of Christ is as truely thine by faith as it is Pauls or ever a Saints in heaven Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference So that I say thou mayst stand in this righteousness and put all the enemies of thy salvation to the trial and ask Who can lay any thing to thy charge or condemn thee And thou mayst in effect hear from all the like answer which was made by other things in Job in another case Sin saith It is not in me and Satan saith It is not in me and the Law saith It is not in me and Death saith It is not in me we have nothing to charge upon a justified person and therefore be always taking new and fresh hold in this righteousness for it is observable that God doth not onely in a set and solemn way as in Sacraments and Sermons c. offer and give Jesus Christ but also he is constantly offering him in the Gospel and declaring it to be his will that we should take him and thou shouldst not onely in the duties of Gods worship but also upon all opportunities in secret and at other times be applying to thy self and owning and glorying in this righteousness of Jesus Christ believe that God is always smelling a sweet savour in this righteousness as offered for thee and that Christ is by his continual intercession presenting it to his Father for thee and it 's always offered in the Gospel to thee do thou therefore always take it for thy righteousness to justifie thee that when sickness and death come thou mayst be found so doing Direct 2. Learn to dye daily for it is a certain truth that he that will live when he dies must die whilst he lives and therefore Paul affirms it to be his practice 1 Cor. 15.31 I protest by your rejoycing that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye daily But how can a man dye daily Answ Three ways 1. By a daily separating and loosing his heart from all things which death can loose him and separate him from I mean so as not to account his life and happiness to consist in them death you know is a separation from that which is our life Now we have a kinde of life in husbands wives children estates c. and when death comes it separates us from these therefore I say we dye daily by a daily loosening and parting the heart from them this duty is clearly taught by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. where the Apostle exhorts that because our time to enjoy relations pleasures and estates is but short and we are presently to spend an eternity without them therefore let them that have wives be as though they had none and they that rejoyce be as though they rejoyced not and they that buy be as though they possessed not that is they must live with their hearts loosed and parted from these things for as a traveller useth the necessary accommodations of his Inne soberly seasonably and cheerfully whilst he stays yet so as to forward and not to hinder his journey home So a Christian must use the comforts of this life holily cheerfully and thankfully yet so as not to stop him in his way to heaven Our sweetest enjoyments must neither make the thoughts of eternity less sweet nor our passage into eternity more hard Now hereby a man is very much prepared for sickness and death for one thing which makes these so grievous is because the heart hath taken such hold of the creature that it exceedingly torments him to be broken from it so that it is often a greater trouble to loose his soul from the world then to loose it from the body but when by grace the heart is already loosed from the world a great part of deaths work is done already because death findes him dead to the world when it comes to take him out of the world 2. A man dyes daily by a daily living on those things which he must live upon after death We are commanded this duty Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth As the heart must be parted from the things on earth so it must be set and fixt and fastned on the things in heaven and this is the property of grace to make the heart dead to the world by turning it to a life in God and Christ and heaven Now this also is a dying daily for death to a childe of God is a removing him from a life on earth to a life in heaven and hereby he doth as it were go beyond death and hath his life and joy and comfort in the other world He walks by faith in the streets of the City that hath foundations and rests and refresheth his soul in his house not made with hands he secretly departs from the company and comforts of this life and gets his heart among Angels and Saints in heaven beholding and praising and rejoycing in the face of God and Jesus Christ Now such a man must needs be fit to dye because his heart is set on every thing that death brings him unto Like Paul who having his heart fixt on Christ in heaven cries out Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Lastly a man dyes daily by daily looking upon himself as a dying or dead man he lays death to his heart Eccles 7.2 his heart is full of the serious thoughts of death Job 17.13 14. If I wait the grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister Ah sirs to one that knows he shall dye and sleep in Jesus death and the worms are as sweet as his dearest relations And thus a man prepares for death when he doth as it were accustom himself to dye and makes death familiar to him Christians look upon your selves as always at the very point of death when you are putting your flowers in your bosoms remember you are as it were dressing a Corpse for the grave when you are washing and kembing your heads and faces and looking on them in the glass remember what ghastly skulls they will be shortly yet let thy thoughts be often among the graves think here lyes my Grand-father and Grand-mother there lyes my Father and Mother yonder lyes my Brother and Sister and I my self am just going to lye down amongst them Thus learn to dye daily Direct 3. Labour by an eye of faith to discern between things that differ Beloved faith hath a very deep and piercing insight into things it judgeth of things by Scripture it believes what God in his Word speaks of them and so a believers carriage towards every thing is
man into eternity and sinks him into hell when he comes there drunkenness is a sin which of its own nature breeds Dropsies Consumptions and other diseases as we read Hos 4.7 The Princes makes themselves sick with bottles of wine and daily examples witness the sudden and untimely death of many drunkards It is reported of one that when he was drunk as he was getting up on his Mare he said in a drunken frolick that his Mare would carry him to the Devil and his Mare threw him down and broke his neck Sirs do not venture to be drunk lest you fall into hell before you be sober The last sin which I shall here reprove is the beastly sin of whoredom This is a sin against a mans own body 2 Cor. 6.18 hence we read Prov. 6.26 The Adulteress will hunt for the precious life See further Prov. 7.22 26.27 He goeth after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death And thus you see that by this filthy sin men and women sacrifice their health estates names bodies and souls to their stinking lusts carrying a filthy and guilty soul in a rotten body whilst they live and shutting themselves out of heaven into hell when they dye Now that this use of reproof may leave some deep convection in your consciences consider what thy health and life is givâ—n thee for viz. that thou mayst have opportunity of serving and honouring the great God and of providing for eternity Now therefore what a bloudy wretch art thou to thy self that thou shouldest by thy own sins shorten thy space of repentance and put a sad period to all thy blessed oppâ—rtunities and days of Salvation and dispatch thy self beyond all ordinances and means and hopâ—s and possibilities oâ— Salvation and so make thy self unable to live before thou art ready to dye Vse 3. Of Consolation to the truely godly This Doctrine is a great ground of comfort to all the children of God whereby they may see that all sicknesses dangers and deaths come through the hands of their own father for it is a most certain way of comfort to the godly in any sickness to bring their hearts to the first Cause and Author of their Visitation for if they are at peace with him they will be sure to finde peace and comfort in their affliction Hence the Apostle teacheth us Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing that is do not torture and distract and break your hearts with sinful cares and fears but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God bring your hearts and desires unto him And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus Perhaps thou hast nothing to keep thy estate from loss nor thy body from aches and pains nor thy name from reproach nor thy life from death But however thou shalt have the peace of God to keep thy heart full of grace and comfort through Christ Jesus and if the heart be thus kept the blessing and comfort of all is kept in it for in this case thou mayst lose friends out of thy company riches out of thy estate health and ease out of thy body and yet thou mayst keep the peace and comfort of all in thy heart Now that your hearts may be refreshed with this Doctrine I shall shew herein these five grounds of comfort 1. In respect of the season of the visitation 2. Of the end 3. In respect of the godly themselves who are visited 4. In respect of death Lastly in respect of the day of judgement 1. In respect of the season of our Visitation we may be assured that Jesus Christ will chuse the best and fittest season to visit us in See 1 Pet. 1.6 Wherein ye greatly rejoyce though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations This is an argument of comfort that our afflictions come in a season when we have most need of them Husbandmen know that there is a season when the ground hath need of frost and snow and parents know that there is a season when their children have need of the rod And so there are seasons wherein we that are Gods husbandry and Gods children have need of his fatherly chastisements and in these times he chuseth to visit us I shall contract all that I will say of this in the application of a general truth to this particular case viz. that the time and season of Gods remarkable Providence is called the fulness of time in Scripture So we read Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son so that place seems something pertinent to our purpose Eph. 4.