not only Healed but Beautified Often have I heard you complain of Wounds Bruises and Putrifying sores like my own And now methinks I see you without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing While the cure of my own Diseases is little more than begun In you in you it is that I read the high Praises of Christ your Physician and mine Should I let go the memory of you I should lessen the Honour of Him In you it is that I read the praises of the Holy Ghost Then it is he appears to me a most wonderful Builder when I look on you his most glorious Temples Then I conclude sure he is able to raise me also out of my ruins O ye Conquerors and more than Conquerors whom I knew when you were Warriours And under my own hardships of warfare My own who was your unworthy Fellow-Souldier under Christ's Banner How congratulate I your Conquests and Triumphs How admire I the Truth Power and Love of your and my Captain How uneasie doth the sight of your Crowns make me till I am with you and like you If I forget you O ye Angels-fellows let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my Mouth If mine Eye keep poring always upon my SEA my SICKNESS and my WARFARE if it be not also turned on your PASSAGE your CURE and your CONQUEST let my Arm fall from my Shoulder-blade The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contemplators of the blessed End of godly Friends are Christians that thus converse with themselves I say thus unto the true end and use thereof And unto this end do converse or consider not transiently think There is a great difference between a step and a walk And there is no less between a thought and a consideration I come therefore to the last particular P. 4. This consideration of godly Friends escápe unto Heaven is a motive most necessary unto imitation of their Faith and Holiness The Apostles use of it as such proves it such But to give measure pressed down and running over it shall be added 1. The best of Christians do need motive Considerations Which is acknowledged by all that are so much as titularly Christians 2. Of motive Considerations this is of the best Which will appear from the natural effects of it in which its motive virtue is most resplendent Of these the seven following ones are not the least principal E. 1. This Consideration confirms our Faith Our Faith of the holy God's bountifulness and of holy men's blessedness It is true that the H. Spirit 's Light dispels our darkness and enlightens our minds And he giveth us the Gospel for a Lamp and Faith for an Eye But can any man doubt it The Gospel is cleared and Faith strengthned more than a little by Examples Examples of the promised goodness of God to Men and the blessedness of men in that goodness of God Especially by the examples of Persons known and dear unto our selves Put the case you know and believe ever so well of a Physician Yet let him once make perfect Cures on many of your most dangerously diseased Relations Your confidence of his ability and his Patients safety will be encreased You will be somewhat more fearless to trust him with your own Life than you were before The Application is easie E. 2. This Consideration raises our Apprehensions Our Apprehensions and Estimations of God of Christ of the H. Spirit and of the Gospel-Covenant You cannot see your dear Friends saved by them but you must the more esteem and value them Their so great Salvation that certifies the goodness of the Efficients and Instruments unto you must needs enhance the value of them in you Great and grateful Effects never fail to raise the price of Causes and Means I mean with any but Idiots or Lunaticks Creatures of undisposed minds or distracted ones E. 3. This Consideration strengthens our Choice Our choice of our Redeemer for Prince and Saviour The sight of our Tempted Persecuted Afflicted Brethren here on Earth is but too often a scandal unto us Makes our Hearts to stagger Tempts us to go back and follow Christ no more But the Spiritual sight of our Crowned and Triumphant Brethren in Heaven hath on us a contrary operation It strengthens our Resolution and steels our Courage to trust and obey him who gave such a Life and Glory unto them It makes us anew to resign our selves unto him Yea and bitterly lament that we chose him not more early and more fervently E. 4. This Consideration quickens our Desires Our Desires and our Hopes Our desires to be with Christ and his triumphant Friends above And our hopes that as laden with sins as now we are divine Grace may unburthen us at last and lodge us with them The thoughts of their wonderful Advancement will work upon any Heart not stone dead When carnal men think of any of their Equals that are risen above them unto high Places what is the effect Why they are straitway inspired with an unwonted Ambition for themselves Yea and affected with a new Perswasion also that 't is as possible for themselves to break through the difficulties which are in the way to Preferment Why should not the Ambition