comfort The Scripture tells us Psal. 16. That in God's presence there will be a fullness of joy and by consequence there can be no scantiness of enjoyments but pleasures for evermore yea a River of Pleasures nay a bottomless and boundless Ocean of them the Infinite and Eternal God must himself be exhausted before the delights and pleasures of Heaven can be spent Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man what God in the Mansions above hath prepared and reserved for them that love him There is a feast of Love a Crown of Life and Robes of Glory There is Abraham's Bosom and the joy of their Lord which is too big to enter into them therefore they shall enter into it and be filled encompassed and swallowed up by it as a small Vessel in the Sea When once the gracious Soul hath set foot upon that coelestial Countrey and made its entrance into that stately and magnificent Palace of the great King he shall be not only filled with satisfaction but likewise rapt up into astonishment and highest admiration What am I that God hath brought me hitherto And what were all my services that they should be thus rewarded Oh how light and inconsiderable doth he now think all his former sorrows and sufferings if compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory What low thoughts will he then have of the Skin-deep beauties and transitory delights here below on which the besotted Children of men do so foolishly dote And with what an holy scorn and indignation will he call to mind that pains men did take for and that eagerness with which they did pursue the trifling vanities of the Earth and how they scrambled for them and quarrel'd about them And oh how doth he wish and long for that blessed day in which the Church militant shall be made triumphant and all his gracious Friends all his Brethren and Sisters in Christ all the chosen and beloved of God shall be taken up to the same place that they may see what he sees and be possest of that which he enjoys That so they may altogether contemplate the glory of God and be satisfied with the fruition of him and endear admire and extol Father Son and Spirit unto all Eternity Lay all these things together and you will easily see that there is great yea abundant reason why those that have seen Gods Salvation should be willing yea desirous to depart in peace and to take their flight into the other world And now I come to shut up this discourse with some application And in the first place this serves to shew us what it is that above all things should engage and draw out the vigour and strength of our desires namely the sight of Gods Salvation My Brethren I beseech you frequently to consider that we must all die there is no shift for it Death will not be bribed and it cannot be avoided It is appointed for all men once to die by a Statute-Law enacted in Heaven which admits of no repeal The aged Father of this Family is now gone and the youngest Child here must follow him sooner or later And is it not good for us to prepare for Death Will it not be our Wisdom Will your Wisdom more eminently discover it self in any thing than in this That so this King of Terrours may not be terrible unto you that you may not fear him but rejoyce in him you will die uncomfortably this is past all dispute you will die unhappily if you die unpreparedly Oh the horrour that will sieze an awakened sinner upon a Death-Bed When he shall think thus my glass is run my time is spent I must die but alas I am not fit to die I must now appear before my Judges but I have not made my peace Now then go on and consider what is to be done by you in order to this preparation A Life of vanity and folly will not fit you the more you sin the more you sharpen the sting of Death An eager minding the World and pursuing the delights of that will not fit you the more you have indulged your self in a course of prophaneness the more afraid you will be to die and the more you have set your hearts upon the Creatures the more loath and unwilling you wil be to die when you come to die the love of the World will make you unwilling to leave it and Conscience of sin and guilt will make you tremble at the thoughts of appearing before God Turn away your Eyes then from beholding vanity and pray that they may be opened to see Gods Salvation Oh study Christ get an intimate acquaintance with him Beg of God to reveal him to you and in you that you may know him whom to know is life eternal and never rest quiet nor contented till you have seen him by an Eye of Faith and laid hold upon him by an hand of Faith as one that loved you and gave himself for you and have a care that there be not a deceptio visus mistake in the case but look to this that your sight be saving and the Faith you pretend to the Faith of Gods Elect that you may upon good grounds such as the Scriptures will warrant appropriate him to your selves as your Lords and Gods and Saviour Rest not in any thing till you find and feel Christ living and commanding in you his Image drawn upon you his Law written in your hearts and his Spirit poured out Take not up with a verbal profession formal duties and unblameable Conversation common convictions and some stirrings