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Where note that this is the great and mysterious work of God to gather together in one full body all his Elect that those which are already in heaven with those who are to be gathered out of the world may all meet in Christ their Head and so be the fulness of him that fills all in all Now this work is said to be done in the fulness of time So that this is the glorious work which God is carrying on by ordinances mercies afflictions diseases death he is gathering all his people together bringing them into a body unto their head and I say this is all done in the fulness of time Now there are two things which make a fulness of time 1. When it 's a time set and appointed by God for such a dispensation a time full of the Decree and Counsel of God and wherein his Decrees are fulfill'd So the coming of Christ was in the fulness of time viz. in the time set by God 2. When time is fitted and prepared for such a work in which respect also Christ came in the fulness of time time had been travelling as it were for this many ages Prophesies and promises and the faith and expectation of Believers were full of Jesus Christ and so the time being fitted for his coming he comes in the fulness of time Now to apply this to the case in hand whenever sickness or death comes it is in the fulness of time 1. In that time which is set by the wisdom and counsel of our Father for the good of his children he set the time of thy birth and of thy new birth so he hath appointed the time of thy visitation and of thy death which are all times appointed to demonstrate and glorifie his infinite power and love towards thee 2. They come in a time most fit for such a work Sin grows to such an head that it's time for sickness or some
recreations Lastly make Conscience of the duties of your relations so that you may refresh and revive and not disease and destroy one another our health and life doth much depend under God upon our relations You therefore that are parents do not spend your childrens bread in whoredom drunkenness idleness and revenge many parents finde their lusts more chargeable then their children It is very sad that children may cry out We might have had better education better trades better portions better health had not our merciless Parents loved their sins better then their children You that are children make not your parents lives miserable who have been a means of life to you be not such foolish children as to be the heaviness of your parents Prov. 10.1 Husbands Nourish and cherish your own flesh Eph. 5.29 Make not provision for your lusts with that which should make provision for your wives Wives do your Husbands good and not evil all the daies of your lives Prov. 31.12 labour to be their Comfort and Crown and not as rottenness in their bones So much for the Exhortation to all in general 2. Exhortation directed to people as they enjoy their health The duty which I shall exhort unto is to prepare for sickness and death In this Exhortation I shall use this method 1. I shall shew what this work of preparation is 2. I shall press this duty on several sorts of persons 3. Urge it with some Motives Lastly I shall give several Directions to direct us how to be prepared for sickness and death For the first This work of preparation is that whereby every sound believer is by the spirit of Jesus Christ setled in such a blessed state and frame that he is fitted for all that Christ shall do to him by sickness and death In this description observe three things 1. The principal efficient cause which makes this great preparation in us viz. the Spirit of Jesus Christ Hence Christ is called The Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.12 Where Jesus Christ begins a work of grace and salvation in a soul he never leaves it till he hath finished it and made it up for heaven therefore saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 Being consident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or finish it till the day of Jesus Christ that is till the day of death and of judgment so that this is the great work of Jesus Christ in every true believer to fit him and make him ready for sickness and death and the day of judgment 2. Here is the subject of this work or the person prepared viz. every true believer who is a vessel of mercy prepared for glory 3. Here is that wherein the nature of this work of preparation consists viz. in three things 1. He must be setled in the state of grace and salvation that is he must have a Scripture-right to God as he is the God of salvation by Jesus Christ and so a right to heaven and to all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace 2. He must be wrought into a gracious frame whereby he is bent to yield up himself in subjection and obedience to the will of God in sickness and in death Lastly Here is that which he must be prepared for viz. all that God shall do to him by sickness and death If God fill him with pain and misery he hath his graces of faith love patience humility and meekness to enable him to lie quietly and obediently and chearfully under the power and will of his heavenly Father If God call him by sickness into Eternity he is with Saint Paul ready to be offered and is made fit by grace to receive and enjoy the glory of heaven This gracious frame of heart is fully epxress'd Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord that is we live to this end to please and do the will and to seek the glory of the Lord and we are ready to die to the will and glory of the Lord. So much for the Explication of this work of preparation Secondly I shall press this Exhortation upon these seven sorts of persons 1. I shall exhort little children so far as they are capable to know and practise this duty to prepare for sickness and death Now because this applicaâ—ion may seem strange consider that God himself thinks it not below him to be a Teacher of young children Psalm 148.12 13. Both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord. And all parents are commanded to teach their children to know and do his will Deut. 6.6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently or whâ—t and sharpen them upon thy children So Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Observe there is a way for young children to go to heaven and it is that wherein they should be found when they are old and all parents are bound to set them in that way and indeed children are sooner capable then most conceive to know something of God and Christ and Heaven and Hell Timothy knew the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a sucking childe 2 Tim. 3.15 And this appears by the timely fruits of the Spirit that sometimes drop from their pretty sanctified mouths And certainly baptized children being Christs Disciples and admitted into his School the Church have a right to be taught in the way to salvation and Christ is a Prophet to them and his Ministers are Ministers to them as well as to others And really Ministers have often more comfort from catechized Boys and Girls then from many old ignorant Atheists who are worse then children in the understanding of the Scriptures And lastly it makes much for Gods glory to have his Name praised by the mouths of little children Psal 8.2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thy enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger Observe God hath ordained that his praise in the mouths of little children shall be a strong and powerful means to stop the mouths of malicious subtil Atheists to still the enemy and avenger So we read Matth. 21.16 Out oâ— the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thoâ— perfected praise The praises that come to God by the blessed Angels and all the Saints in heaven and earth is perfected and made up by the praises of these young Saints Now considering these things and seeing sickness and death fetch away so many young children into Eternity I have chosen to direct one brief Exhortation to the young Boys and Girls among us Oh come therefore you sweet and pretty children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord be you prepared for sickness and death Heark sweet Children
