other affliction to come and bring it down Grace grows to such a strength that now it 's able to bear a trial a storm is ready to fall therefore saith God now it 's to time to fetch my childe home The Christian is grown so ripe that it's time to bring him to heaven as a shock of corn in its season Thus you see for your comfort that sickness and death come from Christ in the best and fittest season Sickness never comes but to bring thee nearer heaven and Death shall never come but to loose thee into heaven Ah Christian heaven and happiness never come out of season Secondly Comfort in respect of the end of all sicknesses and death they come from Jesus Christ for our good We read 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory where we see that in all our afflictions there is a secret Power working us to heaven and salvation As for example in a Fever Ague or Consumption c. we feel a Power working outwardly against us against our health strength case and life so there is a mighty Power working inwardly for us working us from sin and the world to God and Christ and Heaven Hence is that known and tryed Scripture I say it 's a tryed Scripture it hath comforted many thousand hearts I mean Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose Methinks this Scripture is a Spring which always runs with new and fresh comfort and it 's a sure way to finde comfort to look upon all our diseases and other afflictions through this Scripture Now to apply the comfort of it to the present case consider what is that good which all things work together for and this you may know by the following verses wherein the Apostle demonstrates this truth That all things work together for our good therefore saith he vers 31. What shall we say to these things If God be for us who can be against us that is let us look upon all our afflictions and miseries and then look upon our Predestination Vocation Justification and Glorification mentioned vers 29 30. And we may joyfully conclude that seeing God is for us so as to predestinate call justifie and glorifie us and these links can never be broken then nothing can be against us but all shall work for our good so that the great good that all things work for is not to make the godly the great Gallants of the world but to bring them grace and peace here and glory hereafter and all sicknesses diseases and deaths and all other dispensations are united and joyned together in this work to bring Soul-saving good to them that love God And the clear cause of this is in the Doctrine viz. because our Saviour hath the working of all these things he sends and rules and governs them and therefore there must needs be a Fatherly work in them because Jesus Christ as our Father and Saviour sends them to us and orders them for us That of the Apostle makes clearly for this 1 Cor. 3.23 Death is yours and by the same rule sickness is ours and for our good But why ours Answ Because the Lord of sickness and death is ours Hence we read Phil. 1.21 To die is gain Sickness is gain and death is gain to Gods Children Many a Childe of God gains more by a moneths sickness then by the outward mercies of many years and death will bring you more gain in one hour then all the prayers and Sacraments and Sermons of a whole age and therefore labour to see your gains as real and present to the eye of Faith as your pains troubles and losses are to the eye of Sense and in your sad parting with those things which sickness and death take you from comfort your hearts with those things which they bring you unto say Farewel my dear and pleasant Country thou hast fed me well and cloathed me well but I must leave thee for a better Country that is an heavenly Hebr. 11.26 Farewel my inward and faithful friends farewel my dear Jonathans How pleasant have you been to me Your love to me is wonderful Methinks when I am with you I feel the truth of Tertullians saying of the fellowship of the Primitive Christians Animo animáque miscemur Our very hearts and souls do enter into and are mingled and united with one another Many a sweet meeting and sad parting I have had with you but I must leave you a while to go to better friends in Heaven Magnus illie nos charorum numerus expectat I have a great company of dear friends in the other world which look for me and will rejoyce to see me with them with whom I shall always be serious yet never sad always merry and yet never vain Farewel my sweet Sabbaths savoury Sermons melting Sacraments farewel my dear Bible and all the blessed Ordinances wherein I have seen the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I must no longer look in these glasses but go where I shall see him face to face Farewel my dear yoke-fellow parents my sweet children my beloved brothers and sisters I must leave you all to go to a better Father and Husband and Brother in heaven Farewel my good and convenient house my sweet place of secret and Family-worship I must be gone to my house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Farewel my poor but precious body go thou and sleep in Jesus in the earth whilst my Soul is raigning with Jesus in heaven where I shall remember thee and long to see thee till I meet thee again cloathed with Immortality and Glory These things Christians are the comforts of a sick-bed the sweet joys of a death-bed 3. Comfort in respect of the godly who are visited Herein is thy comfort that thou art a true part and member of Jesus Christ from whom all diseases come so that whatsoever Christ doth to thee he doth to himself I was sick saith Christ when his members were sick Mat. 25.36 So when the body is dead the poor ghastly corpse continues still joyned and united to Jesus Christ Hence the bodies of believers are said to sleep in Jesus and are called the dead in Christ 1 Thes 4.14 16. and it 's a most sweet and savoury consideration when a man looks on such a sad spectacle as a loathsome diseased body or thinks on the rotten carkass when the body is dead and sown in corruption then to fix the eye of Faith upon his glorious head at the right hand of the Father As thus look on thy face covered with the Small Pox and then look on the Face of Jesus Christ look on thy bones staring upon thee in a Consumption and then look upon the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ Nay go further look upon
risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Oh tell thy friends lands silver and gold that thou art going into Eternity and art presently to stand before the Judge of Quick and Dead and see what help they can afford thee Thou wilt certainly finde Solomons words true Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Beloved If we would know whether a man be happy or miserable we must not look upon him as he appears in his honours and riches c. but follow him to his death and the day of judgment see how he speeds there and how he comes off then for then the man comes to his proof and we shall see that all the riches of the world yield no profit in those great daies but then the highest carnal Monarch shall be no more respected by the Judge of all the world then the ugliest Devil of Hell when a poor godly servant or day-labourer shall be crowned with incorruptible glory before his face Oh therefore you rich men look among all your jewels and treasures whether you have a God and Christ and grace for your poor souls these only are the provision which will maintain you against the terrors of death and the dread of judgment 6. Exhortation to poor men to prepare for sickness and death We think them poor who have nothing to live on in this world but they are poor who have nothing to live on in the other world Poor people you cannot come at the silver and gold and riches of this world when you will but you have as much freedom to the riches of the other world as the mightiest Prince upon earth Thou mayst call God Father and ask what thou wilt and live upon the everlasting Kingdom of heaven as thy own and therefore you that are poor and godly let your riches of the other world comfort you against the poverty of this Look on thy cold Cottage and then look on thy house not made wiâ—h hands Look on thy poor leathern cloaths and then look how thou shalt be cloaâ—hed when thou appearest with Christ in glory Look on thy brown bread and course fare and then remember the entertainment which Angels and Saints have in heaven Oh poor people though you know not how to be maintained whilst you live yet get saving grace and you will be rich enough to go to heaven when you die The last Exhortation shall be to such who in some respects seem nearer death then other persons I shall instance only in three sorts of people to whom I shall direct this Exhortation to prepare for sickness and death First Such whose callings and imployments do expose their lives to daily and great dangers as Water-men Colliers Carpenters Masons c. These men by a leak in a Boat or Ship a fall of a little earth a slip of a foot may be turned to heaven or hell every day Yet we often see that many who live in the greatest dangers live in the greatest sins My earnest advice to you is to prepare for death that though you stand in dangerous places yet you may stand upon sure ground for the salvation of your souls Sirs for ought I know you may get heaven with less danger then you get your livings Remember what precious souls you have and that every time you venture your lives you venture your souls too Labour by sound repentance to forsake your sins and to turn to God Do not swear and lye and be drunk and deceive others Do not prophane the Lords daies if you expect that God should preserve you on working daies labour by a sound faith to rest on Christ to save your guilty souls see your nearness unto Eternity be often looking from the places where you are into heaven and hell and see what a little there is betwixt you and them and seriously consider if now you should fall into Eternity in which of those two places would be your portion Get such a saving knowledge of God that you may comfortably commit the keeping of your lives unto him and solemnly worship God in your Closets and Families and live in the fear of God and in peace with him and use your callings to his glory that he may preserve you in your ways or however that if you do die in your callings you may not die in your sins Secondly Such who though they have ordinarily present case and health yet they are subject to dangerous and sudden pains and fearful distempers as Convulsions Falling-Sickness Stone c. you have need in regard of these to be always prepared for sickness and death you would not be without what remedies you can get when your distempers come Oh do not be without God and Christ and Grace if death should come in them Whatever you are doing consider Now my distempers may surprize me therefore if they take you in bed at meat at work let them not take you in your sins in all likelihood these fits will shorten your daies therefore let them hasten your repentance these distempers will fill you with torturing pains or for present deprive you of your reason parts senses c. so that then will be a very unfit time to prepare for death therefore improve your times of health and ease as merciful opportunities that when your diseases or death finde you they may not finde you unprovided Sirs always remember that you carry death in your bodies therefore be sure to carry grace in your souls Lastly Women that are with childe have special reason to be prepared for sickness and death God hath inseparably fixt this punishment upon this Sex that in sorrow they shall bring forth children Gen. 3.16 And our Saviour tells us Joh. 