all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
compleat Model Though I say much yet I know I say nothing but the truth I read of few excellent woman in the Scripture but she made them a pattern of one vertue or other For obedience she was a Sarah for wisdome a Rebecca for meekness a Hannah for a discreet temper an Abigal for good huswivery a Martha for piety a Mary a Lydia I know not any necessary thing that belonged to make up a good Christian but in some measure it pleased God to bestow it on her Thus she continued all her life in the time of her health and in sickness with so much patience as after a sort she endured a martyrdome and I see no reason but we may allow a Martyr of Gods making a swell as of mans I am sure if God make Martyrs I know not any fitter then she so meek and patient and constant Many daughters saith Solomon have done vertuously but thou surmountest them all I will not say so of her because I decline flattery But this I will say that I know not many excel her scarse any that come neer her She hath the reward of that she hath done given her of God and her works follow her We leave her to God and having committed her soul into his hands we beseech his gracious favour upon our selves THE GREAT TRIBUNAL OR GODS SCRUTINY OF MANS SECRETS SERMON XIV ECCLESIAST 12.14 For God will bring every Work into Judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil DEath and Judgement are two subjects about the meditation of which our thoughts should every day be conversant we should every day be thinking of those two dayes Every day upon the day of death because there is no day wherein death may not befall us And every day upon the day of Judgement because as the day of Death leaveth us so the day of Judgement findeth us We had an occasion like to this not long since Then you may remember I discoursed of Death considered as an Enemy I shewed you what kind of Enemy it is it is a common Enemy a secret Enemy a spiritual Enemy Now at this time having the like occasion I thought it not amiss for me to discourse of that that cometh immediately after Death that is Judgment The Apostle saith Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die and after Death cometh Judgment And it is that that Solomon mindeth us of here in the words of my Text which he addeth as a reason to that grave advice he gave in the verse before going Having discoursed at large in this book concerning the vanity of all earthly things and the vexation among those things that are under the Sun he telleth us where it is best for us to set up our rest that is in learning that one lesson Fear God and keep his commandements for this is the totall all that God requireth That we might the rather be stirred up to hearken to this counsel he telleth us that whether we do or no the day will come that we shall be called to an account when God will bring every one of us to Judgment and take a tryal of every work we have done and of every secret thing whether it be good or evil In handling of these words we have two things in general that Solomon speaks of First the person Judging Secondly the things Judged The Person Judging is God And there I will speak First of the Judg. And then of the Judgment The things that God bringeth to judgment and tryal he telleth us first every work every thing be it never so secret And then a more particular resolution those things that are good and those things that are evil God will bring every work to judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I begin with the Person judging And here first of the Judge himself God shall bring to Judgment God essentially meant all the Persons in the God-head Father Son and holy Ghost For all concur in this work being as the School-men say Opus ad extra It is one of the External works of the God-head and it is an Axiome in Dviinity that the External works of the God-head are not to be divided It is true there are certain internal works of the God-head that are said by the Schools to be divided incommunicably proper and peculiar to every Person as it is proper to the Person of the Father incommunicably to have his Being of himself Of the Son to be begotten of the Father And it is the property of the holy Ghost incommunicably to proceed from both But those works that they call External that is those works by which the power and wisdome of the God-head are externally made manifest to the creature such as creation preservation redemtion those equally and indifferently proceed from all the Persons not from one in particular but from all in general and this of Judgment is one For as they all concur in the creating of us so they shall in the judging of us all of them shall co-operate together in the executing of justice and mercy Justice in the damnation of the wicked and mercy in the salvation of the godly You will object peradventure that the Scripture seemeth to speak otherwise though Judgment here be attibuted essentially to God in some places it is attributed personally to Christ He shall judg the quick and the dead and therefore oftentimes it is called in the Scripture the Judgment seat of Christ as 2 Cor. 5.10 Again somtimes this work of Judging is appropriated to the Saints Know yee not that the Saints shall judg the world 1 Cor. 6.2 and by and by again Know you not that we shall judge the Angels vers 3. How shall we reconcile these when it is said Christ and the Saints shall judge I answer This threefold doubt is reconciled by a threefold distinction God is said to judge if we respect the Authority of Jurisdiction Christ is said to judge if we respect the Promulgation of the sentence The Saints are said to judge if we respect the Approbation The power and right are equally given to all three Persons but the particular Execution is given to Christ the Approbation of what Christ doth is ascribed to the Saints As at at our common Courts of Assize here one is set upon the Bench as Judg and others are joyned in commission with him as Accessories the Judge only pronounceth the sentence and they that sit in commission with him ratifie and approve his sentence that he pronounceth so at that day Christ shall sit upon his Throne as Judg the Saints they shall joyn as Commissioners Christ he alone pronounceth the sentence upon every one that is summoned there to the tryal but then his Apostles and Saints that are joyned in commission with him for such honour have all his Saints they shall ratifie and approve and
only in brief run them over this being not the thing that I purposely aym at First in Cities and Corporations there is a Register wherein the names of the Free-men are inrolled So in heaven also there is a Register a certain book of Records as it were wherein are written the names of as many as God hath appointed to life Rejoce not faith our Saviour in this that the divels are subdued unto you but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven And all that are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.15 God in his secret counsel and purpose in his special providence and love takes notice of all his servants even of their names and he hath them as sure as if they were written down in a book there is not one man that cometh to heaven but the Lord knows him already to be a man ordained to that estate and condition Secondly as in all Cities and Societies there is a certain law whereby they are all governed in obedience to which they live So there is a law whereby all the Citizens of heaven all the houshold of God are governed that law which the Apostle Saint James calleth the royal law a law which commandeth the very spirits of men a law that disposeth the whole man to a heavenly frame and subjection to the will of God the great King of Heaven so that a man while he is here below by degrees is drawn off from the world in his affections and disposition and carriage and madesutable and conformable to the rule of righteousness Thirdly as in all Cities there is a kind of safety and security to those that dwell there not only as they are incompassed with walls but also as there is watching and warding some waking while others sleep to keep the rest in safety So in this heavenly society the Angels pitch their Tents about those that fear God nay the Lord himself is the Shepheard of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth while men oppose them God defends them while men are labouring and plotting and devising against them and they it may be are secure and fear no danger God disperseth and disappointeth a thousand projects intended against his servants It was so with his own people Israel while they were in the plains securely lying in their tents there is Balack and Balaam consulting upon the mountains how to curse them but the God of Israel that is above the mountains that sitteth on the highest Heavens he ordereth the matter so that Balaam for his life though he might have had all the wealth and honour of the Kingdome could not pronounce one curse against Israel because God had said to him that he should not curse Fourthly As in Cities and societies on earth men have communion and society one with another the less have interest in the greater and the greater in the less and all have interest one in another the inferiours receive from the superiours protection and provision and the superiours receive from the inferiours subjection and submission So it is in this heavenly Corporation in this spiritual Jerusalem Jerusalem is a City at unitie in it self There is a communion and fellowship that the Saints have with God the Father with Christ with the Angels with the Saints in heaven and one with another on earth With God the Father they have an interest in him as subjects of his kingdome as servants and children of his family there is not the meanest subject in this kingdome but he may make his request known to this Prince there is not the least servant in this Family but he may make his complaint to this Master they may as children go boldly to the throne of grace and make their request known unto him though it be but in sighes and groans Hence it is that God takes notice of them your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things and therefore he will supply them If you that are earthly can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give good things to them that ask him They have interest in Christ also he is their Intercessour therefore hence it is that he is said to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us He is their Advocate if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous He is their Lord and Captain the Captain of the Lords Army to defend his Church Michael the great Prince standeth up for the children of his people They have interest also in the holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity they have not only the love of God the Father but