a siege or famine will be useful and profitable if such times do not happen so that you can neither be well nor sick nor live nor dye without this work of preparation Mot. 6. That man is in a most blessed condition who is prepared for sickness and death for every thing which makes him prepared makes him blessed I shall onely instance in two things 1. All the happiness of the other world is his own 1 Cor. 3.22 Things to come are yours Christians your sins snares and troubles are almost past but they will be all over shortly but your joy glory and happiness are to come The happiness of heaven is to come and the glory of the day of judgement is to come Now all these joys that are to come are yours for they are setled upon you in the Covenant of Grace 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Now that man is fit to dye and is in a most blessed condition who when sickness and death comes hath a right to go to heaven Poor childe of God! the best of thy hopes and comforts and happiness lies beyond death and thou canst not come at them for this life but sickness and death will put thee into possession of all and thou art like to see a strange sight so soon as death hath loosed thee out of this life 2. He is by the graces of Gods Spirit fitted for heaven he is made meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Beloved grace makes a man fit to receive glory the joys of heaven are brought and received into the soul by grace if thou wilt be prepared for death live now as thou hopest to live for ever in heaven do nothing but what thou wouldst do going to heaven Besides by grace the heart of a Believer fastens on heaven he lays hold on eternal life he prayes hears and receives Sacraments with his heart having fast hold on heaven How fit therefore is such a man to have sickness and death come to let him into heaven Last Motive If you are not prepared for sickness and death you will be prepared for hell Sirs if a godly man doth good and a sinner doth evil both go into eternity the one to be a treasure in heaven the other to be a treasure in hell Now what a fearful condition is this for a man to be always laying up provision against himself in hell We read Rom. 9.22 of vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction if you will not be made up for heaven you must be made up for hell Oh believe what a fearful condition this is to be always ready to be turned into hell thou dost not think of this whilst the pleasures of sin and the patience of God last But what a case wilt thou be in when there will be nothing in thee but torments and nothing in God towards thee but wrath Beloved be convinced of the certainty of hell thou mayst as certainly see hell by the light of Scripture as thou mayst see men and beasts and earth and trees by the light of the Sun hell is as certain as sin and sinners there is wrath in God as sure as there is sin in man God's justice is as sure as his mercie and he hath bound himself to condemn unbelievers as well as to save believers See Joh. 3. ult Mark 16.16 See your nearness to hell whilst you are unprepared for sickness and death methinks I see that every step thou goest thou art ready to tread in the flames Poor soul thou hangest over the lake of brimstone by the twin'd thred of life when that breaks thou art drowned and damned for ever there is nothing appears between thee and hell but the hand-breadth of time Oh what a sight is this to see a company of secure sinners drinking and swearing and swaggering and ranting and roaring within an hand-breadth of everlasting burnings Again consider the greatness of hell-torments here is a depth that thou canst not fathom who can speak of the greatness of hell-torments when it 's our duty to believe they are unspeakable Canst thou tell how many years eternity lasts or how much punishment sin deserves Dost thou know how much wrath Omnipotencie can inflict or how much torment a vessel of wrath can hold then mayst thou measure the torments of hell and fathom the lake of fire and brimstone Consider but this one thing viz. the greatness of God who inflicts the torments he is a God to whom vengeance belongs and he were no God if he could not do that which belongs to him consider God is great in every thing that he is to whom he is a father a portion a husband he is a great father a great portion a great husband to whom he is an enemy he is a great enemy Oh how great must their misery be who must for ever feel the weight of that hand which made heaven and earth Beloved if but the ach of a tooth be so grievous that it takes away the taste of a whole monarchy of the world while it lasts how inconceiveably great must their torments be who have the power that made all the world set awork to torment their bodies and souls through all eternity Nay consider further God will raise up his glory out of his enemies misery those are always great works which God makes to please himself and to demonstrate his glory when he would glorifie his power and goodness and wisdom he makes a world when he would glorifie his grace and love and mercie he gives a Christ and when he would glorifie his justice and holiness he damns a sinner O wo wo wo be those poor souls out of whose torments God will raise up to himself an everlasting revenue of unspeakable glory Oh then what a miserable cheated soul art thou who wilt venture to be one hour unprepared for sickness and death when for ought thou knowest thou mayst be in the bottom of hell before the clock strike next I shall now in the last place conclude this Use by giving you ten Directions to direct you how to prepare for sickness and death Direct 1. Labour by a strong and lively faith to be always receiving and resting upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ Beloved the greatest danger you are to provide against is that sickness and death do not bring you to hell Now being found in Christs righteousness you shall have thereby a safe and comfortable way and passage through these into heaven for by reason of this you may stand on the very gates of death and triumph with the Apostle Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Now this righteousness
when those evils which thou fearedst from men shall be brought upon thee by God when God shall fill thy body with greater pains then the cruellest Persecutor could invent or inflict Oh what a loss will then a suffering opportunity be when a man may say I had an opportunity to lose my life and save my soul and now I must lose my life and my poor soul too Direct 5. That you may be prepared for sickness and death do nothing but what you would have sickness and death finde you doing Remember what ever thou art about that sickness and death may finde thee in it Death found Zimri and Cozbi in whoredom Numb 25.8 and Death took Ananias and Saphira in a lye Acts 5. and Death caught Eutychus sleeping at a Sermon Acts 20.9 And on the other hand God took Enoch walking with God Gen. 5.24 And when Elijah and Elisha were talking together no doubt of some good Elijah was fain to break off his good discourse to go to heaven 2 Kings 2.11 and Christ went blessing his people to heaven Luke 24.51 And good Stephen as he was praying was taken from off his knees into heaven Acts 7.60 Oh Sirs if you would not go lying or swearing or drunk or swaggering or ranting into Eternity do not practise these sins now but walk in your callings recreations and duties as if you saw sickness and death fetching you out of these into heaven Direct 6. Labour to be filled with a merciful and tender disposition towards others in their sickness and misery this is a sure way for thee to finde mercy from God in thy sickness With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Psal 18.25 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 5.7 We have a precious promise to this purpose Psal 41.1 2 3. Blessed is he that considereth the poor By the poor is meant not only the poor in estate but also those that are poor and afflicted in respect of other afflictions And it 's a most blessed frame of heart for men when they sit in health and at ease and swim in wealth to be seriously considering their poor diseased and afflicted brethren The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness I say therefore shew mercy to others in their sickness and when the day of sickness and death and judgment comes thou shalt be sure as Paul prayed for Onesiphorus in the like case to finde mercy at that day Direct 7. Be fully satisfied in the belief of Gods care and providence towards thy friends whom thou art to leave behinde thee Beloved it makes the thoughts of sickness and death more grievous to many because of the sad and miserable condition which their poor Orphans and Widdows will be left in when they are gone and especially if their condition be like that of learned and godly Oecolampadius who when he should have made his Will had nothing to bequeath But this trouble is not so much for want of an Estate as for want of Faith therefore go chearfully to your sick beds or death-beds with the belief of these following Scriptures Jer. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless children I will preserve them alive and let thy Widdows trust in me In which words as appears by the context God threatens the Edomites that their children and wives shall be left so desolate that they shall have none but God to provide for them Yet God is so tender of poor fatherless children and widdows that though they were of the families and posterity of Esau yet saith he I will preserve them alive How much more tender then will he be of the poor families of his Jacob See also Psal 10.14 The poor committeth his cause to thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Perhaps it troubles thee to think what a company of poor helpless children thou art to leave behinde thee Why consider the infinite and all-sufficient God makes it one of his great works to help fatherless children therefore this great Creator of the world will be glorified by this name The helper of the fatherless See further Psal 68.3 4 5. Observe here one great reason why the righteous must be glad and exceedingly rejoyce and sing forth the praises of God is because he is a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widdow in his holy habitation Observe In his holy habitation God is in heaven not only filling Angels and Saints with his glorious likeness and presence but he is there also full of gracious thoughts towards poor fatherless children and widdows upon earth And although I do not think that there is any intercourse betwixt a Saint in heaven and his family upon earth and I do not know that he will in heaven be offering prayers for them upon earth yet I do not doubt but he will there know that he hath left a family behinde him upon earth and by his glorious vision of God will see that Infinite Power and Providence which provides for his and all other families upon earth so far as is for his own glory and the good of his Church See again Hosea 14.3 In thee the fatherless finde mercy It may trouble thee to think that although now thy wife and children are respected for thy sake yet when thou art gone they are like to finde the world cruel and unfaithful friends hard and unkinde c. but take comfort and satisfaction in this Scripture where thou seest not only that there is mercy in God for fatherless children but also that they shall finde it and have the comfort and experience of it I shall therefore conclude this with the exhortation of the Apostle Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and then as to any trouble about these things The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Direct 8. Labour to make a wise and holy use of the spectacles of mortality look upon your selves as following your dead neighbours and friends whom you see going before you into Eternity It is said of a dead man Job 21.33 The clods of the valley viz. the Graves and Sepulchres shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable gone before him Consider when you see any one buried that he is gone to an innumerable company that are dead and buried before him and that every man shall draw after him Oh remember that you are drawing after your dead grandfathers and fathers and friends which are gone before you Poor wretch thou thinkest that thou shouldest be like thy Neighbours to have as much wealth and honours and pleasures as they but look upon other Neighbours who are lodged in the chambers of death and
diseased ver 6. Lord my servant lies at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented Luke saith Cap. 7.2 He was sick ready to die The person thus visited was a servant in Matthew the Centurion is said to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be translated my child for the word is ambiguous signifying either a child or a servant but in Luke he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant yet it is said a servant who was dear to him and it seems by considering both together that he was a good faithful and obedient servant and therefore as dear to his Master as his child I shall take occasion from hence to call upon servants to do the Will of God in their Relation Servants labour in all faithfulness and diligence to honour your Masters keep up their Authority in your Souls and let your whole carriage savour of a heart that willingly chearfully and humbly yields up it self in obedient subjection thereunto 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Tim. 6.1 Let servants count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1. Consider the Family where thou livest is Jesus Christs he is the Great Master of every Family and he hath given Authority to the Master of the Family where thou dwellest to be his Vicegerent therein and to bear his Image and Authority and to rule in his stead therefore as thou art a Christian and so to honour Christ by believing in him and by rejoycing in him and by doing his Will so the honour thou owest to Jesus Christ as thou art a servant is to honour and serve and obey thy Master in him The Apostle requires the obedience of servants to their Masters for this very reason Col. 3.23 24. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men For ye serve the Lord Christ Servants believe that you are threshing for Christ and plowing for Christ and spinning for Christ this will make you do your service heartily when you consider that you are therein serving the Lord Christ and this will make you afraid of disobeying and despising your Masters when you consider that you do thereby as much as in you lies depose the Authority of Jesus Christ from ruling and governing in the Family 2. Consider that you do hereby adorn the Gospel of Christ This is the Apostles argument Tit. 2.10 That they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things What Doctrine this is appears by the following words the Doctrine of the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Oh how should this prevail with you to consider that when in conscience to God you are faithful diligent quiet and obedient servants you are a precious Ornament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel is honoured not only by Ministers when they preach the Gospel and by Martyrs when they die for the Gospel but also by poor servants when they live in their service as those who are ruled by the Gospel therefore believe the Glory of Jesus Christ as it is revealed and appears in the Gospel and then own and honour the Face and Image and Authority of the same Christ as it shines in thy Master whom he hath placed to bear his Authority over thee 3. Consider that faithful servants are exceeding precious to Jesus Christ Thou thinkest it a sad case that thou must spend all thy daies to toil and drudge like a poor servant but consider the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.21 Art thou called being a servant care not for it never let that trouble thee that thou art a servant And the Apostle gives this reason for thy comfort vers 22. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man When many a gallant Lord and Lady is a servant to sin and a slave to the Devil and stands bound to suffer the wrath of God for ever thou that art but a poor godly servant and art bound to men yet thou art set free from Sin and Satan and Hell and hast a sure right to all the priviledges of Believers though thou art in this mean relation of a servant amongst men yet thou standest in all the glorious relations to Jesus Christ a poor servant and a King and Priest to God a poor servant and a Wife and Brother of Jesus Christ a poor servant and a glorious Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven I tell thee though thou art but a poor servant yet godliness will put such a grace upon thee as to make thee a glory to Christ a crown and joy to thy Minister a delight to Gods people a terrour to the greatest wicked man about thee and a very torment to the Devil of Hell Lastly consider that this is thy particular way wherein thou art called to please and honour God and to work out thy own salvation Psal 37.23 The steps of a good man be he never so poor are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way It was an high and holy saying of one That a poor Milkmaid walking in obedience to God in her calling doth bring more glory to God then heaven and earth There is no duty which thou art bound unto as a man or as a Christian which hinders thee in thy duty to God and man as thou art a servant for Gods commandments do not cross and interrupt one another and we cannot sin against Gods Will whilst we are doing his Will and true Grace will make thee a gracious servant as well as a gracious Christian the same faith and love which causes thee to believe in and to cleave unto Jesus Christ will cause thee to see and to love and to obey his will and authority in thy Master So that when thou art most faithful and diligent and obedient in thy service thou wilt finde most freedom and sweetness in Prayer in Sermons in singing Psalms and in feeding upon the Lords supper The Apostle requires all servants to be filled with this principle in their walking obediently to their Masters Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance Col. 3.24 teaching all servants to walk in their Callings so as those that know that this is their way to heaven Ah poor servants rejoyce in your work for heaven is your wages and let me tell you that you are never like to see a fairer way to heaven then you have now you are servants you will finde if ever you come to be husbands and wives and parents and rulers of families that it is harder to rule then to obey Now there are amongst many other excuses these three things which servants pretend to excuse their irreverence and disobedience to their Masters which I shall briefly answer and then proceed First the servant will plead that his Master is a poor man if he were as rich and great a man as some other Masters are then I would honour him but he is poor and I am come of as good
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