and Expectation of Spiritual men be excited by the same Medium Surely as Desire and Hope are the springs of Action glorious Successes of mean Agents be Springs of Desire and Hope in their Spectators E. 5. This Consideration provokes our Diligence The Victory of Miltiades took sleep from the eyes of Themistocles The thoughts of anothers honour spurred him on unto his more successful Labour And will not the matchless conquests of our glorified Friends take our hands out of our bosoms They will unquestionably if they be considered solemnly They will urge unto that holy Violence without which the heavenly Kingdom cannot be taken E. 6. This Consideration sweetens our Life of Religion Joy is our strength Heaviness in the heart weakens if not binds our hands and feet Indeed many Objects of God's Love and true Saints are of sorrowful spirits But the chiefest Instruments of his glory are for the most part Souls of much alacrity To be sure whatever doth sweeten doth also heighten our Duty For Delight exonerates Body and Mind takes off dulling Indispositions from them Gives wings to both and intends their actions It doth marvelously but as certainly encrease our Force to act and our Accuracy in acting Cogendi vis inest saith Pliny it makes the very Lame to walk yea leap For this reason it seems that Musick hath ever been used in Wars because it doth delight and by delighting strengthen the Nerves of flesh and spirit But what can delight a Soul that is any thing heavenly like contemplation of the celestial Society For Contemplation doth in a sort unite the Soul unto its Object And eminently this Contemplation ministers Hope which is the greatest Parent of Joy next to Fruition When you are musing of Heaven's Inhabitants your Soul has a place
not nearly and immediately so teach the possibility of the foresaid Life as his Servant's example doth A Soul under Temptation exclaims that be it ever so necessary 't is altogether as impossible to live by Faith in this World and hold a rightly ordered Conversation in such a Catholick Sodom Go you and tell him that the Son of God did live by Faith and fulfil all righteousness even in this World He shall reply upon you that it is a wild inference that he may because the Son of God did so do He shall tell you Christ had none of his sins in him and he has little or none of Christ's strength in his dejected Soul Christ had all created and uncreated holiness and might well overcome World and Devil but it were a wonder if they should be overcome by him a weak and sinful Dust He shall ask you what Logick of yours it is that thus argues An Angel slew an hundred thousand Enemies therefore a Worm may slay as many But on the other hand tell you this bruised Reed that yonder in Heaven be multitudes and many of his own Acquaintance that were Worms as weak as himself as tempted as himself and many a time as dejected as himself who did nevertheless keep the holy Faith and finish their holy Course and win the Crown of Righteousness What then Why then you do bind his contradiction hand and foot and it is odds but you cast out his despairing Spirit To be sure you silence him and very probably you make him by and by to speak Evangelically And to fall to chiding of his legal self and counselling it in Davids Rhetorick Why cast down O my Soul why disquieted in me Trust in God For I even I may yet Praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God And now I ask Should such a Tower of David such an Armory as this whereon there hang a thousand bucklers and shields for tempted despondent Souls should such a practice suffer disuse It would be unspeakable loss to the whole generation of the righteous But blessed be his excellent name He that delights of bruised Reeds to make polished Pillars in his Temple and of smoaking flax to make burning and shining lights He is more wise and kind than to admit it Glory be to him in the highest R. 3. This practice doubles the glory of God from the Faith and Conversation of Saints deceased If I may so speak God had from themselves one crop Or tribute of glory And would have had it tho' no eye but his own had seen their Faith and Conversation Tho' no mortal man had observed and followed them But now now that Faith and Conversation are not buried in Oblivion but are lifted up and draw men after them behold a second crop another tribute springs up So fruitful do living Christian's Meditation and Imitation make them that it may be said of deceased ones much like as of Sampson The Praises they bring unto their God in their death be more than they which they brought in their life Can therefore any Lover of God be without a deep sense of the reason of this practice Or need to be farther told that he who hath made all things for his glory hath required this practice for the same Here I must believe that none are Blind but those that will not see R. 4. This Practice doth likewise add unto the joy of Saints deceased Heaven is the element of Joy There 's less water