it becomes a course of wisedome for the future also Charge the rich men of the World that they be ready to do good c. laying up a good foundation for the time to come And by this means a man may provide well for eternity Make you friends faith Christ of your unrighteous Mammon that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations The way for a man to provide for eternal good is to use his talent of wealth and estate for the present to the good of many Thus we see the Reasons plainly verified to make use of it briefly and hasten to that which remains Is it so then that it is writ down to be the duty of Gods servants to mannage the opportunities of this life for this end and in this course of doing good that is of distribution and reliefe Then it serves to reprove those that neglect this duty and account it not a business of their life only they conceive of it as a matter of praise and commendations a thing that they do well in performing and not very ill in omitting They conceive it to be of no absolute necessity but voluntary charity as a matter arbitrary but not as a duty necessary and for this cause they appear but slack and indifferent they conceive this as a duty to lay up wealth but never remember the necessity of laying out wealth to be commanded for a greater duty then the former they take it for their duty to get all they can but forget the following precept to do all the good with that they get as they can And here is the reason why there are such lavish expences bestowed upon every vanity that the portion of the poor and such as ought to be relieved with our estates in point of equity and by vertue of Gods Commandment is swallowed up by every vanity It is spent in excessive apparel for the satisfaction of the vain fashion-monger in superfluity of dyet for the Glutton and the Epicure in Haukes and Hounds and Dogs to please the humour of the voluptuous person it is consumed in raising up vain and unnecessary Buildings by earth-worms that make their habitations below and lay a foundation for themselves on earth neglecting that goodly building given of God to the re-edisying of their souls in the kingdome of Grace And thus is the portion of the poor consumed and themselves for want of the same exposed to all the misery that this World can inflict Some cry they cannot do it we have not an estate to undergo it in the mean time they run to excesse of Riot and make such voluptuous and superfluous feasts that the Phenix hardly escapes the bounds of their desires If you can be thus excessive in your dyet in your apparel in your sports if you can cast away in presents and in gifts in bribes and in gratuities superfluously upon rich friends there must of necessity be a defect in your will to the command of God when you neglect the miserable condition of the poor and lend no hand to help them What is the reason of it but because of the natural rebellion and Athisme that is in the heart of every man against God that they will employ their estates any way rather then bestow them to that purpose for which they are appointed by God Oh what account shall such be able to make at the day of Judgment do but suppose when the Books shall come to be opened wherein the particulars Diaries and passages of your life shall be thus examined Item so much for a feast Item on such a day for such another great feast and many a hundred dayes for as many hundred feasts wherein hundreds of the servants of God have endured extream want and inforced into banishment into other places to persecution to misery and distress when thou couldest not find one of them in a corner of thy purse Item so much for such apparel for such entertainment for such building of Walks and Galleries What nothing for the servants of God are they so empty when your houses appear so full live they so poor and you so richly glad what can you spare nothing for Christ and the distressed members of the Church all this while Oh my beloved remember what James faith Go to now you rich men weep and howl for your garments are Moth eaten whereon you have bestowed so much cost and your gold and silver is rusty and canker'd and the rest of them shall eate up your flesh as it were fire at that day Let it teach therefore the servants of God to bestow their Almes most willingly to be free and in continual readiness in extending their contribution towards the necessities of those that want them and not only so but to do good in so doing for that is the principal duty unto which the Text doth invite you While you have opportunity do good But how shall a man in such actions of mercy and bounty and liberality make it appear that he doth good Therefore briefly take some helps in this A man that will contribute out of his estate to releeve others and intends to do good First he must do what he doth justly he must not out of mercy extended to one injure another but must alwayes level his charity by his own ability And this is that which the holy Ghost calls the giving of a mans own Cast thy bread upon the waters thy own bread not another mans To give that which is a mans own by right by lawful procuring his own by right of possession the gifts bestowed out of that makes acceptation before God and provides a double recompence for the giver You see how Zachens gives If I have wronged any man I will restore it and half my goods I give to the poor That is I will first make restitution of what I have unjustly gotten and then of the remainder I will give half to the poor It is no giving for a man to employ all his life-time in the procurement of unjust gain By Usury deceit in trading and other indirect and forbidden courses to heap up abundance of red