the communion and fellowship of the holy Ghost as the Apostle wisheth for the Corinthians Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is ready to help their infirmities to in able them to put up their requests when they know not how to pray as they ought Hence it is that he sanctisieth them and therefore they are said to be Born again of water and of the spirit that he comforteth them therefore he is called the holy Ghost the Comforter As the Saints have interest in the three Persons in the Trinity in respect of their dependance upon them so the blessed Trinity hath an interest in them also If I be a Father where is my honour if I be a Master where is my fear Because they acknowledg God to be their Father they honour him because they acknowledg him to be their Lord they fear him c. They have interest in the Angels also Hence it is that they are called Ministring spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect They were Christs messengers his Angels and now they are made Messengers Angels to the Saints therefore faith Christ Offend not one of these little ones for I tell you that their Angels behold the face of my father in heavenâ—… They have interest in them not as worshippers of Angels which the Apostle condemneth Coll. 2. as foreseeing to what a height Popish superstition would rise in this kind I say not to worship them to invocate them to pray to them we know no such will-worship which is without the rule We have an Angel comforting Hagar we have an Angel defending Elisha we have an Angel incouraging Jacob we have an Angel carrying Lazarus into Abrahams bosome But we never had any Angel that stood in this place to have worship and adoration This indeed the Angels have from us imitation of their obedience we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven They have interest in the Saints also yea in those that are dead not as though they paayed for us yet they have a common desire of the welfare of the whole Church The souls under the Alter cry How long Lord holy and true wilt thou not
from Parents it comes not of their substance it is enough for them to be the fathers of the flesh God alone is the Father of spirits as the Apostle makes the antithesis Heb. 12.9 Secondly for the Image the soul is most like God saith Plato saith Aristotle it is of the nearest kin of the greatest consanguinity as I may say and the Lord himself signifies so much After our Image let us make man Then the soul of man is not stamped with a Roman Caesar but with Gods own Image and superscription and that First in respect of the substance being not only a spiritual intellectual incorporeal invisible essence but explaining by the plurality of Powers in the unity of Essence the plurality of Persons in the unity of the Deity Secondly being furnished with singular indowments as in the state of innocency with perfect wisdome and holiness and righteousness Yea still in the state of sin some generals are lest some broken fragments of the creation moral qualifications that may lead us by the hand to the knowledge of our Master Lastly in regard of the comanding power it hath over the body It is to the body as Moses was to Pharoah a God to the body it actuates it and moves and commands and restrains it whereby next and immediately under God we live and move and have our being Seeing then the soul is the immediate work and character of God himself so excellent for the Original and for the Image let nature conclude that the soul in-these regards is of greater value then the whole world Secondly in the Kingdome of grace the price of the soul is far above the dignity of the world and that in the grace of Redemption and the grace of renovation For first in the souls redemption the soul amounts so high as that the whole Creation is not able to discharge it It is not gotten for gold nor silver is not weighed for the price of it it is not valued with the gold of Ophir or the precious Onix It cost more to redeem the soul of sinful man the precious bloud of the eternal Son of God he could only redeem it that at the first created it Ye are bought with a price the precious blood of Christ Secondly in the grace of renovation nothing is able to cleanse it from sin but the Spirit of God The spirit alone must enlighten the understanding and rectisie the affections and purisie the will and sanctifie the conscience and seal up the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness And the soul thus renewed is as a Garden inclosed a spiritual Paradise where the God of heaven delights to dwell the Spouse of the Beloved and in the phrase of the Church As the Lilly among the thorns so is my love among the daughters Seeing it appears that the universal World is not able to redeem or being redeemed to renew or renewed to parallel the soul let grace subscribe to that which nature concludes that the soul is of greater value then the whole world Lastly for the passage of glory the contents of the whole Universe are not able to come neer the soul Saith S. Bernard well well it may be busie and took up with other things but it cannot be satiate and replenished with them And Democrates imagined that if there were millions of worlds it were all one in comparison of the soul for blessedness The world is transitory like the dew of the morning it fades as the grass and as the flower of the field whereas on the contrary the soul of man is the subject of immortality capable of an exceeding surpassing eternal weight of glory For if in the time of grace we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. How resplendant shall the soul of the righteous be in the beatifical vision of Gods excellencies How wonderful shall that divine capacity be that shall be capable of God himself for a perpetual residence Insomuch that the most ancient of dayes shall give fulness to the Soul of knowledg and wisdom and his sacred Spirit that shall fill it with the fulness of God with contentation and the sacred Trinity shall be all in all to it Seeing then the Soul is capable and is the subject of the happiness and joyes of heaven and partner with the glorious Angels in the fruition of the chief good let the sentence of glory joyn to Grace and nature that the Soul is of greater value then the whole world Behold then O man out of the mouth of three witnesses for I may say in this case as Saint John saith in another There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost Behold out of the mouth of three Witnesses the surpassing excellency and dignity of thy soul it is the breathing of God the Image of God he created it with his Word redeemed it with his Son and in whomsoever his grace abides he will crown it hereafter with his glorious presence What then remains but that we esteem our souls accordingly as God values them Let us not with the unhallowed voluptuous in these times make Lords of our bodies and slaves of our souls Let us not spend our dayes in providing for the lusts of the flesh Let us not in affectation of fair possessions of able servants of hopeful sons and good friends content our selves with bad souls A mans soul is himself saith Plato And O wretched wight saith Saint Austin how hast thou deserved so much ill of thy self as among all thy goods to be only thy self bad O remember the sublimity of thy precious soul thou knowest not what a precious pearle thou hast in thy body like the hidden treasure in the Gospel it is of greater worth than the whole field I say not as he did know that thou hast a God in thee yet know that in that better part of thy nature thou art like to God for he hath given thee a soul of his own breathing and stamped it with the impress of his own Image and created it capable of the fruition of his own presence in endless glory In the consideration whereof walk worthily of this precious divine inspiration Thy Soul is a spirit let thy thoughts be spiritual Thy soul is immortal let thy meditations be of immortality and renounce thy body and good name and gifts of the world for the gainig of thy soul for what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul So much shall serve to be spoken of the first point the surpassing excellency and dignity of the soul it is vallued and prized here above the whole world Now the next is the possibility that a man may lose his own soul The mention whereof causeth me to remember that passage between Christ and his
singular comfort if we take them as a commination and they afford us much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victory and full of mirth and jollity he leaps and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercy and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gasp of whom he thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to break I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very Jaws of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithful man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Jerome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmical Treatises against hereticks Quot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunderbolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts striking Death dead by the light whereof we may discern three parts 1. The menaced or party threatned Death 2. The menacer or party threatning I. 3. The judgment menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 4. The judgment most dreadful pestes plagues 1. First of the party menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an enemy and so the Apostle termeth it the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death For albeit Death by accident is an advantage as oftentimes an enemie doth a man a good turn which occasioned that excellent Treatise of Plutarch wherein he sheweth us how to make an Antidote of poyson and a good use of other mens malice yet is it in it self an enemy alwayes to Nature and to grace also it sets upon the elect and the reprobate the believer and the Infidel the penitent and the obstinate but with this difference it flyes at the one with a deadly sting but at the other without a sting the one it wounds to death the other it terrifieth and paineth but cannot hurt But there being divers kinds of death which of them is here meant Death is a privation and privations cannot be defined but by their habits that is such positive qualities as they bereave us of for instance sickness cannot be perfectly defined but by health which it impaireth nor blindness but by sight which it destroyeth nor darkness but by light which it excludeth nor death but by life which it depriveth us of Now if there be a four-sold life spoken of in Scripture viz. 1. Of nature 2. Of sin 3. Of grace 4. Of glory There must needs be a four-fold death answerable thereunto 1. The death of Nature is the privition of the life of nature by parting soul and body 2. The death of sin is