11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man with the bands of love there are secret cords and bands in all our mercies to draw and to bind our hearts to God and when we finde our selves nourisht with meat and refresht with sleep we should finde a secret vertue in these mercies to joyn our hearts to God but God useth this means with many one but the soul yet abides in his sins then God sendeth another servant he sends a faithful Minister to call him to himself and a faithful friend to perswade him to come but yet the poor sinner will not come Well saith God I will yet try another messenger Go Fever Go Ague c. Now these are often so blessed that all the former dispensations work afresh Now he remembers his mercies and Sermons and counsels and they all work so effectually that the poor sinner is savingly converted unto God End 6. To convince people of the necessity and excellencie of godly Ministers Beloved Gods Ministers are the strength of King and Kingdom the very Militia of the Land The charets of Israels and the horsemen thereof 2 Kin. 2.12 The Apostle shews how we should esteem godly Ministers 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ If we esteem Ministers aright we should prize them as Ministers prize them for that which makes them differ and wherein they are separated from other men as if you would truely prize the Lords day and call it a delight and honourable as the Scripture requires you must esteem it as sanctified and separated from other days and thereby you shall see it a more holy and blessed day so if you would prize the Lords Supper you must esteem the bread and wine as separated from other bread and wine and as consecrated and sanctified to such a use so if you would honour an Embassadour from a great King you do not so much look upon his personal worth but he is honoured and received as he is sent from the King and stands in his stead So my Brethren if we would prize a Minister aright look upon him as separated to the Gospel as cloathed with authority to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as one through whose hands God hath in wisdom chosen to transmit the treasures of the Gospel to you and as one who stands in the stead of Jesus Christ who is ready to revenge all the affronts that are offered unto him Now my Brethren there are no sorts of men so much abhorred by the world as godly Ministers these whom our Saviour calls the salt of the earth Matth. 5.13 as if the world of men would be but as a piece of stinking carrion if it were not for godly Ministers and godly people And the Apostle tells us they are unto God a sweet savour in Christ 2 Cor. 2.15 yet they are hated as if they were the loathsomest excrements in the world This Paul elegantly expresseth 1 Cor. 4.13 We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day Ministers are loathed as if they were a curse and plague to the world and as if they were the nastiest jakes or sink on the earth for thus the words in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply But now when God throws a sinner on a bed of sickness then a â—aithful Minister is for worth and excellency one of a thousand Job 33.23 for the more a man sees his need of those soul-saving mercies which Christ sends by his Ministers the more he will prize Ministers themselves If a man sees what hell is he will prize Ministers that labour to save him thence If a man believes what heaven is he will account Ministers precious who are to be the greatest means under God to bring him thither If the soul be wounded for sin then how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tydings of good things Rom. 10.15 So look on thy self as gasping under sickness at the door of Eternity and then see whether thou darest boast that thou hadst rather hear a Piper then hear a Preacher or rather set up a May-pole then set up a Minister these will prove but poor frolicks when thou seest nothing but death and hell and the day of judgement before thee thou wilt be glad then to send for these Elders the Ministers of the Church to pray over thee and as fast as thou canst spit in their faces now thou wouldst be glad then to lick the very dust of their feet for the least sound comfort that ever dropt from their sanctified lips End 7. Christ by sicknesses doth further and promote the Salvation of his own people as the following particulars do more fully evince and the reason of this is because Jesus Christ doth every thing to his people as their Saviour and therefore there is a saving Power and Vertue works from Christ in and through all his dispensations towards them as whether a father feed or whip his childe he doth it with the heart of a father for the good of his childe so if Christ afflict his childe he doth it with the heart of a Saviour to save his childe and therefore all Gods people may say of their sickness as Paul in another case Phil. 1.19 I know that this shall turn to my salvation We have full proof of this 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord meaning by those sicknesses and weaknesses mentioned in vers 30 â— that we should not be condemned with the world nor go to hell with the world Hence Tertullian speaking of Gods fatherly love in correcting his people hath this pathetical passage O servum illum beatum cujus emendationi Dominus instat cui dignatur irasci de patientiâ cap. 11. O blessed is that servant for whose correction or amendment the Lord is so earnest with whom he vouchsafes to be so lovingly angry Beloved it is observable that God doth not distinguish his people from the wicked by making them Lords and Ladies or by filling them with the treasures of the earth these are not the effects of distinguishing grace for a wicked man may have his belly full of these things Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures And therefore Job tells us of those that provoke God that into their hands God brings abundantly of worldly things Job 12.6 he brings a whole Empire of the world into the hands of a Nero or a Turk But God distinguisheth his people from the world by making them holy and happy and therefore though the common mercie of God which brings riches and honours and health c. doth not so much abound to the godly yet the distinguishing grace of God which brings salvation Tit. 2.11 never fails and therefore when they have many things which hinder their estates and liberty and health yet nothing shall
Christ So saith he 1 Cor. 15.32 I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I die daily He was so acquainted with death that he made it his daily practice to put himself into a frame and posture to die and so many a Christian hath got such acquaintance with death by sickness that he lives in a continual frame and readiness to die besides his sickness makes him less fearful of men for he knows when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do they have done their worst which is no more then an ordinary disease can do and therefore as the Philosopher told the Tyrant when he threatned to kill him that a Fly could do that so Believers need not fear what men can do because they can do no more then a Fever Dropsie Consumption or any other disease can do and thus he is prepared by sickness for other afflictions End 16. To prepare them for great mercy Beloved sometimes mercies are more dangerous for Gods people then afflictions they are often worse in plenty then in poverty in credit then in disgrace more secure in health and ease then in pains and sickness This happens when our mercies are too big for our graces as when we have great credit and little humility or else when our outward mercies do most feed our inward corruptions as when riches do meet with a heart much inclined to covetousness and health and ease are given to a Christian who is apt to be idle and secure now therefore God melts his people in the Furnace of Affliction to prepare them to be vessels of mercy Hence we read Hebr. 12.11 That no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby As whilst a Childe is under the discipline of the Rod he receives the fruit of his dulness and idleness in the smarting of the Rod but afterwards he receives the fruit of his learning and education in honours and preferments So whilst Gods children are corrected with sickness and other afflictions they receive the bitter fruit of their sins of their pride frowardness security and creature-confidence c. and this is not for the present joyous but grievous but afterwards they reap the fruit of righteousness and holiness of faith fear love prayer c. and this is sweet and peaceable fruit we have a pertinent proof of this Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him As the Husbandman in a year of famine when corn is dear and seed scarce he sows he ventures it in the ground but he sows in tears he goes out with his seed weeping Ah thinks he this corn would have made so much bread for my poor wife and children or would have given so much money towards paying my rent Thus with a sad heart he sows his seed but when harvest comes and brings forth a plentiful crop then he reaps in joy and brings home his sheaves with singing shouting and rejoycing Thus it is with Gods childe in affliction as suppose in sickness his grief is great and his pains grievous yet he sows though it be in sorrow he believes in tears and hopes in tears and prays in tears well after comes the harvest of health and he reaps the fruit of faith hope and prayer and he goes about rejoycing and praising God and carrying his sheaves of mercy and comfort about with him Our Saviour speaks fully to this case Joh. 16.20 21. Ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the childe she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world As a woman with childe when the hour of her travel is come is full of sorrow with the throws and pains of her travel but when she is delivered she forgets her sorrow and with a joyful heart falls a kissing and imbracing her childe So my Brethren when the hour of sickness or other affliction comes upon us we are full of sorrow with the pains and travels of our affliction but when we are delivered and see what mercy our affliction hath brought forth the joy and comfort of our graces and experiences and deliverances doth swallow up the sorrow of our affliction We have a special instance of the glorious chain of Gods wonderful Providence towards Joseph to confirm the truth in hand his afflictions lasted about thirteen years for he was seventeen years old when he visited his Brethren Gen. 37.2 and thirty years old when he was preferred in Pharaohs Court Gen. 41.46 Now in all this time his afflictions were sad he was parted from his tender father he was bought and sold after this unjustly defamed and imprisoned he was put like a Rogue in irons Psal 105.18 his afflictions were so great that the afflictions of Gods people were long after and ever will be to the end of the world called the afflictions of Joseph Amos 6.6 yet he was after all this raised up in great mercie and was made a blessed instrument to save the Church and Israel of God from perishing with famine We have another instance in Job I shall say no more of him but onely apply to his afflictions what the Apostle saith of his patience Ye have heard of the afflictions of Job and have seen the end of the Lord for as we read Job 42.12 The Lord blessed the latter end of Job David upon this ground incouraged himself in his afflictions because he believed a good issue out of them Psal 71.20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Consider further that sickness when sanctified exceedingly fits a man both for Spiritual and Temporal mercies for then a man comes out of sickness as one who is raised from the grave and so he is filled with the thoughts of death and eternity and this is a frame of heart which gives a kindly relish to all spiritual mercies this makes him taste God and Christ to be exceeding gracious in the likeness and enjoyment of whom he sees himself blessed and satisfied through all eternity And this also fits him for Temporal mercies for it teacheth him to use friends lands food and all his temporal injoyments for eternity he hereby learns to turn his treasures in earth into treasures in heaven This makes him at the will of God to leave father and mother and lands and life knowing that he shall receive the comfort of all in another world so he cheerfully gives to Christ in his members
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
work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters oâ— the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at thâ— day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thiâ— corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed uâ— in victory Look on this corruptible anâ— mortal body which is now sometimes sâ— loathsome with diseases that a man caâ— scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wilâ— crawl and feed all over it and these verâ— arms and thighs and legs may be throwâ— up and lie like the bones of horses anâ— sheep at the graves mouth yet the day iâ— coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shalâ— exhort all to these six duties grounded oâ— this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense oâ— this truth that the health and lives of alâ— men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at thâ— command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As foâ— our heavenly enjoyments we are best wheâ— we are most fit to enjoy them but as foâ— our worldly comforts we are best when wâ— are most fit to loose them as thus it is ouâ— holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very faâ— into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones oâ— the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this
project to have himself honoured and Mordecai hanged vers 4 6. But in onâ— night God turned the scales by a Divinâ— touch upon the Kings heart and so Mordecai is brought to the honour and Hamaâ— to the gallows Oh what became of thiâ— great Courtiers thoughts when instead oâ— the honour which he expected he had thâ— halter which he deserved And thus wâ— finde that God hath gracious thoughts oâ— love and mercy to his people and the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations But men have thoughts of setting up themselves and throwing down the Church of God but they fade in their ways and their thoughts perish Lastly See your enemies in the hands of Christ What are they all when they may be sick or dead or damned before they can do thee any hurt Isa 51.12 I even I am he that comforteth thee Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man which shall be made as grass We may learn here that a Christians fear of man proceeds from his ignorance of three things 1. Of God therefore saith God I even I am he that comforteth thee Sirs if there be more power and goodness and wisdom in him that comforts us then there is strength and subtilty and malice in them that trouble us what need we be afraid do but believe who comforts thee and thou needst not fear or care who troubles thee for God can take away the troubles of man but man cannot take away the comforts of God 2. Of themselves Therefore saith God Who art thou What thou who art my childe and hast me thy father to comfort thee and yet wilt thou be afraid of a man Oh what a poor-spirited creature art thou to be afraid of a man 3. Of the vanity of man Therefore saith God He is a man and can do no more then a man and he is a man that shall dye and wither as the grass Christians God and Sickness and Death and Hell are nearer your enemies then they are to you and I tell you do but believe Gods threatnings against them and you will see no reason to fear their threatnings against you Secondly live in a holy awe and fear of Jesus Christ Psal 33.8 Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him A man that is a tenant at will can tell you he is afraid of offending his Landlord for saith he I live under him I am at his mercie he can keep me in and turn me out of my living when he will Beloved if we knew the power of Christ as well as we do the power of a Landlord and were as much afraid of hell as we are of loosing our livings the same reason would prevail with us to be afraid of offending him for we live at his mercie and life and death is at his Will let me therefore warn you as God did the Israelites speaking to them of Jesus Christ Exod. 23.21 Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for if you continue in your sins he will not pardon your transgressions for my Name is in him Upon this ground we are required to fear him Psal 2.9 10 11. He will break his enemies with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel Therefore it is made the wisdom of Kings and Judges of the earth to serve the Lord with fear It is very observable that as Gods Attributes give being and life to a Christians graces so a Christians Graces bring glory to Gods Attributes as for example the Power and Truth of God causeth Faith and the Goodness of God causeth Love and the Greatness of God causeth Fear in the hearts of the godly So God hath a peculiar name of praise and glory from the graces of his people because of their faith and hope in him he is called the trust and confidence and hope of his people and because of their delight in him he is called the song and joy of his people and because of their awe and dread of him he is called the fear of his people the fear of Isaac Gen. 31.42 See Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread We have a special instance of this in Job cap. 31. in which Chapter Job by many solemn protestations and serious imprecations asserts his innocencie in several duties as in chastity equity to his servants charity to the poor c. Now he clears himself that the reason of his integrity in these things was not because he was afraid of ever a man alive Hence saith he vers 34. Did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of families terrifie me No no he had a great awe upon his heart vers 23. For destruction from God was terror to me and by reason of his greatness I could not endure How contrary to this is the secure temper of many who rage in malice against God and godliness and fill the land that bears thâ—â— with lyes oaths drunkenness whoredoms injustice Sabbath-breaking contempt of Ordinances c. yet they make no more of God and his Judgements then the very stones or dirt under their feet But oh what work will diseases and death make among these secure and senseless Atheists shortly methinks I hear the wrath of God roaring against them and the Lyon hath roared who will not fear Amos 3.8 Be perswaded then to stand in awe of God for which purpose lay up that Scripture Eccles 8.12 13. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God 3. Labour to make your peace with God you see what he can do against you he can disease or kill or damn you when he will therefore it 's your great wisdom and safety to have this God on your side and to be at peace with him The Scripture perswades to this duty with this argument Isa 27.4 5. Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burâ— them together meaning if my enemies who are but as briars and thorns before me who am a consuming fire will fight it out against me I will burn them up quickly I will have them in hell presently but saith he vers 5. If they will by sincere faith and prayer take hold on my strength and make peace with me they shall make peace with me Now to prevail with you herein consider what this peace with God is it 's that blessed State whereby God in Christ is for the good and happiness and eternal salvation of Believers and whereby they are