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow And experience witnesseth the grievous pangs and pains of all and the sad deaths of very many in this condition so that thou must certainly within a few weeks be grievously diseased and thou mayst probably dye do not then venture into such dangers in a Christless state Poor woman perhaps thou hast bred that life which will be thy own death therefore labour to finde that Christ is as sure formed in thy heart as the babe is formed in thy womb and before that sad and dangerous hour of the birth of thy childe come examine throughly whether the new birth be past in thy soul I would not have thee oppress thy heart with the dismal fore-thoughts and distracting fears of that time for to be sure sufficient to that day will be the evil thereof but I would have thee so prepared that the short pangs of childe-bearing may not end in the everlasting pangs and torments of hell and that thou mayst be a new creature and found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that if thou shouldst no longer live with thy
CHRIST's POWER OVER Bodily DISEASES Preached in several Sermons on Mat. 8.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. And published for the Instruction especially of the more Ignorant people in the great Dutie of Preparation for Sickness and Death By Edward Lawrence M.A. Minister of the Gospel at Baschurch in the County of Salop. Isaiah 38.12 He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me Exod. 23.25 I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Valent mihi stillae temporum August The Second Edition LONDON Printed by J.C. for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1672. To the Worshipful and my very much honoured Robert Corbet of Stanwardine in the Wood in the County of Salop Esq and to his Religious Consort M rs Elizabeth Corbet together with the rest of the Congregation in the Parish of Baschurch over which the Holy Ghost hath made me Overseer My very much honoured in the Lord THE reason of this inscription is not because you are preferred by God by your birth family estate and other outward priviledges to be the chief of the Inhabitants of my Parish for although I acknowledge the Wisdom and Will of God as the cause of this order and distinction among men and therefore do heartily give you the honour which belongs to you upon this account yet I must confess that this is not the cause of this publick acknowledgment But the reason is that whereas many great persons are a great curse to their Countrey which they fill with their own sins and Gods Judgments God hath made you the blessing of your Age in endeavouring to fill your place with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ and that in the great changes of our daies you have not as many served the times and your sins but served the Lord and your Generation And also because of your great honour and love to the godly able and Orthodox Ministers of Christ and to his holy humble sober and peaceable people which have been loathsome to others as the sink of the world but savoury to you as the salt of the earth for which although you have joyfully suffered reproach from some yet you have had the honour like that gracious couple Andronicus and Junia to be of note among the Apostles And particularly that you were of the first that called me to exercise my Ministry in this place wherein I have by your constant favour and countenance received much comfort and encouragemet The sense of all which together with my great joy in you by my hopes of your being of the blessed number of those who are really joyned to Jesus Christ and cloathed with his righteousness and who bring forth fruit in him which alone can make of you a sweet savour to God and for that reason precious and acceptable to his Saints hath caused me to signifie my sincere honour and love and thankfulness to you by this Dedication Now although I hope I write this in the singleness of my heart as believing that God will cut off all flattering lips and that a lying tongue is but for a moment yet I confess it fills me with serious thoughts to consider that this when I am dead will be yet speaking And that hereby I speak to you as it were in the hearing of the world and that some whom we are bound in Christian wisdom and charity to judge as upright Saints yet the heart-searching God may justly judge as Hypocrites and that many who have made a greater profession of godliness then any of us have proved fearful Apostates when they have been tryed by Errors Persecutions or Preferments I shall therefore looking upon my self and you as just in our very fall into Eternity and as presently going to Judgment and with the greatest belief and thoughts that I can get of Heaven and Hell upon my heart seriously beseech you according to the intent of this ensuing Treatise to examine your selves whether if you were to die in the reading of this you have a true Scripture-right to go to heaven that so you may find the Witness of God by the word in your own consciences agreeing with this publick testimony of your poor Minister for it is but a poor thing for a man of so little credit and less worth to confess you before men but this will be an honour indeed to have Jesus Christ to confess you before his Father in Heaven on the great day of the manifestation of the Sons of God And continue to