the privation of the life of sin by mortifying grace 3. The death of Grace is the privation of the life of grace by reigning sin 4. The death of Glory is the privation of the life of Glory by a total and final exclusion from the glorious presence of God and the kingdome of heaven and a casting into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the devil and his angels Of Death in the first sense David demandeth who is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell of Death in the second sence Saint Paul enquireth how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Of Death in the third sense Saint Paul must be meant where he rebuketh wanton Widdows Shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth Of Death in the fourth sense Saint John is to be understood blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power Saint Austin joyneth all these significations and maketh one sentence of divers senses he is dead to death that is Death cannot kill burt or affright him who is dead to sin And another of the Ancients makes a sweet cord of them like so many strings struck at once he that dyeth before he dies shall never die he that dyeth to sin before he dyeth to nature shall never die to God neither in this world by final deprivation of grace neither in the world to come of glory Of these four significations of Death the first and last sort with this Text for that the first is to be meant it is evident by the consequence here O grave I will be thy destruction And by the antecedents in Saint Paul When this corruptible shall put on incorruption c And that the second is included may be gathered both from the words of Saint John And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire and of our Saviour I was dead and I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and of Death And so I fall upon my second Observation viz. the person menacing J the second person in Trinity our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The word here used Ehi is the same with that we read Exod. 3. Ehi Ashur Ehi I am that I am and if the observation of the Ancients be current that wheresoever God speaketh unto man in the old Testament in the shape of man of Angel we are to understand Christ for that all those apparitions were but a kind of preludia of his incarnation then the Person here threatning can be no other then he besides the word Egilam in the former part of this vers being derived from Gaal signifying propinquus fuit or redemit jure propinquitatis pointeth to our Saviour who by assuming our nature became our Alie by blood and performed this office of a kins-man by redeeming the inheritance which we had lost But we have stronger arguments then Grammatical observations that he who here promised life to the dead and threatneth plagues to Death was the Son of God the Lord of quick and dead for the same who promiseth to redeem from the Grave threatneth to plague Death but we all know that Redeemer is the peculiar stile of the Son as Creator is of the Father and Sanctifier of the Holy Ghost tu redemisti nos thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation To the redemption of a slave that is not able to ransome himself three at least concur the Scrivener who writeth the Conditions and sealed the Bonds the party who soliciteth the business and mediateth for the captive and layeth down
a man to wait upon God it is but a short time and resolve in the time of thy waiting upon this that when thou art fittest for mercy it shall come and when it cometh it shall come with an abundant weight and sweetness such as shall countervail all thy expectation and waiting Thus I have told you how men should exercise patience by exercising their faith and how they should strengthen patience by hope and how they should perfect patience by selfe-denyal The reason why I took this Text for the present occasion is that there might be a concurrence between the rule and the example Here is the rule Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing One reason among others was this because we know not what changes and tryals God hath reserved any of us to therefore we had need of patience Our Sister here is the example a pattern to others of those tryals of life whereto a Christan may be exposed even to extremity Howsoever it pleased God to give many other mercies to her yet nevertheless she had a continual exercise of patience in extream anguish of body in a vexing tormenting pain that a long time for many years together held her under such extremity of torture that a man on the rack or in any other extremity could hardly have greater torments then she sometime felt in the time of that extremity upon her God laid this affliction upon her to perfect her patience and that she might be a pattern of patience to you that you might study and pray for Patience and endeavour after it that when afflictions fall upon any of you you may not be found wanting and destitute of patience So much for this time A RESTRAINT OF EXORBITANT PASSION OR GROUNDS AGAINST Unseasonable Mourning SERMON V. 2 SAM 12.22 23. And he said while the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me THese Words contain Davids answer to a question that was put to him in the Verse going before the Text by some of his servants The question was grounded upon their observation of his divers carriage when the child was sick and when the child was dead When the child was sick he fasted and wept and lay upon the ground and prayed When the child was dead he forbeareth weeping washeth himself calleth for bread c. And now they ask him the reason for they thought rather that he would have exprest a greater sorrow then he had done before as it may be discerned in the consultation among themselves every man was loth to tell David of the great losse that was beâ—…llen him that his child was dead When he heard of it and altereth his carriage and sheweth himself more chearful contrary to their expectation they plainly put the question to him What should be the reason of this The words I have read to ye 〈◊〉 an Answer to that question He telleth them the reason both of his fasting and weeping in the time of the sicknesse of the child and of his calling for meat and forbearing to weep now at the death of the child The reason of his former carriage he giveth in the 22. verse While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who knoweth whether the Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live The reason of the alteration of his carriage why he exprest himselfe in another manner upon the death of the child he giveth in the 23. verse But now he is dead wherefore should I fast 〈◊〉 shall return to him he shall not return to me In the former part the reason of his sad and mournful carriage during the time of the sicknesse of the child then saith he I did fast Yea have first the declaration of his action and behaviour and carriage at that time While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept And the reason of this action and carriage for I said Whoâ—… aâ—… tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live I shall be brief in speaking of this part only First for his carriage I fasted and wept These are â—…ut external actions fasting of it self is not a worship of God but as it helpeth and furtheâ—… another 〈◊〉 as it helpâ—…th a man in prayer as it fuâ—…eretâ—… the work of humination and declareth that For neither if we eat are we the better nor if we eat not are we the worse as the Apostle speaks And the kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drink There is a fast inforced by necessity that which either is by sicknesse or want and is meerly civil and outward without any respect to God And there is a fast too which hath a pretence of respect to God which is not acceptable as that of the Pharisees that rested only in the external action There is a fast that is religious and accepted of God and that is that which is both a testimony of the inward humiliation of the soul as also a help and furtherance of it Such a fast was this that David speaks of here A fast that did arise from a sense of his unworthinesse of the creature and did expresse the sorrow of his heart for sin A Fast which he did set upon only for this end that he might be more free and more fit for prayer And so likewise for the mourning and weeping he speaks of It was not such a weeping as ariseth meerly from the temper of the body as in some that are more apt for tears are such as the tears of Esau to his father he lift up his voice and wept hast thou not one blessing more blesse me even me also oh my father But they were tears that did arise from a holy affection from a gracious disposition of heart from inward contrition and sorrow like the tears that Peter shed when he went out and wept bitterly They were tears that discovered the inward vehemency of his spirit in prayer like those tears of Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel the Prophet Hosea telleth how he wrestled he prayed and wept Such tears were these as did expresse the fervency of his spirit in prayer the earnestnesse of his desire in putting up this request he had now to God like those of Hezekiah I have heard thy prayers and seen thy tears saith God such tears as God putteth iâ—…to his bottle such tears as he takes special notice of There are no tears that are shed for sin our of an inward sorrow of heart that are shed in prayer to exprese a holy desire that proceed from an inward inflamed affection and fervency of spirit but they are very precious with God as far I say as