to duties and incouragements by promise were likewise inserted therein that I am perswaded I cannot do better then to commend this duty to the practice of all the servants of God that when they come to peruse the Scriptures they would furnish themselves with pen and inke and then upon all occasions they may be noting down somewhat for their own advantage that they may have a manual or little book of observations for their guide and direction in the course of their lives She was a hearty hater of sin and of all evil and the appearance thereof being careful to do good so far as she was convinced in any thing to her revealed and willing to receive instructions and to be informed in those things that were not revealed Those that knew her may well witness with me that she never neglected the smallest occasion conducing to the improvement of her soul in the wayes of goodness But for the second the main intent of this Text and the reason for which I took it in this particular duty I may resolve you as it is said of the vertuous woman and may speak truly in the simplicity of an honest heart Many daughters have done excellently but thou surmountest them all I never knew any woman in my life more active and ready to do the works of charity according as opportunity and her ability made way for the same Not only of her own wherein she took her Husbands consent with her But where she prov'd unable of her self to supply the necessities of others her labours and endeavours to incite and stir up others made full satisfaction in the room of her benevolence and she became an industrious Christian in that kind That I have observed herein she was ever large and boundless sowing her seed in the morning and her hands ceased not in the evening she gave a portion to seaven and also to eight and as any came in her way that were in extream necessity she became a present helper of every of them according to their several necessities She was very tender hearted and that which she bestowed to relieve others was done in compassion of heart towards those that endured misery But as she saw any of the houshold of Faith and the servants of God which she took notice of by some infallible sign she did not only relieve them with her Purse but receive them into her heart which was still open and enlarged to give them entertainment She was not straitned in her bowels toward them but was large hearted and large handed full of Almes when that might help and when it could not she provoked others to exercise the like charity Besides she had other wayes to succour them in speaking for them and stirring up others to speak for them when words might availe them and do them good relieving them with money and provoking others thereunto when such contributions were needful and therein she would not let slip the least opportunity but would take the advantage of great and solemn meetings seasoning those feasts which she frequented with some acts of mercy before they parted that the company and society she conversed with might savour of this sweetness of mercy as a precious oyntment and become good examples unto others and improve the gifts and abilites which God had given them to the same purpose She was not only mindful of those at home but her goodness extended to the Saints abroad And not in respect of Nature only because they were come into the Countrey where she was born I speak now of those that live in distress and exile of the Palatinate and Germany but in respect of Grace She was wondrous industrious and laborious to procure all the means that might be to send over to help them and even refreshed the bowels of the Saints that I may truly say the loynes of the poor blessed God for her in many places In what place hath she lived and hath not left a savour behind her nay almost in what company hath she conversed but this particular duty hath been as a precious oyntment to sweeten the conversations of all that were about her and to work in their minds a vertuous intention and propenseness to this duty Beloved here you have her in her carriage and example What she was in her behaviour towards her Husband and her Children I need not speak there are enough can witness it she carried her self as became a Wife to him and a helper of the servants of God with prayers and desires and often provocations and incitings that way But for her Children she seem'd to undergo a second travaile with them till Christ were formed in them being full of earnest desires and petitions for the working of Grace where it was not begun and for the persecting thereof where it was newly entred She rejoyced exceedingly in any expression of good and more for that of Grace then any other inclination or respect Beloved this was obvious and common to all and any man might take special notice thereof daily and observe it constantly In her servants as there appeared the more grace in any so much the more respect she extended towards them In the poor as she perceived the more grace in any the more reliese they received from her c. I say nothing what in all this she suffered those that were acquainted with her disease know what paines she under-went in respect of her body and with what patience she submitted to the hand of God in all things And many know the wrong she endured from the World for her desire and care to do good when she obtained opportunity Some thought her over-bold some too busie others thought her proud and vain-glorious because of her often frequenting of company and speaking openly for the provoking of others to the exercise of goodness The Lord smite their hearts that are guilty of mis-judging that which we are to suppose in respect of her forward disposition is this She was naturally of a free spirit which being sanctified with Grace and sharpned with love and zeal for the glory of God made her the more resolute and familiar in frequenting good company not to magnisie her self by their society but that her continual conversation with them might give her the better occasion to incite and stir them to goodness Let those that are guilty of misprision leave to censure her Vertues and convert them into an example for themselves to walk in if they do not the neglect will load their souls with more woe for such contempt then she hath received joy for her labour What concern'd her in her sickness briefly I have not much to say in that they which were about her daily know more then I can relate She did not only express a satisfaction and assurance of heart that her reconciliation was made with God in Christ but besides that a willingness and desire to be dissolved for that reason that she might be with Christ A