in the Sea and light in the Sun than Joy in Heaven But we are generally taught that the Inhabitants have various degrees even after the Resurrection However it be it is this only that I would here propose viz. Of their Joys in Heaven this must needs be one that they did in their measure glorifie God in their day upon Earth And if they have knowledge of it it must be another Joy to have their Faith and Obedience live and bear fruit after that they are transplanted To have their old Graces and Duties for many years after to edify their Brethren and glorifie their Father And why we may not conceive them soon to know it when it is so let them say that can I cannot With humble submission I conclude that they are informed of it when the matter of their Joy is obtained Whether the holy Angels give them notices or what way they receive the same I take not on me to determine Some have thought that this is true concerning men Damned Such whose Errors are remembred to the diffusing of their enmity and malignity after their death they have proportionable encreases of their torment in Hell made presently made and with full significations given of the meritoriously procuring cause of it And on the other side concerning Saints in Heaven some have presumed this viz. That such whose Faith and Holy Life are commemorated c. made use of to the edification of the Church they receive like encreases of Joy As soon made as the foresaid sinners increases of Torment Learned men have thought Jer. 17.10 to make this way I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the FRUIT of his doings and with full certification of the service that is so of grace rewarded I contend not but to as many as with me do suppose this which I think no one will pretend an ability to disprove To such at least I shall think this reason of good force Upon the very single account hereof I dare ask them Is there not a cause for the commended Practice If we on Earth have Power should we not have Will to add to the Joy of our Brethren in Heaven R. 5. This Practice of good men exalts the saving grace of God Grace unto a Sinner is and will be an eternal Wonder Saving grace even most restrainedly considered is above all the blessing and praise that can be given it in the very state of Glory Abraham himself even after the Resurrection will be unableadequately to praise the grace of his own Salvation The grace that took him out of his misery and qualified him and brought him unto Glory That said to him in his blood Live That when he was alive gave him Life more abundantly And when he waâ— Meet placed him in the inheritanâ—â— of the Saints in Light This gracâ— unto his single Person will transcenâ— all his possible conception But leâ—â— this Grace to him be considered iâ— its just extent As saving him anâ— making him an Instrument of savinâ— many others In a sense the Fathâ—â— of thousands of heirs of Salvation An Exemplar unto them Making his Faith and Obedience blessâ— means of grace unto multitudeâ— Causing generations to call him blesseâ— Using him when Alive and alâ—â— when Dead as a Co-worker with Goâ— What an addition is this Thiâ— that makes Salvation it self somewhâ—â— more than it self Yea much more As to save a man from
Piety In Children it is playfulness in Men it's Childishness if no worse D. 3. Consideration of deceased Ministers and Friends escape out of all their sublunary Difficulties is a necessary motive to the imitation of their Faith and Life The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render End is rendered an Escape 1 Cor. 10.13 Nor doth it express a meer End or common Issue of things But an End attended with Victory and deliverance out of things grievous That the consideration of Saints that are blessed with such an end is as it is here asserted is by the Apostle plainly declared Who maketh it the motive unto the imitation that we have â—â—ready pressed His words do evidently import as much as if he had â—id these following ones Sirs it is a hot service I put you upon Imitation of departed Saints Faith and Holiness is no easie business African Lyons appear in every step of it's way All the World is in arms against it Throwing Firebrands Arrows and Death The Devil and his Angels raise their Posse and do their worst I know your want and God directs me to furnish you with a most powerful Encouragement One which if you rightly use you shall walk undauntedly in your most difficult Duty You shall Run and not faint The Swords of them that lay at you shall not hold neither their Spears nor their Darts Their Arrows shall not make you flee You shall laugh at the shaking of their Spears And this so mighty motive is Consideration Careful and Curious Inspection reiterated and repeated contemplation To wit of your Predâ—cessors glorious Conquests over aâ—â— that stands against you And 〈◊〉 their triumphant Ingress into thâ— caelestial and eternal Blessedness One too rich to be comprehendeâ— by the present poverty of your Understandings