Zacheus his offer was but half of his goods Lord half of my goods I give to the poor For ought I can perceive and understand above half of her estate she hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These works of her will praise her in the gates She died in the Country And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sickness I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercy in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed She that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and she is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Good Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom and grant that as we grow in years we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when we come to the end of our dayes we may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortal and only wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continual praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that hear the word of God depart from iniquity Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14.7 For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords THese words contain an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weak Christian should be born withal and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them He sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keep themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weakness The strong should bear with the weak and the weak should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one general end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walk in one way and in one path and therefore they should in these things agree together The general end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord He that eateth faith he eateth to the Lord he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not that is still he propoundeth God as his end and the pleasing of God in his actions as the rule of them That he may prove this unto us that they stand thus affected both of them notwithstanding this difference he bringeth in this as the general reason where to every particular of their lives may be reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whet her they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this general reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us living to himself and no man dieth to himself Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their duty to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their duty to God if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. Gods acceptance of them Whether we live or die we are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposal of this general reason none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Now when the A postle affirmeth this of the beleevers of those times he therein intimateth thus much that it is the course of beleevers in all times It is a duty belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speaks generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universality a generality with a restraint He saith none of us he saith not none in the world live to themselves for there are many in the world live to themselves and not to the Lord but none of us none of those that we rank our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speak in this question none of us live to our selves Life in general is nothing else but that power whereby we act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul he gave him the power whereby he acted The acting of this power is the exercise of that life whether the action be of the mind or of the body And so as there is a donble life there are two sorts of actions of life there are natural actions of a natural life and there are spiritual actions of a spiritual life When the Apostle speaks of living he intends both these We live not that is we do not the actions of life whether natural or spiritual to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himself he meaneth not only a mans person either soul or body but all those advantages that conduce to the well-being of a man No man of us so ordereth the actions of his life with reference and respect to our selves as the uttermost end we do not make our own well-being or well-fare the uttermost end of our actions none of us live to our selves You have the sense and meaning of the words which being a patterne to other Christians a thing which the Apostle supposeth is or should be in every beleever it giveth us this point of instruction whereupon we shall insist at this time That is No Beleever none that are in Christ should make themselves the end in their actions None should live that is spend their time and strength and endeavour ayming at no higher end then themselves No Christian should so spend his time as to seek himself only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may be objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seek himself in the things that he doth When they do good things that which God commandeth that
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore faith Jacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear by Christ This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infalible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to look for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ Without this there is little love to Christ The Church in Cant. 1.2 sheweth her love to Christ Draw me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming of Christ When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall here a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and Promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion
is called His because by it he bringeth life and immortality to light as I said before which in former times was hid as it were in the dark and not made known so publikely to the sons of men The Gentiles knew little or nothing of it The Jewes knew what they knew with much darkness and obscurity He that was almost the first Preacher of this Gospel in clear terms without any vail or darkness John Baptist who was as it were between both he did delives this doctrine not so darkly as the Prophets before him nor so clearly as after it was by our blessed Saviour and those that succeeded him Therefore I say it is the Saying of Christ by an excellency because he did in a manner first begin to teach and declare the same in the cleareness and sweetness thereof and he sent his Apostles abroad to make it plain and manifest to all the world that a man may run and read it And His likewise it is called because he is the Author of it for he is the worker of that salvation which it declareth to us Now his Doctrine of the Gospel hath two parts The first acquainting us with our misery The second with the Remedy For as the Bond and Acquittance specific the debt but to different purposes the one to 〈◊〉 the Debtor to the payment the other to absolve and acquit him even so the Law and the Gospel both declare the misery of man the one to tye it fast upon him the other to help him the better to lease it from him The Physitian intreateth of the sickness as well as the Cure but of the sickness alone for the cures sake The Judge passeth a sentence of condemnation and then largly rehearseth the crime and punishment due to the offender the Pardon likewise makes mention of the fault and the punishment but in a different manner and to a different end So the Gospel declareth mans misery and borroweth so much of the Law that may lay down our wretched estate in our selves and so draw in that which is the main and principal part of it the remedy of our souls And this part of the Gospel the Apostle St. Paul succinctly delivereth in a few words Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God All have sinned and All have sinned in such a short and measure and degree that they are fallen short of the glory of God by which the Apostle I think meaneth life Eternal that Glory that had it not been for sin he would have bestowed upon the sons of men by vertue of the first Covenant he made with them The second part of the Gospel the words of Christ is concerning the Remedy whereby a man may be helped against this misery And for that purpose it sheweth us Who helpeth us And how he helps us And what is to be done by our selves that we may obtaine and enjoy this help The Person that helpeth us is the Son Manifest in the flesh the Son of God taking our nature upon him and cloathing himself in the similitude of sinful flesh the Eternal Son of the Father assuming I say the very nature of man into the unity of his Person so becoming God and Man in the same Person he is the sole Redeemer neither is there any other name under heaven by which we can be saved but by his alone Again it sheweth us by what means he saveth us as the Apostle speaks plain enough in the next verse to that I spake of before being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ To the intent that he might free us from the Curse of the Law and wrath of God and the danger of eternal Death he vouchsafed to be made sin for us to satisfie the justice of his Father by enduring the Curse of the Law and to accomplish the Righteousness of the Law by being made in our stead under the Law so he became a Propitiation for the sins of the sons of men as the Apostle saith in that place Thus Christ by his perfect satisfaction made to his Father and by that perfect Righteousness whereby he was subject to the Law for our sakes hath absolutely and fully delivered us from the power of sin and of Death and performed the work of our Redemption by vertue whereof by the merit and worth and value whereof we are delivered and saved and Redeemed from this Death and from all other evils that crosse our eternal happiness And thirdly the Gospel sheweth us by what means we may become partakers of this happiness and Redemption in Christ and telleth us of three things as it were Conditions of the Covenant of Grace of the New Covenant which is ratified by the bloud of Christ I say of three things the Conditions on our parts of that Covenant which if we do we shall certainly be saved by the Redemption in Christ. The first is Repentance The second is Beleeving The third is our New obedience All and each of these plainly exprest in the word of God As for Repentance it is that where with John the Baptist began his Preaching It is that that our Saviour commanded his Apostles to declare to the Jewes Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand It is that which himself preached at the first as Saint Mark witnesseth chap. 1.15 It is that which Saint Paul began with when he came to the Athenians Acts. 17. and now he admnisheth all men every where to repent It was the first of the foundations of the Doctrine of the beginning of Christ that was wont to be taught in the Ancient Church as withesseth the Authour to the Hebrewes chap. 6. not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and then he proceedeth to the rest This Repentance is that which the Lord requireth absolutely of the sons of men as a condition of the new Covenant the Covenant of Grace without which they cannot possibly be made partakers of the same And this Repentance hath four parts every one of which is so needful that without it the rest is little worth First lamenting for our sins and being sorry for our iniquities as David said of himself Psal 38. I will declare my iniquity and be sorry for my sins And so the Apostle Saint James expresseth it chap. 4.9 Afflict your selves mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into sorrow and your joy into tears Therefore Christ you know was sent to Preach glad tydings to the Prisoners and Captives and the opening of the prison to the prisoners and to bring the oyle of gladness to those that mourned in Sion A man must first be a Mourner in Sion one that simiteth on his thigh and saith with Jeremy Woe to me because I have sinned Secondly to this Sorrow must be joyned acknowledgement and confession of sin to Almighty God