are required at our hands we may be sure that we have spiritual life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soul shall dwell at ease 2. Good success in all we undertake what soever we do it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things work for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable pass out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor ever entred into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Arist otalum because we cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our dear Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that she could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit mag is merebatur becanse she deserved praise she desp ised it and because she despised it she the more deserved it Silent modesty in her was her crown in her life and modest silence of her was the charge at her death Her life was well known to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sickness might behold with sorrow a pittiful anatomy of frail mortality and yet with joy a perfect pattern of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though she were full of divine conceptions and she had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her she desired she might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her own words and when I prayed with her and for her she joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighs and tears then in words often she complained of her tuff heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long she thought it till she should come to appear before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father help me and she had her request for presently he helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her own prayers with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed and immediately her sweet Father released her of her pangs and received her to himself on his own day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch she entered into her rest and began to keep her everlasting Sabbath in heaven where she reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shebelieved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entred into those joyes which never entred fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till we with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whither the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought again from the dead the great shepheard through the blood of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOULES AMEN SERMON XLVI REVEL 22.20 Amen Even so come Lord Jesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to be conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and Book of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of John himself that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in verse 17. It is likewise confirmed by the promise of Blessing and Happiness pronounced upon them that shall do all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This Verse a part of which I have read to you is the Repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from verse 6. to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the Verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Jesus In the attestation of Christ he promiseth he will come to his Church he will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Jesus In this acclamation of the Church to which we must now come we are to consider First the person of the Speaker whose words they be Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Ye shall see whose words they be if ye look back but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall find that first it is said the Spirit saith Come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinity the holy Ghost because he is not subject to these passions to these desires but he resteth himself in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his own will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angel for they do with fear and horrour expect the same coming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his coming shall be the accomplishment of their misery and eternal infelicity But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Again secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride saith come That is the Church of God in general the Catholick Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spiritual contract with him She desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is already begun in the contract of it and not only every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in general the Bride saith come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse
Son and two of him his affection shew'd it self Rhetorical in his Benediction saying The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren Giving this Benediction Jacob dies receiving this Blessing Joseph survives who can render no other Retribution after his death but care of his Burial and tears at his Funeral And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Fourthly he made a mourning for his Father who had mourned for him The Parents cares and fears are equal and when any infelicity betides their children their griess are great and all these bear a proportion with their love Now the love of Jacob to Joseph was transcendent and being so it rais'd as high an hatred in the hearts of his Brethren by which he was in their intention and in his Fathers opinion dead And now the Funeral is Joseph's let us see how Jacob does appear He rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his Son many dayes Here is a real demonstration upon a supposed death and a serious mourning