Sons we will rather have it raw than stay for it 2. We are very Weak And a weak Body cannot stand long under an heavy Burden without sinking How much to do hath a weak sick Man to get over a long Winter's Night without fainting Job was half at that pass when he said What is my strength that I should hope Job 6. 11 12. And my strength and my hope is perished said the Lamenting Church Lam. 3. 18. When her Strength is spent that she can bear no more her Hope is also gone with it that she can wait no longer 3. Vnbelieving As he that believeth maketh not haste So Isa 28. 16. nothing sinks the Heart sooner than Despair which gives over hoping and waiting together 1 Sam. 27. 1. They wait Isa 26. 8. when the desire of their Souls by Faith is carried out to Piscator the remembrance of his Promises 4. Not more Weak than Froward as the sick weak Man useth to be and the froward Child crieth fiercely if you stay long A Burden on a galled Back frets and makes the Man go fretting that he cannot standstill 5. And very Proud too Now waiting as it puts Honour upon him that is waited on and therefore great ones affect it so it debaseth the Waiter And therefore the proud Man cannot endure it is hasty cannot wait no not upon God himself 2 King 6. 33. It 's not so with us when we are humble but ever some stirring of Pride when we cannot quietly wait and sit still 6. And lastly We are very full as of Self-love so of Self-conceit The one concludes for our Safety and the other consults for Means of it of our own which usually are next hand and so we cannot stay to wait on God's Counsel Psal 106. 13. This we see in Saul who cannot stay for Samuel's coming when he apprehends present danger 1 Sam. 13. 11 12. and so strains Courtesie and Conscience together and Chap. 14. 19. he cannot tarry to wait for an answer from God when he conceives he hath thought of a better Course than God could direct him to Which even David also had a strong touch of Chap. 27. 1. when consulting with his own Heart about the best way of his Safety he cannot stay and wait upon God who had so constantly preserved him But he must needs both dangerously and dishonourably run away to the Philistines No greater Enemy to our trusting and waiting upon God than leaning to our own understandings Prov. 3. 5. Thus Weakness and Vnbelief sink us Pride and Frowardness make us swell and hastily rise up against God Self-love and Self-conceit make us in unwarrantable ways of our own start out from him all severally and joyntly keep us from an humble meek faithful self-resigning Waiting upon him Which yet there is all reason we should endeavour and prâ—ctice if we consider 1. Who and how great that God is that we are to wait on O shame we our selves whilst we think how long we can endure to dance Attendance on great Men and have not the patience to wait half the time on the Great God How blasphemously irrational was his reasoning 2 Kings 6. 33. This evil is of the Lord What should I wait on the Lord any longer The Prophet teacheth us a better and a quite contrary Inference Hos 12. 6. because he is Elohim the Great God and ours we should therefore wait on him continually 2. Who and how Mean we are that do wait poor Beggers and Beggers may well be Waiters The poor of the Flock waited on me saith the Prophet Zech. 11. 11. We are Poor let us not be so Proud as not to be willing to wait but so Ingenuous as to blush when we think how long we let the Begger wait at our Doors and yet have not our selves the patience to wait any time at God's who yet are but Beggers At best but Servants And dost thou expect that thy Servant should wait on thee and not thou on God Especially seeing Waiting in Scripture is put for Service Prov 27. 18. So it 's that piece of Service which God sometimes only calls for only to wait on our Master when we cannot work for him That which both fits us for Work and which God expects even Waiting upon him both for Pardon and Acceptance after all our Working Luke 17. 7 8. 3. As Great as God is and as Base as we are yet consider whether in waiting God hath made us stay long Either absolutely when sometimes he hath prevented our Prayers and Thoughts Isa 65. 24. So that as it is Chap. 30. 18 19. He hath waited that we might not wait Not we so much as He hath waited to be Gracious And have we so much cause to be thankful to God that He hath oftentimes rescued us so speedily and can we see no cause then to be content when always for some good Cause He sometimes comes in more slowly Oft-times absolutely it hath not been long that God hath made us wait At least comparatively not so long as Our Betters have waited on him Heman from his Youth Psal 88. 