seems according to the very notion of the word in use among the Jewes themselves among whom the posterity of Jonadah because of their holiness of life and strictness in religion were called hhasidim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asidaeans 1 Mach. 7.13 as much as Holy-ones Good-men or Saints But not to insist farther upon the translation The name of Saints is given sometimes by the Fathers to holy men departed and reigning with God but so the word is very rarely used in the Scripture but more ordinarily it is given to the faithful in this life and so the notion in Scripture is most frequent So 1 Cor. 1.2 To the Church of God at Corinth called to be Saints or Saints by calling So also Eph. 6.18 Rom. 12.13 c. There is a double sanctity 1. Of outward profession 2. Of inward regeneration and so the word is here more specially understood They are Gods Saints whom he separates to himself or calls unto holiness of life The Saints on the earth such as excell in vertue Psal 16.3 And there is reason for it that there be some Saints in this life because that which makes Saints is attainable here not Popish Canonization but Gods Election Gods Spirit Gods grace the Merit and holiness of Christ as it is 1 Cor. 1.2 Those of the Church of Corinth were Called to be Saints with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ Who was both 1. A pattern of holiness that his people might be so by his example and 2. A foundation of holiness that his fulness might be conveyed to his members Vse 1. If there be Saints in this life it is against the Church of Rome which shuts up all the Saints into heaven and suffers none to be Saints but such whom the Pope canonizeth Bellarmine delivers it 1. That Canonization which is a publike testification of the assured holiness and glory of some by which publike worships are decreed them is pious and lawful 2. That this power of Canonization is only in the Pope 3. That the Popes judgement on Canonization is infallible But Beside that this third proposition is gain-said by men of his own side The practise it self also of Canonization was unknown till Leo the thirds time anno 800. or till fourscore yeares after that till the time of Adrian and it was ever anciently held that no man can judge infallibly of anothers condition or may admit any into the number of Saints The ancient Church had their commemorations of holy men and women departed but without worship So may we honourably speak of such as are with God and we do so Luther cals Thomas Aquinas Saint and Melancthon sticks not at it to call Authony Bennard Dominick and Francis so too We seldome name those glorious Doctours otherwise then Saint Basil Saint Greg. Naz. Saint Ambrose Saint Augustine And so we use to commemorate the holy Apostles the blessed Martyrs and the Fathers And think we have as much liberty as the Church of Rome to call godly men of our late acquintance Saints as I remember a learned and reverend Bishop of ours to have called Master Greenham But withall as the Scriptures do so we may also call the living beleevers and they are so before they come to heaven Vse 2. If there be some let us all aspire unto that honour to-be such as excel in vertue to be put in Albo Sanctorum and to have our names in the Calender or roll Let us follow the foot-steps of Christ and holy men learn of me faith Christ Mat. 11.29 for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you Joh. 13.15 And let us follow them that have followed Christ to take out the patterns that have been set us by Apostolicall and holy men In the ancienter times of more pure and servent zeale people were ready to run to any lights that did burn and shine among them to take example from them how to regulate their lives Hence came many religious professions though since much degenerate and corrupted who were won to the immitation of those practises of self-denyall contempt of the world mortifying of voluptuous affections c. which they saw in them We might make a profitable use of the lives of holy men and Martyrs of old or of late to copy out their sanctity And let it be an incouragement to the study of piety and religion to consider what honour it brings along with it it Saints us so that we need not be at that extream expence and charge which we read some have been at in the Court of Rome to procure Canonization Vse 3. If their be some such here and they be men holy and religious then take we heed that we speak not ill of such that we abuse them not that we open not our mouths against heaven against them that are Incolae coeli Inhabitants of heaven either by an actuall possession of glory or here by an heavenly conversation Devout and religious men whose thoughts and hearts are above do not count this their Country they do but sojourn with us abuse not strangers then especially these strangers for their country sake We use to say De Sanctis nil ni si bonum we should not speak any thing to the prejudice of the Saints The Romanists are presently upon us that we forget this rule Sanctos Dei non esse peculiari honore colendos docent omnes hodierni haeretici So Lorichius accuses us for we know whom he means The truth is we dare not give them divine worship nor make them Gods as the Papists when they have wearied themselves in fitting their distinctions of latreia and douleia to little purpose do it roundly enough and the people in their practise But we give them their due and as much as themselves would be willing to receive as we gathered from the behaviour of the Angel that was sent to John Apoc. 19.10 But in the mean time while they make a thriving trade of the flattering of the Dead they neglect and abuse the living Saints not only writing a Dele in their Indices expurgatory upon the testimony of Pius or Prudens given by some more ingenuous men of theirs to some of our Divines in particular but also traducing the whole estate of our reformed Churches for schismaticall and heretical Vse 4. If there be some Saints of God here let us choose to be of their acquaintance and keep their company because they do best of all know the way to heaven and it is good to go safely that journey by direction of the best and most skilful guides lest we miss it in those places where the way turns or where the path is not so well beaten as the other Road. 2. Gods Saints do also die The Death of his Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness frees not from death Abel Noah Abraham Moses David the Prophets the Apostles the Fathers are all dead
man that gives a thing upon merit he gives it not freely I answer it is free in respect of us whatsoever Christ hath done we did not merit it If it be replyed Christs merits are made ours and we merit in him and so it cannot be free I answer this reason were of force if we our selves could procure the merits of Christ for us but that we could not do but that also was of free gift Ioh. 3. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that he that beleeves in him should not perish he gave him freely of free gift so that though eternal life be due to us by the merits of Christ yet it is the free gift of God I will stand no longer in proving the truth of the Doctrine I come to the application and use to conclude with the time First it serves to confute our adversaries of the Church of Rome in the point of merit They look for heaven and eternal life as wages we see the Apostle teacheth us otherwise that eternal life is not given in that manner but another manner of way It is not given as wages it is the free gift of God And in Rom. 8. he saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed all our sufferings all our works they are not worthy of the glory of God we connot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when we are justified and an eternal life when we are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternal life is not a retribution to our works but the free gift of God When God crowns our merits he crowns nothing else but his own free gift these and many other sentences we find among the ancient Fathers plainly convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not only from Scripture but from all sound antiquity Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our own deservings do all the good thou canst take heed it do not puff thee up think not to merit heaven alas thou canst not do it for what is it to the Almighty as it is said in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst do him no good therefore thou canst look for nothing at his hands since thou canst do him no good but all that thou dost in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to do it but all thou canst do is no more then thou art bound to do Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy self to bean unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good works yet thou hast more sin and the least sin of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeal must be to the throne of grace and thy only plea must be that of the Publican every one of us God be merciful to me a sinner when we have done all we can it must be mercy and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternal life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gist it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then we could have no certainty of it the devil would easily pick the Lock yea without picking he would shake in pieces the crazy joynts of the best work we do he would steal it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us he hath kept it in his own hands he hath laid it up in the Cabinet of his own mercy and love that never fails for with everlasting mercy he hath compassion on us Isa 54. he loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not and whom he loves he loves to the end It is laid up in the mercy of God he will have it his gift lest we should keep it and it should be lost he hath reserved it in his own hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternal life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is wary to discern and faithful to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternal life is the free gift of God it must make us thankful to him for it which we should never do if we deserved it doth a master thank his servant for doing his duty So if we did think heaven were our due we should never be thankful for it Pride is a great enemy to thankfulness therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that we deserve no good thing at Gods hands then we will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankfully Especially when we consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou do Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankful to him is all the tribute we are to pay to this our royal Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thanks We set eternal life at too low a rate if we forget to be thankful There was never a precious Jewel afforded so cheap as eternal life for our thankfulness If we did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants said to him concerning his washing in Jordan if the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternal life we should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankful be but thankful Thus I have described to you this twofold service the wages of sin that is death temporal eternal The service of righteousness the wages and reward of that eternal life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30.19 Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sin nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seed may live If we follow sin the wages will be death if we apply our selves to righteousness in the