at a feigned Funeral Had his dearest Son been dead yet he might well take comfort in his numerous off-spring but he did not for all his Sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said for I will go down into the grave unto my Son mourning thus his Father wept for him Thus it pleaseth God to permit this happy deceit of envious Brethren this pious mistake of an affectionate Father not only for a great example of Paternal love but also to teach all Sons to measure their griefs at their Fathers death by a consideration of those sorrows which their Parents would have expressed had they dyed before them Howsoever Joseph was but just in this he made a mourning for his Father who had mourn'd for him Lastly he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him It was the old expression of Parents comfort that at their deaths they might have their children to close their eyes and it hath been equally the desire of children to be made happy by that occasion in shewing the last testimony of their duty at their Parents Death Now Jacob who upon the supposed death of Joseph had said I will go down into the Grave unto my Son upon the certain intelligence of his life and safety resolveth to go down and die with him For when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent and his spirit revived Israel said it is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die and when Joseph first presented himself unto him in the land of Egypt the first words he spake were these Now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Now he which said at first I will go and see him before I die and when he saw him said Now let me die resolved nothing in that journey but to die with Joseph And he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him For all these reasons Joseph mourned for his Father who begat him remembring his natural generation for his Father who loved him not forgetting his singular affection for his Father who had blessed him considering his double Benediction for his Father who had mourned for him meditating a pious retaliation for his Father who came down to die with him embracing the opportunity of a dutiful expression And thus I close up the first general part of the Text or the Solemnization of the Obsequies The Second general Part of the same presents us with the Continuation of the Solemnity Which ministers a double Consideration one as consisting of not many dayes the other as determining how many dayes And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes Immediately after Jacobs death in Egypt forty dayes were fulfilled for his embalming and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They which have no hope of a life to come may extend their griefs for the loss of this and equal the dayes of their mourning with the years of the life of man But so tedious a Funeral Solemnity is a tacite profession of Insidelity When Moses went up into the Mountain of Nebo and dyed there the children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty dayes The plains of Moab were nearer to the Land of promise then Egypt was and some light of the joyes of the life to come was discovered under the Law and therefore more then half of the Egyptian Solemnity was cut off by the Faith of the Israelites But this Patriarchal Funeral was made in Canaan the Land of promise the Type of Heaven it was appointed by Joseph a blessed Patriarch and a Type of Christ it continued some dayes to declare his natural affection but those not many to express his religious expectation Had it been extended longer it had demonstrated more of duty but less of faith he had shew'd himself more a Son but less a Patriarch But now he is become a great Example in mourning some dayes of filial duty in mourning few dayes of Divinity Which is our first Consideration The Second leads us to the determinate number of the dayes which are expresly Seven And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The Jews took special notice of this act of Joseph and in the land of Canaan observed the number of these dayes Seven dayes do men mourn for him that is dead faith the Son of Sirach and though it be not unto us a law yet it is a proper subject of our Observation It was afterward one of the laws of Moses He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven dayes And therefore well did Joseph teach the Israelites to mourn the same number of dayes that with their tears of natural affection they might mingle some thoughts of their natural pollution Again the number of Seven is the number of rest In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and he rested on the Seventh day from all his works which he had made Now Joseph knew that there remaineth a rest to the people of God he was fully assured that as the dayes of the years of his Fathers pilgrimage were evil so they ended in rest and happiness that as sure as his body was past all weariness and pain so his soul was placed above all possibility of grief or sorrow A Dove brought Noah word into the Ark that waters were on the face of the Earth and he stay'd seven dayes and then the Dove sent forth returned and loe in her mouth was an Olive leaf pluckt off so Noah