live as discerning the great difference betwixt a godly and ungodly man that you may still be known by this character to be persons in whose eyes a vile person though never so great in the world is contemned but to honour them though never so poor that fear the Lord. This difference must needs be great when I dare be bold to say that it is beyond the tongues of men and Angels fully to express the excellency and glory of the one and the vileness and misery of the other And certainly the further insight you have in the Scriptures in God and Christ Men and Devils Sin and Grace Heaven and Hell the more clearly you will know this difference Do but look on the Godly and Wicked as they appear in sickness and death and in the Day of Judgment these put an eternal period to all other distinctions there will be then no such difference as Prince and Subject Landlord and Tenant Rich and Poor but onely Godly and Ungodly see the difference now as it will appear when Come ye blessed and Go ye cursed and the right hand and left hand of Christ hath distinguished and parted the world Be resolved to cleave to Christ his truth and people through all the sufferings and stumbling-blocks which you meet with in your way to heaven sufferings will be harder to you then to many others the greater your names and estates are the greater must your graces be to enable you to part with them you have a greater self to deny and a greater cross to take up great riches and great preferments make many great Persecutors and great Apostates but few great Martyrs you must buy the truth whatever it cost you and the more you give for it the more you will gain by it if you sell all for Christ you shall never complain of a dear purchase Look with the dearest affections upon your Posterity and believe that you will never have such an opportunity to make them happy and to entail the blessings of God upon them as when you are called to suffer for the sake of Christ you may be called to make a great exchange either to part with your lives and estates and to keep Christ and heaven or to part with Christ heaven and your souls to keep the world if ever such a day come look to the poor soul above all keeping keep your poor souls remembring that of our Saviour
he commanded and it stood fast And this truth that Jesus Christ could by speaking a word command and create the cure he proves by an argument taken from the less to the greater ver 9. For I am a man under Authority having Souldiers under me c. You may easily see the strength of this argument in this plain Paraphrase I am but a man and thou art the true God I am under Authority but all the power in Heaven and in Earth is thine I have Souldiers and servants under me and thou hast all things under thee Now saith he if I bid my Souldier go and march to such a place he goes and if I command another to come from quartering in such a place he comes and if I say to my servant Do such a business he doth it Thus all sicknesses and diseases are under thy command if thou sayst to a Fever Go and turn the moisture of such a one into the drought in Summer it goes and to the Consumption Go and rot the Lungs and eat up the flesh of such a one it goes and to the Palsie Go and torment such a one it goes and if thou commandest back a disease and sayest Come away and spare the life of such a one it presently comes And again if thou biddest any disease Do this make such a Father Childless such a Wife a Widdow such Children Fatherless it presently doth it And thus he wisely and strongly pleads that all diseases are at the Will of Jesus Christ so that a word from him makes them go and come and do what he will Obs 4. Christs carriage after the Centurions speech ver 10. When Jesus heard it he marvelled That must needs be a marvellous Faith which makes Jesus Christ himself to marvel 2. He highly commends the Centurions Faith I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel There are three things which speak the greatness of his Faith 1. It was the Faith of a Gentile and this Christ seems to intend by comparing it with and preferring it before the Faith of his Israel saying I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel 2. Because he did believe a great truth this is a great truth worthy of thy strongest faith to be exercised in that Jesus Christ is that God who commands and rules all the diseases and sicknesses of men 3. Because of the great power and life which appeared in the grace it self now the might and strength of his faith is seen both because by it he saw the substance of the truth with so much evidence and clearness and certainty as he did he did as plainly see that Christ had the command of diseases as that he himself had the command of his Souldiers and servants Beloved the stronger faith is the more plain and piercing insight it hath into its object and the great power of his faith appeared in believing this truth at such a time when the infinite power and Eternal Godhead of Christ was so little known and believed in the world And lastly by the strong pleadings of his heart grounded upon this truth whereby he draws virtue and power from Christ to heal his dying servant So that you see great reason why our Saviour commends the greatness of the Centurions faith 3. Our Saviour from hence takes occasion to teach the Doctrine of the Conversion of the Jews and Rejection of the Gentiles ver 11 12. and Christ makes this seasonable digression into this Doctrine because at this time a poor Gentile excels ever a Jew of his age in believing the power of Jesus Christ Lastly Christ commands the sick servants cure he speaks such a word as the Centurion did pray that he would and believe