service of God our reward shall be eternal life not that we deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AIM IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their own pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousness and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiency in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious Inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withal jointly and together as might be manifested by the allegations of Scripture as be not slothful but be ye followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in the Epistle and more especially in the 10 11 and 12. Chapters In the latter end of the tenth Chapt. you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary means to attain everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soul The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessity of Faith to an acceptable walking and well-pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting down the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for then Faith by which saith he they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posterity standing out to this day also many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them be at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle have spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessary to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithful managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessary uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us run the race that is set before us and run with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithful are to make account of sufferings in divers kinds in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunity in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud vers 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his several administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I do but touch upon these things hast ening on to the main thing I intend only desiring to give you a plain and brief Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drink many times of a cup of bitterness yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proof of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take such a course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his dear love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth vers 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all his children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their souls that they are his adopted ones and such as he will one day acknowledge for to be his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth between God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verily for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in several particulars and the preheminency the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First We have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have been contented to undergo the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of
this a meeting for the solemnization of a Marriage I might further descan upon this plain-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Marriage solemnity surely howsoever here be before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortality yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Marriage solemnity to the eye of our soul understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse he hath his friends friends of the Bridegroom his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us woo us use all the means that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the Mutual consent that passeth between the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here we the Ministers being for him and every believing soul for himself This contract continueth so long as here we remain in this world when we depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleep till the Bride-groom be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that he shall come withal Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soul that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternal inviolable communion and sweet society But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soul we now must look upon the object here before us and answerably order out matter and therefore with this touch I let pass the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the sum you heard the parts But we must hear proceed Huesteron and Proteron and clean invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discern if you do but well mark the order and method Life is in the last place grace before it the right that cometh before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will think that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it self Life and then to speak of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it self Life For brevities sake I forbear to speak much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the only true God Father Son and holy Spirit or as it is the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soul or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowl Fish or otherwise as it Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life only The life here meant is that we call eternal life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because coming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heirs of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent be in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification only believers only found true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this special life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live faith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Son of God And the Just shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me faith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect faith our Lord Christ to the penitent believer upon the Cross This day the very day that he dyed shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himself I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgment when the dead faith he are raised then shall we also that are alive and remain be cought up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayr and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now then mark here you see the soul hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A mistical union For Christ the Son of God he is life originally in himself for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself He is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore he is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because he is that Bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his own good pleasure hath written our names in the book of life and hath sent his Son to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Beloved what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstrrtion of the woful plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seem to be of some account they have a life that is far different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soul to animate them Oh but this this is not the life Natural life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to be proper to the Saints which cometh by grace wherof we are heirs and therefore of all natural men it may be said as the Apostle said of the wanton Widdow she is dead while she liveth even so are all such dead while they live dead in sins and trespasses and if so be those that are in this kind dead continue so till the death of the body seize upon them wo wo wo to them upon this followeth an eternal death endless easeless
represented to Saint Polycarpe and Saint Cyprian their passage per viam sanguineam The bloody way of martyrdome Policrape not many moneths before he was sacrificed for a whole burnt-offering to God dreamed that his bed was all on fire under him and Saint Cyprian saw in a Dream the Proconsul-give order to the Clerk of the Assizes to write down his sentence which was to have his head cut off with a Sword which when the Clerk by signs made known to Saint Cyprian the godly Bishop earnestly desired a little delay of the execution that he might set his house in order and the Clerk answered him in his dream that his petition was granted and so it sell out accordingly that that day 〈…〉 Dream this Saint of God closing first his own eyes 〈…〉 ceived a glorious crown of martyrdome in heaven The second thing I observed in the manner was that these 〈…〉 way of promise to Abraham whence Galvin rightly 〈…〉 life was a favour of God unto him not the purchase of his own merits 〈…〉 the fruit of his own care for although speaking in ordine 〈…〉 a man may be said by the observation of physick rules to prolong his dayes upon 〈…〉 did who was otherwise a man of a very crazie body and could not 〈…〉 have held out half so long yet if we speak simply 〈…〉 that as no man can by his care add a cubit to his stature nor an hour 〈…〉 the period set by God before all time for my times are in thy hands 〈◊〉 David and our dayes are determined faith Job the number of our months is with 〈◊〉 thou bast appointed man his bounds which he cannot pass Job 14.5 and 〈…〉 appointed time to man are not his dayes as the day 〈…〉 tree groweth not upon the head of any without 〈…〉 bloomed in a seasonable time If life be a blessing long life is a 〈…〉 specially if it be crowned with a happy death for the last Act maketh 〈…〉 medy or a Tragedy and as the evening proves the day so a man 〈…〉 and after over-run the verdict of his life Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet and so I fall into the road of my Text and begin to treat of the peaceable end of those who die in the faith and lie in the bosome of Abraham Go to thy fathers in peace There is a great difference about the interpretation of this phrase 〈…〉 and the reason of the difference is the difficulty which insueth upon every interpretation