knew that the waters were abated from off the earth If we mourn for the death of any person departed and the waters appear upon the face of man yet after the seventh day when the Olive leaf is pluckt when we have considered the peace and rest and joyes of the souls departed in the fear of God 't is time for the waters to abate for mourning to cease Thirdly the number of Seven is the number of holiness as God rested the seventh day so blessed and hallowed it Seven dayes Aaron and his Sons the Priests were consecrated seven dayes an Attonement was made and the Altar was sanctified Seven dayes hath Joseph set apart for his Fathers Funeral to shew that mourning for the dead is something sacred the tenth of the Egyptian mourning an act of Piety a part of Religion The Jews observed that the Circumcision was deserred till the eighth day that a Sabbath might pass upon the child and so sanctifie it before it was circumcised and Joseph appointeth seven dayes for mourning one of which must necessarily be that day which God blessed and sanctified in the beginning to procure a blessing upon that duty and to sanctifie his sorrow Upon which seasonable Consideration I shall take leave to conclude my meditations on the Text and apply my self to the present Solemnity which gave the occasion to consider it that I may make such use of the work of this holy day as may sanctifie the sorrow of it And now most Honorable Sir the Joseph of this time the chief Mourner of this day be pleased to endeavour the Sanctification of your mourning by these reflexive Meditations First learn from hence to meditate upon your own Mortality and be now assured by this neer and home example that your self shall die This may seem but a cold monition but a dull reflection every Grave preacheth that Doctrime and every Skeleton readeth as good a Lecture when we come into the House of God our feet will learn thus much and the ground we tread upon will thus far instruct us 'T is true the examples of our mortality are numerous but they are not equally efficacious the nearer our relations are to those which die the more we are concerned in their death and there is none so neer in his concernment as that of the Father and Son There is a difference between the language of the Scriptures and such a Prophet as Nathan was one tells us that all men are sinners the other says thou art the man So common Funerals tell us all men are mortal but that of a Father speaketh not only plainly but particularly thou art so From his vivacity the Son receiveth life and in his death must read his own departure 'T is possible to imagine an immortal family and then the deaths of others concern'd that not but where the Father 's dead there can be no pretence or thought of immortality Beside there 's something more then propinquity of nature in a Father Religion teacheth us that our dayes are otherwise bound up in our Parents lives Remember the first Commandement with Promise Honorthy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land consider that you have lost in his death all further opportunity of improving the hopes of that promise and that you stand now only as to him upon what comfort you have in your former duty and in your past obedience Thus learn to fix a more immediate and more concerning meditation of your own mortality upon the death of him in whose life yours was involved both by a natural and spiritual dependance Secondly reflect upon that love and entire affection which you have lost and could no otherwise be lost but by losing him in whom it lived Love is of that excellent nature that it is esteemed by the best of men and accepted from the meanest persons what then is the affection of a Father what is the purity of that fire which God and Nature kindles in the brest of man what were the flames which ever burnt upon the Altar of your Fathers heart who never hated any man See but the nature of Paternal love in David who when Absalom his Son but a most rebellious Son openly sought his life and Crown and dyed in that unnatural attempt went up into his chamber and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Measure by this example the affection you have so lately lost who never gave any offence as Absalom did and yet had in your Fathers eye all the reasons of love which Absalom could have Know then you make a mourning as Joseph did for a Father that loved you remember that the love of Jacob was divided between twelve Sons and therefore though it was high it could not be whole and entire to Joseph as for many years your Fathers hath been unto you Thirdly I speak not this out of design to renew or advance your grief to tell you what you have lost alone but I propound this privation that I may contrive it for your imitation endeavouring to stir up the same fire and to kindle the same affection in your self who now are wholly to be considered in the same relation What you were to him others are now to you and what he was to you you are now wholly unto them Before your natural affection was partly taken up with duty respect honour and obedience due to a Father from a Son it is now taken off from those expressions as to him that it may descend the more entire upon those which come from you as you from him Thus far you have been the Joseph of the Text be now the Jacob that those two great names may be concealed not only in the Text but in your breast Thus far you have been the better part of Absalom learn now to be the David that we may truly say that tender affection that Paternal love dyed not with your Father but survives in you to your and his posterity Fourthly I desire you to look not only upon that which you have lost but also upon that which he hath left behind him Vulgar and common persons as they carry nothing out of this world so they leave nothing in it they receive no eminency in their birth they acquire none in their life they have none when they die they leave none aâ—… their death But honorable persons as they die like common men so that only dyeth with them which was common unto all degrees of men their singular respects the priviledges of their greatness their honors survive them and descend unto their Heirs with their Inheritance Give me leave then yet to speak unto you as to the Heir of your Fathers Honors consider what the nature and design of honors are remember they were first graciously conferred as a reward of the vertues of your Ancestors and were