and flushes of affection All this may be and all come to nothing Hypocrites may go so far and yet they do not go far enough but after all fall short of Heaven It is not the form of Godliness that will avail you but the power not a name to live but the life it self God is not taken with empty shews and appearances he is for reality and truth in the inward parts You can take but little comfort from Christ dying without you unless you find Christ formed and living in you notwithstanding the Death of Christ you may be for ever lost and damned unless you be made partakers of his Life Remember and consider that expression Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory When Christ dwells in you by Faith when he is in you by his Spirit and by his Graces then and not till then is there a firm Foundation laid on which you may build the hope of glory For hope so grounded is good hope such as shall never make ashamed Vse 2. The second use will be of Reprehension Those are blame-worthy and deserve reproof whose eyes have seen Gods Salvation Men and Women that do know the Jesus in whom they have believed and are made partakers of sanctifying saving grace and have had the manifestations of God's favour and Covenant love made to them and are verily
or reason of this his request for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation This Scripture being chosen by our deceased Brother for his Swan like-Song I shall present you with those several Observations I have made upon it and briefly touch upon them and so pass to that which I purpose most to insist upon Doct. 1. Every Godly man is God's Servant So Simeon stiled himself here Lord lettest thou thy Servant And so did David Psalm 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant He gloried more in his being Gods Servant than in his being King of Israel Wicked men are the Slaves of Corruption and Vassails of Satan the Scriptures saith they serve divers Lusts and truly that is an hard task if a man cannot well serve two Masters how shall he serve divers many Their service is meer drudgerie and bondage Two things may justly discommend it viz. they have dirty works and they shall have dreadful wages their works foul them and their wages undoe them But you O Saints are the Servants of God and you are so upon a threefold account besides that of your Creation First Upon the account of your Redemption which was brought about by the power of Christ who rescued you out of the clutches of sin and Satan Luk. 1. 74. He hath delivered us out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives Secondly You are Gods Servants upon the score of purchase that Jesus who purchased Heaven and Glory for you hath also purchased you for himself and the price which he laid down was no less than that of his own Blood and therefore it is your unquestionable duty to glorifie him in your Souls Bodies and Spirits 1 Cor. 6. 20. Thirdly You are Gods Servants by virtue of Covenant you have chosen one another he hath chosen you for his people and you have chosen him for the Lord your God an agreement hath been made and Indentures sealed Ezekiel 16 8 I entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Vse Remember and seriously consider then whose you are and unto whom you belong Study and acquaint your selves with your Masters will and knowing it apply your selves immediately to the performance of it let your life be a life of obedience to God and whatsoever your hand findeth to do as the matter of his Will be sure that you do it with all your might knowing that your labour shall not be in vain and that it is most highly reasonable you should be as industrious about the work of God as you have been about the work of Satan as diligent for your best Friend as your greatest Enemy as industrious for the saving of your Souls as you have been for the damning of them And for your encouragement and quickning consider 1. First That in the service of God there is perfect freedom his Yoke is easie and his burden light You are never so much your own men as when you are Gods servants You are so his servants as that you also are his Children Your work is cut out by the hand of a most tender Father and therefore it should be done with the Heart and Spirit of a Child David resolved to run the way of God's Commandements 2. As you have the noblest work so you shall one day have the most glorious rewards You may now do your work with singing you shall then receive your reward with admiring When you have done the work of Servants you shall be instated in the inheritance of Sons where Christ is there shall his Servants also be to behold his Glory and to share with him in it for the Apostle assures us that he and his people shall be glorified together And their work is not so difficult nor are their sufferings so pressing but that their future Crown will unspeakably excel them for its weight and splendor Doct. 2. I Observe That Gods Servants must be at Gods dispose and not at their own Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart I dare not stir without thy order thou didst send me hither and here I must stay until thou shalt please to send for me hence I am weary of