that he could speak ver 13. And Jesus said unto the Centurion Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee and his servant was healed in the self-same hour And thus Christ is honoured for his Miracle the Centurion is honoured for his Faith and the poor dying servant hath the comfort of both I shall now pass by all other Observations that may be made out of this Text and only insist upon this one Doctrine which I have chosen to be the subject of this discourse viz. Doct. THat all sicknesses and diseases are at the will and under the command and government of Jesus Christ so that he bids them go and come and do what he will to the children of men This Doctrine is grounded upon the Centurions pleading with Christ that all diseases were under his command and government as the Centurions souldiers were under him and also upon this that Christ testifies the truth of this in commending the Centurion for the greatness of his faith in believing this truth and improving it as he did To prevent the misunderstanding of this Doctrine I shall premise these three Cautions 1. That I do not hereby deny the power and influence that inferiour causes may have in bringing diseases upon us for I know that many sicknesses come from God through the hands of Angels and Devils and that other men and also our selves and that unwholesome dyet the seasons of the years and divers other things may be the instruments and means of diseases unto us but yet God is the first and chiefest cause of all diseases for it is not in the power of any creature to suspend or with-hold that Divine Power and influence which causeth our health but this is continued or denyed unto us according to the will and pleasure of God and no creature can cause our trouble without God for without him a creature can neither be nor work but falls to nothing and so cannot do good or evil 2. I do not exclude the Art of Physitians nor deny the virtue that is in any medicines for the healing of diseases knowing that the same God who had ordained food for our health hath also ordained physick for us in our sickness but still the first and chief of all is Jesus Christ 3. I do not exclude the power of God the Father or of God the holy Ghost but because I finde that by diseases God doth execute great judgements in the world and that he is pleased to make great use of these in his government both of his Church and of his enemies and that the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son Joh. 5.22 and because this command and government is ascribed to Christ in the Text therefore I shall frequently mention the name and authority of Jesus Christ God Redeemer in this case Now in the handling of the Doctrine I shall follow this familiar method 1. I shall explain the terms 2. I shall shew for what ends Jesus Christ doth thus cause and command diseases Lastly I shall make Use and Application For the first In the explication I shall tell you what I mean by sicknesses and then explain the exercise of Christs government and command of diseases in those acts of it
his pleasure exercise that power which causeth our health and can work with Angels Physitians Medicines Food or any other things which he shall please to use as the instruments and means of health to us and therefore he tells his people Exod. 15.26 I am the God that healeth thee And this is acknowledged by the Leper and practised by Christ Mat. 8.2 3. Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean saith the Leper Christ answers I will be thou clean Beloved God hath deliverances from sickness as well as from all other afflictions at command Psal 44.4 Thou art my King O Lord command deliverances for Jacob So saith David when the Water-spouts of affliction came pouring upon him The Lord will command his loving kindness in the day-time This power of God appears by that of David Psal 68.20 To God the Lord belong the issues from death all the issues and means to escape death belong to God when a man falls into a dangerous sickness he falls into the hands of death he sticks as it were in the very jaws of death as it is said of Hezekiah Isa 38.1 He was sick unto death Now in this case there is no visible issue or escape out of the snares of death the man himself strives friends strive Physitians strive but there appears no discharge in that war Eccl. 8.8 But now God comes in the greatness of his Power and he makes an issue from death and by these things men live Isa 38.16 For God saith to the Fever to the Small Pocks to the Consumption c. Come away let the Minister live with his People let the Father live with his Children let the Children live with their Father let the Wife live with her Husband and thus he commands them away and they are presently gone as it is said of the waters Psal 104.7 At his rebuke they fled and at his voice they hasted away So much for the second particular Thirdly Whatsoever Christ commands diseases to do they do it they are herein like the Centurions servant when his Master bids do this and he doth it the meaning of this is that Jesus Christ by all sicknesses fulfils his own will and the reason is because it is the power of Christ that works in all diseases Now Christ works by his power according to his will Eph. 1.11 He worketh all things according to the counsel of his will Beloved where-ever a disease comes it hath always some work to do 1. Sometimes Christ commands it to fill a man with grievous pain and torment so the Centurions servant here was grievously tormented and we read Job 33.19 He is chastened with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain This did so torture David that he roared for the very disquietness of his heart