my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am As if he had said Lord Give me grace to consider how little a time thou hast allotted me here that I may learn to die well As the Sea-man numbers the degrees of the Sun that he may the better provide himself to pass the AEquinoctial Line So ought we to number our dayes that we may the better prepare our selves to pass the last Line of Death God takes account of our very Hairs they are all numbred by God If God number our hairs for the discovery of his Providence towards us then the argument holds a pari that we should remember to number our dayes for the promotion of his glory and the furthering of our own eternal welfare Especially as many of us as are well stricken in yearts it concerns us most to account with our selves what dayes we have yet to run out A Traveller that is somewhat near the end of his journey is the most curious and exact in counting the miles which he is yet to go Even so the older we are the more careful ought we to be of the dayes that are yet behind and watchful of our time which yet remains to be spent in this Tabernacle of the flesh Are our dayes to come to be numbred Surely then the last day is to be thought upon even the last day of life which we shall see in this world We spend all the rest of our dayes the better when this last day is remembred by us David had this day ever in his thoughts to provide for it and he desired only to live to fit himself for that day Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more All dayes wait on this last Day and the spending of all the dayes of our lives tends only to the wise ordering of this last day All our dayes are well spent if we have made provision for this day Thou hast lived well all thy dayes if thy last day of life prove comfortable unto thee Let us live so as that we may have alwayes this day in our eye and the longer we live let us strive the more to fit and dispose our selves for death by the serious consideration and meditation of this last Day As a stone moves the faster to its Centre so let us the nearer we are to Death make the most hast to bid it welcome Are we commanded to have an eye to the time that is yet to come Why then this points out unto us the preciousness of our time what an high esteem and value we are to set upon the dayes that are to come and seeing we have made so light of the time that is past we must count the time that remains to be the more precious There is not an hour in the day not a minute of that hour but ought to be highly prized and valued by us Epictet us the Philosopher was of that esteem and account with all men as that a Candle which he had made of Earth only was sold for 3000 drachms Whatsoever value or price men set upon other thngs sure I am there is nothing we ought to prize at an higher rate than our time As we use to prize our Gold by grains so ought we to value our time by minutes every minute of our time ought to be as precious in our account as every grain of Gold We will not lose the least drachm of Gold neither ought we to ravel out the least scantling of time Nay the very drops of our blood ought not to be more precious unto us than the least scruples and particles of our time Every minute of our time well improv'd is an helping us forward to Eternity Therefore we ought to prize every moment of our time because Eternity bangs upon it The second Request which Moses makes to God is this That he would vouchsafe to teach him this one lesson to number his dayes An hard lesson indeed as hard as Pambo's was who was fifteen years a learning that one verse of David of guiding his Tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue But all the dayes of our lives will not be sufficient to learn this one lesson of numbring our dayes aright therefore we must fly to God to teach us to know our time It is from God that we learn how to compute our time the wise ordering and managing of our time is taught us by God David desired to know this of God Psal 119.84 How many are the dayes of thy servant 1. It is a piece of Art which none can teach us but God A man may know how to number his dayes but not how to guide his dayes A Fool knows not how to make use of a Clock nor an ignorant Christian how to spend his time aright unless God teach him Every man can tell how to count an Army and reckon what men there are in it but few know how to guide it and to rank the Souldery in right File and Order So it is easie for us to number our dayes to count how old we are how many years are gone over our heads but to order our dayes aright to know how to improve them to Gods glory and our own benefit this is beyond our Art and Skill and God only is able to instruct us and lead us in the right way wherein we ought to walk 2. It is from God that we are taught how to fit our selves for death We are unwilling to hear of the approach of Death and it is God that prepares us for the stroke of Death and makes us willing to die It is very unwelcome news to most of us to hear that we must die and be brought before God to give an account of our wayes and actions When the Apostle Paul reasoned with Felix of Death and Judgment he would fain have put off that unpleasing discourse till some other time Act. 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee We count no discourse so unseasonable and distastful to us as for our Minister to put us in mind of Death there is time enough we think to consider of our latter end many years hence It is a lesson soon learnt and when we are fit for nothing else then it is soon enough to think of Death As slight as others make of this duty let us pray to God to teach us the right knowledge of our time that we may order our steps aright and so lead our lives as that we may provide for death and be ready to give up our account to God when he is pleased to summon us from hence It was a good prayer of David Psal 13.3 Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of Death We have need of Gods direction and guidance in all our wayes that he would teach us