being here Lord wilt thou dismiss me and give me leave to be gone It is Gods unquestionable right to order out as he pleaseth concerning us and that in these things 1. God may cut out for us what work he pleaseth and lay it either in active or passive obedience as he thinks good Whatsoever his Will is we must not dispute but obey it and so be like those ministring Spirits the Angels above who do his pleasure yea all his pleasure 2. It is Gods right to carve out our allowances either a full or a scantie condition abundance or want to set us in a Palace or upon a Dunghil to cloath us in Scarlet or in Canvas to give us comfort or afflictions We must be wholly at Gods finding Feed me said good Agur with food convenient for me he did not prescribe to God but left God to judge what was so 3. It is fit that God should measure out our time for us and bestow upon us a longer or a shorter day of life we do not live nor do we die at our own pleasure or at the will and pleasure of men but God He is not only our Lord but also the Lord of our time So David cheerfully acknowledged my times are in thy hands to make them cloudie or serene halcyon or tempestuous to prolong or to contract them as seemeth good to him It is an indubitable part of Gods Royal Prerogative to order concerning us and it is the unquestionable duty of our place to submit to his Orders Whatsoever he commands we must do even as did the Centurions servants if he said to one of them Go he went if he said to another Come he came Reason good we should do so for all the Commandements of God are Holy and Just and Good And an Universal Cordial Respect to them will evidence our sincerity and secure us from shame And whatsoever God doth we must accept not only kissing his Hand when it sweetly seeds us nor only his Arm when it graciously supports but likewise his Rod when it doth smartly lash us There ought to be no discontents no quarrelsome murmurings nor immoderate excessive sorrows when he blasts our sweetest Comforts or kills our dearest Relations yea though he should do it with a violent stroak for he may do what he will with his own When he destroyed Nadab and Abihu by fire in the very act of their sins Aaron their Father held his peace He saw that God was provoked by them and angry with them and therefore concluded it his wisest course to be quiet It is indeed extreme madness for the Clay to say to to the potter why dost thou so or for the creature to contend with his Creator Such contendings
sight will easily see there is enough in it alone to produce such an effect But besides that there are four other sights which will contribute exceedingly towards such a willingness in such a person 1. This man seeth enough in the World to render that bitter to him There is Wormwood enough laid upon the breast of the Creatures and he tasts it Here I shall not take notice of those outward troubles and afflictions in which he finds great exercises for his Faith and Patience though these are the principal and only things about which the carnal unregenerate heart is concerned If there be no cloud upon his Tabernacle no thorn in his side nor gall in his cup he sings a lullaby to his Soul and concludes all well But sin sin is that which sowrs and imbitters all to a Godly man both other mens sins and his own sins without doors and within First Other mens sins that wickedness which the World lyeth in Oh it goeth to his very heart to see the profaneness and abominations of those among whom he is constrained to converse and how that blessed and most holy God whom he so dearly loves is neglected abused dishonoured and affronted by them Upon this account it was that good Jeremiah's Soul wept in secret and Rivers of Tears ran down David's eyes and just Lot was vexed from day to day with the filthy Conversation of the wicked Such men cannot take their rest here because the place is so shamefully polluted and the villanies of others are such a stink in his Nostrils Secondly That which doth yet much more pain him is his own sin a foul World without and a wretched heart within the plague of that which is not perfectly cured the sin that dwelleth in him the pravity and corruption of his nature the old man that he cannot possibly shake off that troublesome old man together with many and great Transgressions of his Life Hence such complaints and grounds as these Oh what a wretch am I should be so unmindfull of God so unthankfull to God so unfruitfull before him That I should walk so unworthy of him that hath laid such Obligations upon me Oh! that I should offend him so much and glorifie him no more and serve him no better Oh! this goeth near indeed this is a sword in his bones a burden to heavy for him to bear this extorted from holy Paul that bitter cry O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death This is my plague but whence or by whom cometh my deliverance And when he considers that deliverance is wrought by Christ he blesseth God for him and since a perfect deliverance is to be brought to him by death he thanks God for it and this is one thing that makes this grim Messenger so lovely and acceptable to him because he knows by that all the shackles of