wholly turned and set for the service and glory of God So that in this case a man may improve his knowledge and faith by all the advantages both from Scriptures and Creatures and get his soul filled with the highest thoughts of the infinite power and wisdom and goodness of God and then boldly say This is my infinitely great and good Father and all his glorious power and wisdom and love is on my side then he may look into the world and see all things working busily about him and then conclude that this is the greatest work upon the wheels to bring happiness and salvation to me and to that body of which I am a member And then on the other hand he may look in himself and see all the powers of his body and soul united in this great designe to please and praise and enjoy God So that by these things you may learn what it is to be at peace with God whereby you may also see what is the enmity betwixt God and a sinner it is that whereby a sinner is against God so as to be fearfully bent to hate and deny and despite him and God is against the sinner so as to blast and curse and damn him so that this is thy case sinner if thou art not at peace with God all manner of diseases and all kindes of deaths and dangers yea and all the curses of the Bible are against thee because the God of all these is against thee I would therefore seriously perswade you to come to agreement with God which that you may do let me tell you that I am this day sent as an Embassador of peace from the Lord of life and death who hath committed to me the word of reconciliation So that I have authority from him to offer most blessed conditions of peace viz. if you will this day sincerely turn from sin to God and truely receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel you shall have the great God to be your Father his onely begotten Son the true God to be your Husband and Saviour the infinite and blessed Spirit to be your Comforter you shall have grace and peace to abide with you here and an everlasting Kingdom of glory to possess and enjoy hereafter Sirs are not these blessed and honourable terms Well where lyes the difference Answ In nothing but sin Now what a fearful case is this that after God the Father hath sent his onely begotten Son and after he hath dyed the most shameful painful and accursed death of the Cross and after so many hundred Sermons and offers of peace Wilt thou now break with God for a base lust canst thou indure hereafter to lye among the Devils and damned in everlasting burnings and to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and hear thy own conscience upbraiding thee to all eternity that thou hast lost heaven and dost lye in hell for loving thy cups oaths whores or the dust of the earth better then Jesus Christ O Sirs repent and believe quickly you have more need to do it then either to eat drink or sleep for ought you know you may be in hell before such another offer be made I am sure there are millions of diseases and deaths waiting at your doors to break up the treaty I shall therefore conclude this in the words of Eliphaz to Job cap. 22.21 22 23. Aquaint now thy self with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee the law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles Fourthly prize and improve godly Ministers and people whilst you have them seeing it appears by this Doctrine that you know not how soon they may be sent for to heaven where I am sure they will be better respected Now the greatest honour that you can shew to godly Ministers is to be doers of the Word which they are Preachers of Ministers are more honoured by the conversion though of the poorest servants then by the highest commendations which the most able and learned Doctors are able to express for this is their greatest glory to be instruments of Gods glory in the salvation of poor souls for thereby the Word of God is glorified 2 Thes 3.1 By the applause of men Ministers may be cryed up for persons of excellent gifts and parts but this is their greatest glory when by the salvation of souls the excellencie of the power appears to be of God and not of men But Beloved the ignorant unbelieving world knows not the worth of godly Ministers or Christians because they see not the excellencie of God and Christ and Holiness and Heaven which are the causes which make them so precious The world knoweth us not because it knew him not 1 Joh. 3.1 But whatever the men of the world think who can prize nothing but honours and riches and pleasures to which they should be dead and crucified I tell you godly Ministers and Christians are the blessings of their age and those are the best Kingdoms and Countries and Towns and Parishes and Families which have most of them and which love them best Solomon tells us Prov. 10.11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life I need not tell you what a necessary publick mercy a well of good and wholesome water is to the Town or Family where it springs Now a righteous man is a Well of Life he is a spring of spiritual Aqua vitae Many a poor sinner or sad swounding Christian receives the spiritual life of grace and strength and comfort from the mouth of a godly Minister or Christian Prov. 15.4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life It 's a Metaphor taken from the Tree of Life in Paradise which was Gods Ordinance to preserve man alive had he continued in innocencie Thus a godly man is a tree of life in this evil world he turns a Family into a Paradise where he grows and is prized so that many a man who was dead in sin and many a fainting childe of God is quickned and revived by feeding on the fruit of his wholesome tongue Now my Brethren the serious consideration that these blessings are by sickness and death ready to be taken from us should cause us to esteem and improve their spiritual and savoury company How did Elisha cleave to Elijah when he knew he was presently to be taken from him and therefore we finde that three times Elijah to try Elisha his constancie seemed to shake him off but Elisha every time answers most solemnly As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee 2 Kin. 2.2 3 6. and if you read the story you will finde that it proved well for Elisha that he was so wise and careful to improve that precious opportunity See Acts 20.25 where Paul useth this
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
time to have a name from the doing of it for it is observable that the actions of men give a name to these three things viz. to themselves to the places and to the times wherein they live 1. Then do nothing but what thou wouldst have a name from the doing of it man loves sin but he cannot endure to be called according to his sins but if thou dost abhor the name of a drunkard swearer lyar why dost thou live in the sins of drunkenness swearing and lying 2. Do nothing that thou wouldst not have the land to have a name from for the land hath a name from the practice of the people a holy people make a holy nation a prophane unclean perfidious people make a land of prophaness of whoredoms of treachery c. What sins thou livest in thou dost not onely make thy self but also as much as in thee lies thou makest the land laothsome to God and men 3. Do nothing which thou wouldst not have thy time have a name from it makes thee have sad thoughts to think of the time of drunkenness whoredom lying c. but times of prayer meditation holy conference c. are sweet 4. Take heed of idleness this sin makes empty and unprofitable times and leaves people unprepared for sickness When Calvin was reproved for inordinate labour he gives this savoury answer What saith he would ye have my Lord finde me idle Sirs would you have sickness and death and the day of judgement finde you idle Our Saviour in the Parable having intrusted his servants with their talents he bids them Occupy till I come Luk. 19.13 See Christ's coming and improve your talents for him till he come Now that you may abhor this sin of idleness 1. Consider that if you be not doing good you will be doing hurt man is a busie creature let a man look at any time within himself he can never see his heart stand still We read of some 2 Thess 3.11 Who work not at all and yet are busie-bodies Sirs the soul is quick at work a man may quickly lay up abundance of treasures in heaven or hell For as Bernard saith well If you are not exercised in the labours of men you are in the labours of devils 2. Make the work of Salvation thy main business labour to turn every day into a day of Salvation Sirs it is an excellent thing for a man to live so in his calling relations recreations afflictions duties of Gods worship as if all the powers of his body and soul were set upon the work of Salvation this will keep a man from idleness For that man will never want business that knows he hath a soul to save 3. Consider what little time thou hast for this great work perhaps it may never be done if it be not done now they were fools that said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye it had been a wiser speech to have said Let us repent believe and pray for to morrow we dye 4. Consider what thou hast to set thee on work and to keep thee from idleness look into hell and see sin and the world and devils thrusting thee therein and thou wilt finde it business enough to save thee from those unquenchable flames Look into heaven and see God and Christ and Ministers and Christians always calling thee thither and see thy own sins carnal friends men devils a world of stumbling-blocks lying in thy way to stop thee