For if we refer these words to the body of Abraham and the 〈◊〉 thereof in the Sepulchres of his Fathers this Exposition complieth not with the truth of the story for none but Sarah lay in this cave Abrahams Fathers were 〈◊〉 where bestowed If we refer them to the soul of Abraham and illustrate them with this gloss Thou shalt go on in thy soul to the glorious troup of thy 〈…〉 then will grow what that place is whither his Fathers went before him 〈◊〉 Heaven but some of Abrahams Fathers were Idolatours and we have no warrant to place any Idolatour there Is it Hell thither no man goes in peace neither did ever yet any Jew or Christian so rub his forehead or rather arm it with brass as to affirm that the soul of Abraham in whom all generations of the earth were blessed was in Hell shall we then send him to the Rabbins Limbus or the Popish purgatory or the ancient Fathers occulta receptaâ—…ula hidden receptacles or unknown places wherein Tertullian conceiveth that the souls of the faithful departed resemble those among the Romans who stood for offices and the day of the election while the voyces were in calculation expected in a white gown whether they were chosen 〈…〉 Saint Austin also is very express for these hidden Cells from the death of 〈…〉 the last Resurrection the souls are bestowed in hiddeâ—… 〈…〉 as every 〈◊〉 worthy either rest or pain To dispel this mist which hath 〈◊〉 many to miss their way first by the light of the Scripture I will clear the 〈…〉 question and then interpret the phrase First then for the souls of the faithfuls flight 〈…〉 is free from this clog of flesh I answer that it is straight to Heaven 〈…〉 of the first born there and the spirits of just men made perfect for of 〈◊〉 who 〈…〉 that he might 〈◊〉 with God and of Elias who was carried up into Heaven in a fiery Chariot there is little doubt can be made and less of Abraham to whose besome in Heaven Lazarus was carried and least of all on the Thief to whom Christ promised on the Cross this day thou shall be with me in Paradise Why should Saint Paul so earnestly desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ if after his dissolution till the day of judgment he should not come near him nor see his face Why should all godly Christians be so willing to be absent from the body that they might be present with the Lord if after they were absent from the body they should not come into the Lords presence who dare question that which the Apostle so expresly and so considently delivers we know that if the house of our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have an eternal in the Heavens As for the phrase thou shalt go to thy Fathers it is but an elegant circumlocution of the period of our life a quaver upon the close thereof for the meaning is thou shalt die or go the way of all flesh Quo pius AEneas quo dives Tullus Ancus Whither all thy Fathers went before thee good and bad rich and poor for Deaths sickle like the Italian Captaines sword which could not distinguish between a Guelf and Gibelive slaies all and makes a prey of all The righteous soul must for a time be divorced from the body as well as the soul of the wicked and in the graves the Worms claim kindred of the elect as well as of the reprobate the consideration whereof put the Preacher into a passion how doth the righteous man die as well as the wicked as it is said of Abraham that he is gathered to dis Fathers so it is said also of Ishmael and may be of the wickedest man that breaths And herein the language of Canaan and the lauguage of Ashdod do not much differ for what the Romans mean by that their phrase abijt ad plures he is gone to the many The Hebrews in a sanctified phrase express by abiit ad patres he is gone to his Fathers or gathered to his people whereof some interpreters give this acute reason It cannot be said of us here whilest we live that we are gathered to our own people in a spiritual sence because here good and bad are gathered together Elect and Reprobate sojourn together all are as it were joynt Comminers upon the earth the City of God and the City of the world sayl in the same ship to
the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withouâ— blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then
are required at our hands we may be sure that we have spiritual life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soul shall dwell at ease 2. Good success in all we undertake what soever we do it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things work for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable pass out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor ever entred into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Arist otalum because we cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our dear Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that she could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit mag is merebatur becanse she deserved praise she desp ised it and because she despised it she the more deserved it Silent modesty in her was her crown in her life and modest silence of her was the charge at her death Her life was well known to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sickness might behold with sorrow a pittiful anatomy of frail mortality and yet with joy a perfect pattern of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though she were full of divine conceptions and she had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her she desired she might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her own words and when I prayed with her and for her she joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighs and tears then in words often she complained of her tuff heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long she thought it till she should come to appear before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father help me and she had her request for presently he helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her own prayers with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed and immediately her sweet Father released her of her pangs and received her to himself on his own day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch she entered into her rest and began to keep her everlasting Sabbath in heaven where she reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shebelieved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entred into those joyes which never entred fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till we with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whither the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought again from the dead the great shepheard through the blood of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOULES AMEN SERMON XLVI REVEL 22.20 Amen Even so come Lord Jesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to be conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and Book of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of John himself that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in verse 17. It is likewise confirmed by the promise of Blessing and Happiness pronounced upon them that shall do all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This Verse a part of which I have read to you is the Repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from verse 6. to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the Verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Jesus In the attestation of Christ he promiseth he will come to his Church he will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Jesus In this acclamation of the Church to which we must now come we are to consider First the person of the Speaker whose words they be Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Ye shall see whose words they be if ye look back but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall find that first it is said the Spirit saith Come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinity the holy Ghost because he is not subject to these passions to these desires but he resteth himself in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his own will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angel for they do with fear and horrour expect the same coming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his coming shall be the accomplishment of their misery and eternal infelicity But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Again secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride saith come That is the Church of God in general the Catholick Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spiritual contract with him She desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is already begun in the contract of it and not only every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in general the Bride saith come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse
that grief was willingly poured Forth as what he understood did well become him We are not only to bewail our sins but all those miseries which proceed from them and therefore tears were not only lent us to declare Compunction but also to express Commiseration We read our blessed Saviour twice did weep once for the sins of Jerusalem once for the death of Lazarus whom he loved Two eyes Nature bestow'd upon us though perfectly distinctly we can see but with one at once and both are equally made the fountains of tears as we are sinners for Contrition as we are Brethren for Compassion When the first Martyrs bloud was shed for the Christian faith devout men carryed Steven to his burial and made great lamentation over him such were the tears of the Infant Church When Peter found Dorcas a woman full of good works and Almsdeeds dead all the Widdows stood by him weeping Thus the first which dyed in Christianity were followed with solemn tears and it was a wise observation made by the Apostate Julian that one of the means to convert so many Heathens to our Religion was the care of the bodies and the solemnities alwayes used at the Funerals of the dead Thus far of the Action He made a mourning The occasion of this sadness is expressed in a word but must be considered in many more as being the principal concernment both of the Text and Time The mover of his passion the object of his grief the cause of his tears was his Father And he made a mourning for his Father This was so truly the occasion that it was the only cause that there can be no reason imaginable assigned why Joseph should mourn but only because he had lost a Father Though he was aged to extremity though he was holy unto eminency though he was happy to eternity though no way disadvantageous by his death to any yet because dead and that a Father dead he made a mourning for him We usually say of ancient Persons that