corruption shall be knocked off and he shall be troubled with sin no more When he shall once lay down the body of flesh he shall also lay down the body of sin and death 2. The Godly man sees enough to render all the comforts of this present life cheap to him So that he doth not love them too much nor value them at too high a rate They are not so cheap as that he doth slight and despise them or is not thankfull to God for them He admires the goodness of God in all his mercies even the very least the coursest garments he wears and the brownest bread he eats and the meanest lodging the hardest bed he hath I am less said good Jacob then the least of all thy mercies But they are so cheap as that he is not unwilling to part with them or to go from them Whensoever God pleaseth he can part with them The primitive Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and he can go from them Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ he could without any regret or reluctancy leave the World behind him so long as he did see his God and Saviour before him Those comforts which God is pleased to afford unto his people while they are here are of two kinds Spiritual and Temporal 1. God is pleased to afford unto his People outward Themporal comsorts These he hath in the creature from the hand of common providence which feeds and cloaths him and provides for him and sometimes wrings out to him waters of a full cup But be his portion here never so fat his outward enjoyments never so large yet they are but low enjoyments they are but for a vile body we do consume and wast and will shortly moulder away and crumble into dust Be they never so delicious and pleasant yet still they are perishing bread it perisheth in the using And besides there is a snare in these things so that we must use them with caution and fear there is a snare in Relations and in possessions a snare in Riches and Pleasures a snare in Worldly Honours and Dignities Oh how often do these things divert the mind from God and distract the thoughts and deaden the heart and embase the affections and clog the heels and hinder holy motions these are weights that press down so that the Christian moves Heavily in the way of God and cannot do those things that the would nor any thing as he would and it doth speak a great deal of wisdom and calls for no less care so to enjoy the world and take the comfort of it as to avoid the snare in it and to keep our selves unspotted by it Secondly God is pleased to give unto his people here inward and spiritual comforts from the hand of his Spirit in the way of the Gospel and Gospel-Ordinances and Duties He gives them some clusters from Canaan some Pisgah-sights of the Land of promise some praelibamens and foretasts of those Pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore there are the kisses of his Lips the manifestations of his Love the witnessings of his Spirit the unspeakable joys of Faith and these are sweet indeed and inestimably precious to the gracious Soul One day in thy Courts said David are better than a Thousand elsewhere What a day of gladness doth a smile of God make and what melody is there in the sofest whisper of Divine Love No such day in the week as that of a Sabbath and no such meeting in the World as that with God at an Ordnance it affords sweetness beyond expression But alas Here is something to allay that sweetness the good man doth too too often find himself unfitted for these things his Soul is out of tune he cannot hear nor can he pray nor meditate as he would nor keep up so warm and intimate a communion with God as he would Wandering and dulness and deadness do adhere to his duties and he blushes and mourns to see and consider the iniquities of his holy things And then again he doth too frequently miss of that
Righteousness As if God would take you from hence to your loss and you should be better in a strange Land than in your Fathers house And the preparations that God hath made for Eternity are not so good as those that he hath made for a short time and so Abraham Isaac Jacob David Peter Paul and the rest of the Saints departed had better have staid here and now they are with God do wish themselves with us again In a word it is as if the immediate and full enjoyment of God would not be sufficient for you you could not find room enough nor goodness and delights enough in a God but you must go begging to the door of creatures and patch up to your selves an happiness with these small and sorry shreds of being and you have found more to live upon and to delight your selves in the drop of a bucket than you can or do find in the Ocean of goodness I beseech you seriously consider of these things all these things lye uppermost any one may see them in such a persons unwillingness and loathness to dye whensoever God would have him But to proceed Vse 3. In the third and last place this may prove a very comfortable consideration and staff of support in the hands of those who labour under sorrow and continual heaviness of heart because of their departure of their gracious and holy Relations they are dead and you carry as if all your comforts were dead with them This is certain that when God