Psal 38.8 And Jobs pain was so great that he saith Job 16.12 God hath taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces And Sirs although now we sit and walk and eat and sleep at our ease yet our bodies may be breeding those diseases which may shortly cause torturing pain and anguish to come upon us as Travel upon a Woman with child Sometimes God bids a disease to waste and wither a man in the prime and flower of his age and he doth it Many that are now inclosed in their own fat Psal 17.10 and cover their faces with fatness and make collops of fat on their flanks Job 15.27 yet when sickness comes they are strangely altered then their flesh is consumed that it cannot be seen and their bones that were not seen stick out Job 33.21 Then such a man may cry out with David I may tell all my bones Oh what a sad case is this man in he looks on his silver and gold and they shine upon him and upon his precious jewels and they sparkle and twinkle upon him and upon his pleasant pastures and green meadows and fruitful fields and they smile upon him but he looks upon himself and his own body and there he sees a ghastly spectacle Oh now if the face of a reconciled God in Christ do not shine what a fearful condition doth the poor man lie in Again sometimes God commands a disease to take away a mans appetite and stomack to his meat and it doth it so that his life abhors bread and his soul dainty meat Job 33.20 So Psalm 107.18 and this is the sad case of many a man who hath with Dives fared sumptuously every day Luke 16.19 But now poor wretch he hath money enough to buy meat but all the world cannot purchase him a stomack Sometimes men are just finishing their design of hurting Gods people and Christ commands a disease to stop them Thus Jeroboams hand was stretched out against the Prophet and God withered it presently and the good Prophet was delivered See 1 Kings 13. But to conclude sometimes God bids a disease tumble such a soul into hell and it doth it and the poor friends are winding up the Christless body when the Devils are worrying the damned soul Sometimes he commands a sickness to loose a Saint out of the earth into heaven and it doth it and here lies the ghastly jewel the redeemed body but thither flies the blessed and glorified soul I now come to shew you divers of the main Ends of Christs exercising this government of diseases in commanding them to go and come and do what he will I shall mention these seventeen Ends. First To convince us of the great evil of sin which is the meritorious cause of diseases I conceive that the understanding of a man cannot comprehend the evil of sin that is he cannot know it quantum est cognoscibile so far as it may be known or so far as nothing of the evil of it is unknown I think none can know it so but God because a man cannot know all the holiness and goodness of God which sin is against nor all the wrath of God which sin deserves yet a man may by the power and light of Gods Spirit be so far convinced of the evil of sin as to judge it the greatest evil in the world and therefore to loath it and abhor it most and to desire more to be saved from it then from any evil And this is one great use of all afflictions thus to convince us of the evil of sin Jer. 2.19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God And this God intends by visiting us with sicknesses Job 33.27 He looketh upon men meaning in their sickness for this was the case mentioned in the foregoing verses and if any say I have sinned and it profited me not c. Beloved God stands looking and hearkening at your sick beds to see and hear if upon deep conviction and by sincere confession any of you say I have sinned this God looks for in his Visitations upon us We
to resist or remove these because the irresistible Arm and Power of God works in them and therefore he may cry in his sickness Help â—riends help riches help honours But if God do not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him Job 9.13 The places of the world are called slippery places Psal 73.18 and they that know what God is and what sin and what the creature is know by the causes the slipperiness of them and see you sliding down as fast as you are rising up And tell me you great men of the earth where is the place which you can name and say Here I can stand and cannot slip into hell I tell you there are standers by can see your magnificent buildings scituated on the borders of hell your beds made at the very mouth of hell your tables spread over the pit of hell your horses prancing with you and Coaches ratling with you at the very edge and brink of hell Ah great vanities where-ever you are the mouth of hell is gaping upon you and there are thousands of diseases and deaths to loose you in We may hence then conclude with David Psal 62.9 That men of high degree are a lye and vanity and if we weigh nothing in the balance with them they will prove lighter then nothing and vanity Thirdly The vanity of strong men Solomon tells us Prov. 20.29 The glory of young men is their strength and men are apt to be very proud of their strength that they can leap and lift and run and wrestle and fight and excel others in bodily exercises But what is all this strength when God comes upon thee by sickness and with his strong hand opposeth himself against thee Job 30 21. Thy bones are now full of marrow and strength but when a disease comes thy strength will be dried up like a Potsheard or pitcher baked and burnt in the fire Psal 22.15 therefore when thy heart is lifted up in the sense of thy bodily strength consider Hast thou an arm like God or art thou stronger then he canst thou fight with a Fever or wrestle with the Falling