But yet one whereof your little Understanding is enough both to sweeten aâ—â— the bitterness and spoil the tempting power of all the sweetness of this world Keep this consideration and live Keep it as the Apple of your Eye For the display of this general position to the weakest minds I will cast it's contents into these four particulars P. 1. Our deceased good Ministers and Friends were in this world threshed and winnowed as much as our selveâ— are Their Escape out of sufferings speaks their fore-endurance of them Of which their Endurance it will not be useless to take some good notice And ever and anon compare â—heir Hardships and our own It â—s a small Map in which I must present the World of them Their Souls lodged in as Frail and as Burthensom Bodies as ordinarily ours do And as hard to keep in Subjection and be possessed in Honour Bodies that were as very Prisons and Fetters unto their Spirits Whose Weaknesses Pains and Deformities were neither few nor light Their treatment by the World was with the same malignity as ours is or worse It Hated them as much Censured Reproached and every way Injured them by secret and open practices One while it bespake them as it doth us in words smooth as butter sweet as hony-combs By the sweet Poyson of Flattery designing upon them the worst of cruelty Assaying by the Lordly dish and sweet milk to court them unto the fatal Nail and Hammer Another time it spake of them as it doth of you all manner of evâ—â— Poured out Cursings and Bitterness breathed out threatnings and slaughter Trying if it were possible to frighten whom they could not flatter out of God's way Their Temptations by Satan were no less than our own Are we pestred with his Suggestions Persuasions Instigations So were they as they have oft complained unto some of us and unto God in the hearing of all that worshipped with them Do we find that he subtilly suits his temptations unto our Ages our Tempers and our Conditions in the World We are vain if we think he did otherwise with them Doth he assault us oft-times in temptations unto sins from which we think our selves most safe No question but he so assaulted them In a word All his Logical fallacies all his Politick wiles all his Military stratagems were used against them as surely as they are against us How many have told us their Temptations unto Atheism Blasphemy Despair Murther Self-murther and what not Their Afflictions from God were such as ours do not appear to exceed Understand me of Afflictions upon Soul Body Name Estate Family Friends From his hand are all are they not By whomsoever they are Executed 't is by him they are Ordered And that as to the Sort Degree and Duration of them Now can you answer me Which of your Souls doth God exercise with more Griefs Fears Anguish than he did theirs Who of you have Bodies more acquainted with the Stone Colick and Strangury Feaver Consumption and Palsie than theirs were Who can say his Name is more Laden with reproach than their Names used to be Or that his Estate hath been so torn from him as none of theirs ever was Or that Providence never made any of their Families such Hospitals as it hath made his Or so parted any of them from their Lovers and Friends as it hath parted him Many indeed are the afflictions of the righteous in this World But not more than those of the righteous before you were who are ascended into the World where none are Their Indwelling Sin was their perpetual troubler as ours is And found them as much to do as ours findeth us Held them in continual warfare as ours holdeth us They all had Sin and felt Sin and lamented Sin in all and every part of them As wormwood hath bitterness in its Root in its Stalk and in its Leaves Their Minds had abiding Unteachableness Wills Untractableness Consciences Unsensibleness Memories Unfaithfulness Affections Unorderliness Imaginations Unruliness That which came into them when their Souls came into their Bodies never perfectly left them till their souls left their Bodies All days of their lives therefore their Faith was weak Hope infirm Love chill Many a trembling hour they spent in fear that they were but shadows and empty shows of Faith and Hope and Love that they had In fear of their being Graceless yea and what is worse past the day of Grace Being Unreconciled to God yea and thro' deadly delay Unreconcilable Many have so feared and all have lived exclaiming O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me Such fears simple souls do think to have been no ones bitter Draughts but their own But I tell them they cannot answer me this question To which of your friends in Heaven can you turn that hath not drank them Again Their Loads of Actual Sin pressed them down as sorely as ours do press us My sin is ever before me was the perpetual cry of one of them Are we Burthened with our sins their Aggravations and th ir Demerits they were so with theirs Their sins against Law against Gospel against Conscience With their Aggravations by their Multitudes