gives such blows those that have any thing of tenderness do feel the smart of them Breaches in the Family do make breaches upon the Spirit When Lazarus was dead Jesus wept Mourning at Funerals is no Soloecism but a lovely sight so the sorrow be kept within those bounds that reason Religion have set it And where there are such breaches they call for binding up We should all be as so many good Samaritans pouring Oyl into the wounds of the Spirit for the suppleing and healing of them God hath been pleased to come into this Family and break the head of it and cut it off in taking him away he took away a tender Husband a loving Father a good Master a dear Friend one that in these evil days owned God his Waies and People and kept a Church in his House and his doors open that hungry Souls might feed upon and be refreshed with the bread of life which was there from Sabbath to Sabbath delivered out unto them The death of such a person is a common loss not only to the Familie but to the Country too and because thereof you are in Heaviness and afflicted in your Spirits Neither is this your case alone but of many others Death rides in Circuit and according to the Commission which it hath received so it makes it seizures here in an Husband deprived of the delight of his Eyes there is a woman made a Widow and her Children Fatherless Many a faithful fruitful useful Christian is cut down under whose shadow and in whose sellowship his Relations and Acquaintance did greatly rejoyce Unto such I have something to say that should prevail to the silencing of them and that is this it is the will of God the great God will have it so Thou wouldest have had thy Husband thy Wife thy Father thy Child lived longer but God would have him die now and this should knock all quarrelings and murmurrings and discontents down for there is all the reason in the world why God's will should take place and he should fullfil all his pleasure and why our will should submit and give place to God's And then I have something to say that may quiet satisfie you under such a providence for it is not enough for us that we be silent under it unless we be also reconciled to it at peace with it now in order thereunto take these 2 particulars consider them 1. They did see Gods Salvation before they did depart and so they dyed not under terrour nor in doubt nor at any uncertainty but in peace before Death closed the Eyes of their Bodies God had opened the Eyes of their Faith and shewn Christ to them and his love in Christ and you have reason to be perswaded good things concerning them even such as do accompany Salvation nay to be now perswaded of their Salvation it self This was the reason of my choosing these words of Simeon for the Subject of my discourse at this time because they were the Swan-like Song of our deceased Brother the very last words he spake save some short and holy Counsels which he gave to his beloved and most hopeful Son and shall not this satisfie you But then add 2. Now that those Holy ones are dead they see those things which they never saw things that are most richly worth their seeing and which as the case now stands with mankind they could not see without dying They have those sights which make the seer blessed they are taken up to the beatifical Vision They do not see an end of all their sins and sorrows nothing shall defile nor afflict them more all filth and all tears are wiped away they see the accomplishment of all their hopes the fullfilling of all their prayers the reward of all their services the Crown of all their sufferings They see the excellent Majesty and Glory of that God whom they had chosen and do now behold his face in righteousness Neither is that sight terrible to them as it was to Moses in the Mount so that he did exceedingly fear and quake No those Holy Souls do see God and live and rejoyce that sight is their satisfaction and delight They see that Blessed Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them and washed them in his own blood and made them Kings and Priests unto God yea they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is They do see that Holy Spirit which convinced them and sanctified them who directed them in their difficulties strengthned them in their weaknesses assisted them in their duties and most sweetly supported and comforted them in all their distresses They see an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect In short they see that which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive namely that Glory Kingdom Inheritance those Robes Crowns and Thrones which God hath prepared for them that love him And the day is coming in which they shall again see those Bodies that at their flight to Heaven they left behind in a better State than ever And you O Saints shall see them too and Christ with them and then your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man shall take from you Only in the mean time do you live believingly walk humbly holily and circumspectly get your Vessels filled with Oil your Lamps burning and your Loins girt make haste to the Kingdom of God and be ye followers of them that through Faith and Patience do inherit the Promises