sickness or out-run a Consumption No no this conflict will prove like that of Jobs with the Leviathan to teach thee to remember the battel and do no more David was a man of such strength that he tells us that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms Psal 18.34 but when he came to grapple with sickness then he was so feeble and sore broken that saith he Psalm 22.14 I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joynt Besides if thou live to it old age will creep upon thee shortly and then the keepers of the house viz. the hands and arms will tremble and the strong men viz. the limbs that support thee will bow as we readâ— Eccles 12.13 and at last death shall devour thy strength Job 18.13 and the very worms of the earth will be too strong for thee Let not therefore the mighty man glory in his might Jer. 9.23 for as David infers from Gods wasting men with sickness Psal 39.5 Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 4. To convince us of the vanity of children these indeed are sweet comforts and it is a great mercy to be instruments in Gods way of bringing such an excellent creature as a man-childe or woman-childe into the world and I have often thought that when some do take too much pleasure in a horse or in a dog as a spaniel or the like that it 's a great blessing to parents to have such objects of their delight as their own children Hence saith Job O that I were as in months past when my children were about me Job â—9 2 6. and truely though the fare be but course yet it makes it more pleasant to have these plants about the table These are indeed sweet flowers but a sickness comes and then like a Posie they wither in thy bosome so that we must conclude with Solomon Eccles 11. ult that childehood and youth is vanity Lastly of the vanity of wealth and riches Oh how bare will sicknesses and death make a man Sirs a dead corpse is but a poor thing How poor doth a rich man go out of the world when sickness and death hath stript him of all his enjoyments and then as he came naked out of his mothers womb so naked must he return Job 1.21 Eccles 5.15 1 Tim. 6.7 look on the world with your hearts filled with the thoughts of sickness and death and then you will see the vanity of it look on thy self as stretcht on a bed of languishing see thy self lying in a Coffin or in a Grave or standing before the judgement-seat of Christ and then see how all the riches of the world appear before thee If a man look on his stately house and buildings what a pleasant dream is he in to see a sweet scituation wholesome air convenient rooms c. but let him see death coming up into the windows and then what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months is cut off in the midst So when a man is feeding himself with the pleasant thoughts of a feast let him remember that death is in the Pot and that death stands between the cup and the lip and then he will not be so apt to make his belly his God like those Phil. 3.19 So when men are proud of their Pedigrees and take pleasure in reckoning up their Kindred and telling of their Families let them take in these with the rest of their Relations saying to corruption Thou art our father and to the worms You are our mothers and sisters Job 17.14 and this will shew all to be but noble dust and rich earth and great vanity So much for the second End of Christs visiting men with sickness End 3. To fill our hearts with the sence of death Sicknesses are fit means for this purpose for sickness it self is a kinde of death for death is a privation of life a separation from that which is our life And now we know we have as it were a life in food friends and estates c. and sickness parts and separates us from these it stops the passage betwixt these and a man so that the pleasure and comfort of these cannot come to the man for his disease but the man stands as it were betweeen the two worlds at the end of this world and at the beginning of the other and all creature enjoyments are shut up from him and the great things of eternity stand open before him So that what the Apostle speaks of persecution is for the same reason true of sickness 2 Cor. 4.12 Death worketh in us when sickness comes death works apace it works away your health it works away your ease it works away your stomachs it works away your strength and at last works you into your graves
work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters oâ— the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at thâ— day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thiâ— corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed uâ— in victory Look on this corruptible anâ— mortal body which is now sometimes sâ— loathsome with diseases that a man caâ— scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wilâ— crawl and feed all over it and these verâ— arms and thighs and legs may be throwâ— up and lie like the bones of horses anâ— sheep at the graves mouth yet the day iâ— coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shalâ— exhort all to these six duties grounded oâ— this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense oâ— this truth that the health and lives of alâ— men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at thâ— command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As foâ— our heavenly enjoyments we are best wheâ— we are most fit to enjoy them but as foâ— our worldly comforts we are best when wâ— are most fit to loose them as thus it is ouâ— holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very faâ— into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones oâ— the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this