Saints have right to eternal life by inheritance Vse 1. For Confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Direction 1. 2. The fourth branch of the Text. All of all sorts have a right to eternal life Acts 10 34 Vse 1. For Admonition Vse 2. For Consolation general Particular 1 Tim 2.17 1 Tim. 2 21.12 Isa 49.23 Doctr. 1. The servants of God have a comfortable and willing expectation of death Proved Phil. 1.13 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The ground of the desire of death in the Saints Eccles 7.1 Rom. 7.24 Psal 120.5 Thilip 1 23. Exod. 34.23 Object 1. Rom. 6 23. 1 Cor. 15.26 Respons Death considerable two wayes Object 2. Psal 6.4 5. Isa 38.3 Math. 26.39 Respons Why some of the Saints in the Scripture have prayed against death Psal 23.4 Phil 1.23.24 1 Kings 8 25. Heb. 7.5 Object 3. Respons Two things consider able in a Christian Mar. 26.41 2 Cor. 5.2 Vse For Trial. Doct 2. A special care in the servants of God to be alwayes ready for death 2 Tim 4.6 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 14.14 Psal 90.12 Heb. 13.14 Luk. 12.36 Reas 1. Psal 89.48 1 Pet. 4.19 Reas 2. 2 Sam. 4.5.6 Job 1 19. Reas 3. Note Vse Deut 32.29 Esa 28.15 Job 28.14 How to be prepared for death 1 Tim. 5.6 Jo. 17.13 Doct. 3. Ignorant men can neither take comfort in nor be truly prepared for death Math 22.29 Psal 119 24 Psal 119 9 93 Vse Doct. 4. Death freeth Gods servants from all misery Phil. 1.23 2 Tim. 4.6 2 Pet. 2.14 2 Pet. 2.15 Rev. 14.13 Rev. 6.9 Luke 16.22 Vse 1. Consutation of Purgatory Vse 2. For consolation of the Saints Gen. 41.40 Rev. 21.4 Esth 8 17 1 Joh 3.2 1 Cor. 13.12 Quest Answ How to know whether the day of death be a discharge from all former and following miserles Doct. 5. The Saints at their going hence have a comfortable and peaceable debarture Psal 37.37 Prov 14.32 Gen. 49.33 Gen. 13.25.2 King 22.20 Reas 1. Rom. 8 9. Chap 16. Reas 2. 2 Tim 4.7 8. Isa 38 3. Ephs 22 10. Object 1. 1 Respons Joh. 7.24 The unqulet departure of many of the Saints cleared with the grounds thereof Eccless 9.2 Rev. 12.12 Mark 9.26 2 Cor. 4 6. Esa 54.8 John 13.1 Object 2. Respons The seeming-quiet departure of the wicked with the grounds thereof Psal 73.4 1 Sam. 25.37 Luk. 11.11 Excles 8.12 Esay 57.11 Vse Confutation of Purgatâ—…y Vse 2. Exhortation Gen. 3.19 Prov. 11.7 Job 27.8 2 Tim 4.7.8 Joh. 17.4 5. Psal 119.1.1 Sam. 2.20 Luk. 13.3.2 Thes 5.24 2 King 9.22 Heb. 10.24 Dan. 4.27 Parts of the Text. Doct. Jesus Christ the Fountain and Author of all life 1 Of the body Resurrection of the body what 1 Cor. 15.20 2 Of spiritual life 3 Why both comprehended under one term 1 In regard of the Analogie 2. 2 In regard of the connection Vse 1. Comfort 2 Against the death of the soul Object Answ Object Answ 2 Against the death of the body Quest Answ Difference in the Resurrection of the godly and wicked 1 In the cause 2 In the end Vse 2. Trial. Signs of the first Resurrection 1 Forsaking sin 2 Newness of life 3 Progress in both Vse 3. Exhortation direction Quest Answ All men must die 1 To manifest Gods truth 2 His power 3 Our benefit by Chrst 4 To conform us to Christ Rachel was 〈◊〉 Fruitful 3 Obedient 4 Her death Coherence Observat 1. Observat 2. Observat 3. Observat 4. Doctr. 5. There is a change in all that are in Christ as from death to life 1 The analogy between spiritual and natucal life and death 1 In general 1 A General change 2 The orderlyness of it 2 The Analogie in particular Death threefold 1 Judicial 2 Civil 3 Natural 1 Imperfect Simile 2 Newness of life expressed by life in three respects 1 The principle of life 2 The actions of life 3 The properties of life Appetite 2 Tropagation The order Observat Men first die to sin and then live to God Reason 1. From our union with Christ 2 From the cotâ—…ariety of them Vse 1. Conviction Vse 2. Exhortation No loss in dying to sin Not life 2 Not peace 3 Not esteem 4 Not wealth 5 Not pleasures Sin a needless thing 2 The gain by death to sin 1. Conclusion The faithful are hopeful Rom. 5 Definition of Hope 1 Pets 1 9. Rom 8 24 Vse 1 Trial of Hope Rom 4 18 Isa 21 16 Hab 2 3 Isa 8 17 2 Pet 3 9 Psal 73 9 Psal 102 13. 2 Pet 3 3. Iob 2 9. Mal 3 14 2 Cor 6 8 2 Sam 6 22 Vse 2. Hindrances of hope 1 Iohn 4.18 Rev 21 8. Psal 118 6. Psal 91 5. Psal 40 1. Luke 21 19.1 Cor 15 16 Iob 17 13 Heb 11 27 Heb 11 35 Phil 1 23 2. Conclusion Christ the object of Hope Phil 1 21. Psal 38 15 Psal 71 5 Gen. 49.18 Iob. 13.15 Vse 1. Trov 23.5 Psal 146.3 Psal 62.3 Vse 2. Phil 3.8 Eccles 1. Isa 55.4 2 Cor. 1 20. Iohn 14 6 Iob 6 68 3. Conclusion This life-time is our hope-time Vse 1. Isa 55 6 1 Iohn 3 2 Vse 2. 2 Pet 1 8. 1 Thes 1 3 Heb 6 19 Psal 84 7 2 Per 3 18 1 Cor 7 20 Col 4 17 4. Conclusion Hope is no for the things of this life 2 Cor. 5.1 Isa 57.13 Vse 1. Vse 2. 5. Conclusion Our life is a misery Iob 14.1 1 Cor 7 29. Iam 4.14 Vse 1 Iohn 2 15. John 11 25. Psal 8 4. Vse 2. 6 Conclusion The hopeful are not miserable Vse 1. Vse 2. I am 5.11 Revle 14.13 Exod 33 20. Explication Rom. 12.2 I am 2.15 16. Heb 13 31 Rom 12 15. Mat 5. 2 Thes 3 10 1 Peâ—… 1 Division Doctr. 1. It is the duty of Christians to take the best opportunities of their life to do good A twofold opportunlty to be taken of doing good 1 The time of life Luke 16 9 Mat. 25.10 Objection Answ Objection Answ 2 Of outward estates Trov 23.5 Eccles 11 8. 1 Tim 6 17. Iob 13 15 16 17 18. Vse 1. Prov 3 28 Psal 78. Vse 2. Gen. 18.19 2 Sam 9.1 Doctr. 2. It is the duty of Gods servants to relieve others Deut 15.7 Eccles 11.4 Isa 58.7 2 Cor. 8 9. Heb 13 16. Iohn 15 19. Reason 1. Pro 3 26 27. Luke 16 9. Reason 2. Psal 41 1. Tsal 37 6. 1 Tim. 6 19. Vse Iames 5. Vse 2. Quest How to give so as to do good Answ 1 Give justly Eccles 11.1 2 Give wisely Psal 1 2 In respect of the quantity In respect of the quality 3 Give in simplicity Rom 11 8 Mat 6 4 Cive chearfully 2 Gor 8.6 The persons to whom good must be done 1 Generally to all Luke 10 Reason 1. Mala 2 10 Reason 2. 1 Iohn 4 20 Vse Object Answ 1 Sam 25 Object Answ Rom 12 Object Answ Eccles 11.1 Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Doct. 1. Doct. 2. 1 There are