they have already one foot in the grave and the rest of their life is nothing else but the bringing of these feet together Why then should we weep for the death of aged persons when it can be but the second part of their Funeral That sorrow seems to be but useless which is spent upon necessities and that grief irrational which would create impossibilities The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow What reason then can we produce that the life of a man whom we esteem should be sorrow to himself and his death be grief to us Now Jacob gave this account of his age to Pharaoh when he came down to Egypt The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years and he lived in the land seventeen years so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years This extremity of his age had fastned him to his bed the perfect embleme and short forerunnner of his grave The eyes of Israel were dim so that he could not see he was already in the shades of darkness Nay the time drem nigh faith Moses that Israel must die there was a natural necessity of his death an apparent impossibility of longer life and yet this consideration is no excuse to Joseph but he made a mourning for his aged Father Secondly the death of the righteous is to be desired rather then lamented and it were a dishonour put upon Religion to think a pious man less happy dead then when he liv'd Weep not for me was the language of the immaculate Lamb when he went to a shameful and a painful death and why should he which yeelds up his soul with comfort leave his body to be covered with so must forrow Those which live in impiety and depart in their iniquity they which have here provoked the wrath of God and goe hence with that wrath abiding on them as they could create nothing to their relations but sorrow in their life so must they necessarily increase it at their death But Jacob was a Patriarch of eminent and constant piety particularly and remarkably belov'd of God highly blessed by him and powerfully blessing in his name and yet when Jacob dyeth Joseph weepeth And be made a mourning for his pious Father Thirdly Death is nothing else but a change of a short and temporary for an unalterable and eternal condition From whence it followeth that those which die in their sins from thence begin to feel those torments which shall never cease and therefore they leave behind them a sad occasion of grief and sorrow to such as are apprehensive of the pains they feel If the Rich man in the Gospel were so careful of his surviving brethren and so concerned in their welfare if they had as well understood his sad and irreversible condition what floods of tears would they have shed for him who call'd so earnestly for a drop of water to cool his tongue But as for such as pass from hence into a place of rest and joy who change the miseries of this sinful world for the blessed presence of a good and gracious God weeping at their departure may seem improper and unkind officiousness as 't were a sorrow for their happiness and envy at their felicity Now the soul of Jacob was certainly at rest and Joseph sufficiently assured of his happiness He knew that his Father was heir of the same promise with Abraham for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God he dyed in faith imbraced the promises he confessed that he was a stranger on the earth and that he sought a better country that is an heavenly and therefore God had prepared for him a City he was in the bosome of Abraham the place of felicity But the happiness of his soul is no excuse to Joseph for the Funeral tears due at the interment of his body And he made a mourning for his happy Father Fourthly many persons expiring give too sad occasions of sorrow to their relations left behind they which depend upon them whose subsistance liveth and dyeth and whose hopes are buried with them may go to their graves with unfeigned tears lamenting not so much the departure of their friend as their own loss something they may weep for them and more for themselves But the death of Jacob was not of any such condition there could no disadvantage arise from that to Joseph no interest of his could suffer by it He had already blessed all his Sons and Joseph principally there could be no more of heavenly favours expected from his prayers or prophesies Had he dyed before he laid his hands upon Ephraim and Manasseth had Joseph and his Sons been absent when he blessed the rest he might have sadly mourned for the loss of his Father and
your dayes to spend your time aright to Gods glory and in his service Count it your honour to honour God your only freedom to serve your Maker Be wise for Eternity desire of God to keep your hearts upright in his fear to give you fixed Spirits in tottering Times and in the end to guide you all the right way to Heaven and happiness to make you true Accountants for Heaven and to value the least minute of your time and in this I will joyn with you in Prayer both for my self and you in the words of my Text Lord so teach us c. Amen Amen THE JUST MANS FUNERAL SERMON LI. ECCLES 7. verse 15. All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness THe World is a volumne of Gods works which all good people ought studiously to peruse Three sorts of men are too blame herein First such as observe nothing at all seeing but neither marking nor minding the daily accidents that happen with * Gallio the secure deputy of Achaia They care for none of these things Secondly Such as observe nothing observable these may be said to weed the world If any passage happeneth which deserveth to be forgotten their jet memories only attracting straws and chaff unto them registreth and retaineth them sond fashions and foolish speeches is all that they charge on their account and only empty cyphers swell the vote-books of their discoveries Lastly such who make good observations but no applications With Mary they do not ponder things in their heart but only brew them in their heads and presently breath them out of their mouth having only a rational understanding thereof which renders them acceptable in company for their discourse but never suffering them to sink into their souls or make any effectual impression of their lives But Solomons observations were every way compleat he mark'd what happened wel he might who advantaged with matchless wealth might make matchless discoveries could afford to dig out important Truths with mattocks of Gold Silver what he mark'd was remarkable and what was remarkable he not only applied to the good of his private person but endeavouring it might be propagated to all posterity in the words of my text All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness In the handling of Solomons observation herein we will insist upon these four pâ—…rts to shew 1. That it is so 2. Why it is so 3. What abuses wicked men do make because it is so 4. What uses good men should make because it is so First that it is so believe Solomons eyes who professed that he saw it But here it will be demanded how came he to behold a righteous man with what rare and new eye-salve had he anointed his eyes to see that which his father David having a more holy though not so large a heart could never discern Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no flesh is righteous in thy sight It is answered though such an one whose righteousness is Gods justice-proof never was is nor shall be in this life Christ alone excepted being God and man yet in a Gospel or qualified sense he is accounted righteous who juxt a propositum juste vivendi is so intentionally desiring and endeavouring after righteousness with all the might of his Sonl Secondly who is so comparatively in reference to wicked men appearing righteous in regard of those who have no goodness at all in their hearts Thirdly righteous imputatively having the righteousness of God in Christ imputed unto him Lastly righteous inhesively having many heavenly graces and holy endowments sincere though not perfect or evangelically perfect pro hoc statu bestowed upon and remaining within him Such a righteous man as this Solomon saw perishing in his righteousness But in the second place it will be inquired How could Solomon patiently behold a righteous man perish in his righteousness and not rescue him out of the paws of oppression Could he see it and could he suffer it and be only an idle spectator at so sad a tragedy Did his hand sway the Scepter and was his head invested with the Crown contentedly to look on so sorrowful a sight Could he only as in the case of the harlots call for a sword to kill a child and not call for it to defend a righteous man He that is not with us faith our Saviour is against us If it hold in private persons much more in publick Officers They persecute who do not protect destroy who do not defend slay who do not save the righteous man who have power and place to do it It is answered in the first place Solomons observations were not all confined to his own country and kingdome though staying at home in his person his mind travelled into forraign parts in the neighbouring countries of Egypt Edom Syria Assyria c. might behold the perisning of the righteous and long flourishing of the wicked Secondly his expression I have seen relates not only to his ocular but experimental discoveries What Solomon got hy the help of History Study and perusal of Chronicles He that was skil'd in natural Philosophy from the Cedar to the Shrub was no doubt well versed in all civil occurrences from the Prince to the Peasant from Adam to the present age wherein he lived so much as by any extant records could be collected To set humane writers aside the Scripture alone afforded him plentiful presidents herein Open the Bible and we shall find almost in the first leaf just Abel perishing in his righteousness and wicked Cain prolonging his life in his iniquity To omit other instances Solomon by relation from his father might sadly remember how Abimelech the High Priest perished in his righteousness with all the Priests inhabitants of the city of Nob whilest Saul who condemned and Doeg who executed them flourished long in their iniquity So much for the proof that it is so Come we now to the reasons why it is so These reasons are of a double nature some fetcht from nature others from religion For the present we insist only upon the former reserving the rest till we shall encounter the Atheists in the sequel of our discourse First Because good men of all others are most envied and maligned having the fiercest adversaries to oppose them With the most in the world it is quarrel enough to hate a good man because he is a good man Saint Paul faith of himself I press towards the mark And the same is the endeavour of every good man Now as in a race the formost man who is nearest the mark is envied of all those which come after him who commonly use