from going into that everlasting happiness and thou wilt finde work enough to go to heaven Look into thy self and see what sins thou hast to conquer and bewail what wants to supply what graces to quicken and ripen what duties to perform what storms and troubles to prepare against Look on God on Christ and see what objects are there for all the powers of thy body and soul to be exercised upon Hast thou any time for idle thoughts or words or affections that hast such a God and Christ to think of and to speak of and to set and fix thy heart and love and delight upon Look into the family and town and place where thou livest and see Christless parents or Christless children or Christless brothers and sisters or Christless servants or Christless neighbours and thou mayst have that in thee to speak or do which may save their souls from hell and shall they perish and be damned by thy idleness Look into the Church and Kingdom where thou livest and consider wherein thou mayst serve them and be a blessing to them and how thou mayst be an instrument to fill them with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ Nay look upon every creature about thee the Heavens Earth Waters Birds Beasts Plants c. see them all filled with the Power Wisdom and goodness of God and as it were bringing their praises to thee that thou mayst be their mouth to honour and exalt God Methinks Sirs these things should keep us from idleness 5. That thou mayst fill up thy time take heed of losing a suffering opportunity Beloved a suffering opportunity is a precious opportunity it 's an opportunity to honour God further the Gospel to save thy own and others souls to be a blessing to thy posterity and to leave thy name as a blessed savour behinde thee I would not tempt men to lust after sufferings I know the Devil would have his servants to serve him by passive as well as active obedience yet I would have none so base as to chuse to sin rather then to suffer and to prefer Apostasie before Martyrdom Sometimes a man may fall into such a nick of time that duty may cost him his life and a sin may save his life This case is implied in the words of our Saviour Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it Now that is a sad loss of a suffering opportunity when a man saves himself from suffering by sin Consider the fearful consequences of this hereby thou savest thy estate name life and losest thy soul which is clearly implied in the next words vers 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Remember when thou runnest into a known sin to avoid suffering thou makest a bargain thou makest an exchange thou gettest the world and the Devil and Hell get thy soul Consider further it is the highest improvement of thy name estate and life to sacrifice it to the glory and will of Christ by suffering for him this is the best that thou canst make of thy self Sirs it is more honourable if thou art called to it to be burned at a stake for Christ then to be burned with Fever or to die for Christ in a Prison then to die in a sick bed Consider lastly What a woful case will sickness and death finde thee in
and gallants of the proud presumptuous scornful unbelieving envious sâ—cure covetous world are now flaming in and consider that thou deservest to lye in the midst of them and therefore now the greatest care of thy soul should be how to be saved from those unquenchable flames Then look into heaven into thy Fathers house and behold there the high and lofty one dwelling in that high and holy place and the Lord Jesus sitting at his right hand in glory and an innumerable company of Angels looking him in the face and there see a great multitude of blessed and glorified Saints Illic Apostolorum gloriosus chorus illic Prophetarum exultantium numerus illic Martyrum innumerabilis populus There is the glorious quire of Apostles there is a company of triumphant Prophets and there is an innumerable multitude of blessed Martyrs saith Cyprian There thou mayst see those who were upon earth the poor reviled despised afflicted persecuted imprisoned banisht hang'd burnt Children of the most high God whom the world could not bear but are now happily possest of their everlasting Kingdom where they are filled and satisfied with the likeness and presence of God and are singing and rejoycing with unspeakable joy to behold his glory And then consider Yonder is the place wherein I am now to seek to enter And thus let thy sickness fill thee with the deep and serious thoughts of death judgement and the world to come Duty 3. Be sure of a well-grounded Scripture-peace setled betwixt God and thy soul It 's a good saying That the day of death is a day of truth See therefore that thou hast a peace which will prove true and sound when it comes to the great tryal of death and judgement The unbeliever is not then to be tryed at the bar of his own secure and seared conscience nor by a Jury of carnal atheistical neighbours The Believer hath then a present appeal from the â—ash and false judgement of his enemies and also from the dismal sentences of his own doubting heart and the Cause of both is presently to go to a hearing before the judgement-seat of Christ Now see that thy peace be setled on such a sure foundation that thou mayst be found in safety and glory when thou art called to appear before the Judge of quick and dead There are two main things which may assure thy heart of peace and reconciliation with God 1. If Christs righteousness be thy own so that as sure as thou art a sinner in thy self thou art righteous in and by the righteousness and obedience of Jesus Christ See therefore that all causes agree to make this righteousness thy own 1. Set the Lord before thy eyes and be able to say I know and am surely convinced that God is a good God a living kinde and merciful God and that he is good to poor sinners by the salvation of whom he hath chosen to make his goodness glorious to all eternity I know that there are forgivenesses with him that he hath a heart to pardon iniquity transgression and sin that he is inclin'd and ready to pardon according to his infinite goodness and loving kindness and this goodness is the cause of all that great Salvation revealed in the Gospel and I come to him and my soul doth cleave to him and love him and all my expectation is from him as he is a God of such infinite and incomprehensible goodness 2. I know that out of this infinite goodness he hath sent Jesus Christ to me that to me a childe is born and to me a son is given Isai 9.6 I know surely that he came out from the Father and I do believe that he hath sent him John 17.8 I know that the Son of God is come and hath given me an understanding that I might know him that is true and I am in him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 3. God hath herein commended his love to my soul in that Christ dyed for me and I know this true God the Lord Jesus Christ did in his infinite love to me as my Surety dye for me and thereby satisfied Gods justice for my sins which he bore in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 4.24 And that he loved me and gave himself for me an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour 4. I know that it is the will of God concerning me that I should take this righteousness of Jesus Christ to be mine for he hath commanded me to take his â—ody as broken for me and his Bloud â—s shed for the remission of my sins And this is his commandment that I â—ould believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ 5. I know that God by his Spirit hath convinced me that I am lost without Christ and that he hath made me to see his righteousness so precious and meritorious and necessary for my Salvation that I do by the power of his Spirit willingly obediently lovingly and joyfully receive and take this righteousness of Christ for my own and rest onely upon it for the pardon of my sins and for my Salvation as it is freely offered and given by God to me in the Gospel Lastly I know that God hereupon imputes this righteousness to me and accounts it my righteousness and that I am bound to account it my own so as to own it live upon it and to glory in it and by this righteousness God justfies me being he is just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 And thus being justified by faith in Christs righteousness I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 And hereby I have a right through the free grace of God to go from my sick-bed into the everlasting Kingdom of peace And when I am called to the Judgement-seat of Christ being found in his righteousness I shall be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 2. That thou mayst be assured of a Scripture-peace and reconciliation with God labour to finde thy self truely joyned and united to Jesus Christ thy whole body and soul joyned to all of Christ so as with him to make one self one mystical Christ that thou mayst be able to say As poor and weak as I lye here groaning on this bed of languishing yet this aking head pale face weak hands feeble limbs withered body is all a member of Christs body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 For by the grace of God I can say that whereas I am in my self a dead plant and as separated from Christ can doing nothing yet by faith my heart is truely rooted in Christ and I do receive him to rule me as my Lord according to his will and to teach and every way to save me and my minde is set upon him and my heart and affections do cleave and are fastned to him and there comes true spirit and life from him which spreads and works in