neither absolutely neither by the contract of the Law nor by the covenant of grace Not absolutely 1 Because no creature can simply merit any thing of the Creatour as Saint Austin proves by many invincible arguments 2 Because our works are no way advantagious or beneficial to God we indeed gain by them but he gains nothing 3 Because there is no proportion between our work which is finite and the reward which is infinite Neither can we be said to merit by the contract of the Law as our Romish adversaries would bear us in hand 1 Because what God requireth by the written Law we are bound to performe even by the Law of nature and when we do but that which we ought to do our Saviour teacheth us not to tearm our selves arrogantly meritours at Gods hands or such as he is engaged to recompence but unprofitable servants 2 Because we do not our work sufficiently and therefore cannot challenge as due by contract our reward our best works are scanty and defective 3 Because we loyter many dayes and though at sometimes we do a dayes work such as it is yet many times we do not half a dayes work nay for one thing wherein we do well we fail in a thousand Lastly neither can we be truly said to merit no not by the covenant of Grace 1 Because the Grace which worketh in us all in all is no wayes due to us but most freely given us of God our works as they are good they are not ours as they are ours they are not good 2 Because whatsoever we do in fulfilling the Covenant of Grace we are bound to do for the inestimable benefits which we receive by our Redeemer 3 Because we imploy not our Talent to our Masters best advantage no man walketh so exactly as he might do by the power of grace which would not be wanting to us if we were not wanting to our selves But because we may seem partial in our own cause and take these reasons for demonstrations our Adversaries will not acknowledge to be so much as probable arguments let the ancient Fathers give in the verdict Saint Austin When the Apostle might truly have said the wages of righteousness is eternal life he chose rather to say but the gift of God is eternal life that we might understand that he brings us to eternal life not for our merits but for his mercy sake And Saint Basil There remains an everlasting rest to those who fight lawfully not for the merits of their works or verbatim according to the Greek original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the due debt of their works but of the grace or by the favour of our most munificent god And Fulgentius To possesse the kingdome prepared for us is a work of grace for of meer grace there is given not ouly a good life to those that are justified but eternal life to those that are glorified And Saint Ambrose our momentary afflictions are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed therfore the form or tenour of the heavenly decrees upon men proceed not according to merits but the mercy of God And Mark the holy Hermite The kingdome of heaven is not a reward of works but a gift of God prepared for his fruitful servants And let Pope Gregory conclude all As Eleazar who killed the Elephant yet was killed by the Elephant in his fall upon him so those who subdue vices if they grow proud of their victory as all do who conceive they merit heaven by it are subdued by and lye under those vices which they before subdued for he dies under the enemy whom he hath discomfited who is extolled in pride for the vice which he conquered The third difficulcy was whither the works follow the dead which may thus be expedited their good works follow them not to the grave for there the soul is not nor to Purgatory for I have already proved there is no such place nor to Hell for none are blessed that come there The works of the damned indeed follow them thither there they meer with them and with the Devil who seduced them to torment them for them there the swearers and blasphemers gnaw their tongues there the lascivious wantons are cast into a bed of fire there they who swum here in pleasures are thrown into a river of brimstone But the works of the godly follow them to the place where they receive their recompence for them The fourth difficulty was when the works follow the dead which may be thus expedited some of their works follow them immediatly after their death others at the day of Judgment Those works which they have done by and in the soul only without the help or use of the body follow them immediately after death when the soul receives her reward for them but those which were performed partly by the soul and partly by the body follow them at the day of Judgment When the King shall say Come ye blessed of my Father possess the king dome prepared for you for I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and in prison and ye visited me We have peeled off the rhine let us now taste of the sweet juyce if our works shall most certainly and plentifully be rewarded Let us be Zealous of good works let us be filled with the fruits of righteousness let us in no case be weary of well-doing let us not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward if a cup of cold water shall be reckoned for what think ye of a glass of hot water to revive many a fainting soul If two mites cast into the treasury shall be taken notice of what think ye of ten talents If Christ hath a bottle for every tear shed for him how much more for every drop of bloud There are infinite motives in holy Scriptures to incite us to good works I will touch at this time only upon three 1. Our great Obligation to them 2. Our exceeding comfort in them 3. Our singular benefit by them First our Obligation to them is twofold 1. As men 2. As Christians As men we are bound to serve him with our hands who gave us them As Christians we are to employ them in his service who loosened them after they were manacled and restored unto us the free use of them 2. Our comfort in them is exceeding great they assure us of our spiritual life for as the natural life is discerned by three things especially 1. The beating of the pulse 2. The letting out of breath 3. The stiring of the joynts or limbs so also is the spiritual if the pulse of devotion beat strong at the heart if we breath to God in our fervent prayers and lastly if we stir our joynts in walking in all holy duties and performing such good works as