15. and David all the day Psal 25. 5. Our selves have waited on Men for lesser Matters Have made others wait on us for Trifles Nay have made God himself wait on us 1. For first Conversion Hand held out all the day long Rom. 10. 21. 2. Afterwards for further Entrance and Communion Christ stands and knocks at his Spouse's Door till his Head be full of Dew and his Locks with the Drops of the Night Cant. 5. 2. for that which after all his waiting he hath gone away without as in both those places and 1 Pet. 3. 20. His Long-suffering waited One hundred and twenty years in the days of Noah and yet was disappointed 4. Though never so long yet not longer than till we be once fit for it Though till then it did tarry yet then it will not Hab. 2. 3. Till then God waits and not we 5. Fifthly for the most part we have not used to wait so long on God for Mercies in our want of them as God hath waited upon us with Mercies in our enjoyment of them Many of us must say that our Fevers have neither been Quotidian nor Hecticks our Good days have been more than our Ill days as with us in this Climate our longest Winter-nights are not longer than our longest Summer-days Our Peace longer than our War and our Plenty than our Penury and therefore either absolutely we have not waited long or at least in all the former Particulars not so long Comparatively that we have cause to complain of it And though it should be longer yet not longer if we consider the weight and worth of the Mercy we wait for It 's sometimes no less than Christ and Salvation thou waitest for assurance of God's Love the mortifying of an habituated Lust like the healing of an old Sore and curing of a Chronical Disease It may be it 's
of his Enemies in this kind usque ad invidiam rarely eminent for him 1 Cor. 2. 1. to preach not so loftily as to give Felix occasion to say that much learning made him mad but so plainly as Act 26. 24. other learned men might count it the foolishness of preaching here is 1 Cor. 1. 21. always a trial and too often a snare which he is a happy man that is not taken in For the Devil too well knows how precious and useful a talent knowledge and learning is and therefore he labours 1. Either to bring men to neglect it as they that dote upon honours As the Dunghill Cock did the Pearl profits and pleasures that have more of the brute than the man in them Such fools hate knowledge Prov. 1. 22. 2. Or to corrupt it so as God may have no pleasure in it and no readier way to that than by making them proud of it as we have it in the instance of Babylon and the King of Tyre Isa 47. 10 11. Ezek. 27. 2 3 4 5 6 c. But that when God raiseth up our parts in learning we do not lift and puff up our hearts with pride it may be of great use to consider 1. How frequently the Holy Ghost in Scripture blows upon all our wisdom and learning that he may blast the beauty of it and so keep us from being proud of it cries Woe to them that are wise in their own Eyes Isa 5. 21. proclaims it the greatest folly to trust to our own wisdom Prov. 28. 26. warns us not to lean to our own understanding Prov. 3. 5. nay chargeth us to be fools that we may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. and the like And is all this to advance 1 Cor. 8. 2. Job 15. 8. folly or rather to debase pride To undervalue learning No but to shew of how little worth it is in comparison of the learning of Christ not as the Devil blasphemously suggested to Gen. 3. 5. Eve because God envieth us knowledge but because he would have us know our selves and how little able we are of our selves savingly to know him 2. How blind and ignorant we are by nature One of the most Aristot Metaphys l. 1. c. 1. Job 36. 29. 37. 15 16 17 c. dost thou know and dost thou know and so c. 38. 4. 2. 39. 1. quick-sighted Sons of Nature compares us to Batts The Scripture to wild Ass-Colts Job 11. 12. saith it 's but a very little that we know of the things of nature Job 26. 14. and just nothing of things of an higher nature Job 8. 9. that as natural men we do not nay we cannot know them 1 Cor. 2. 14. and when they are so hid from us should not pride be hid from us to when God asks Job where is the place of darkness Job 38. 19. may not every natural man lay his hand upon his heart and say here Lord. 3. For acquisite knowledge and learning How extreamly ignorant greatest Scholars have been of the things of God The wise men of the East whatever they were called before began Cartwright in loc then to be truly wise when they came to seek after Christ Matth. 2. 1. for otherwise there were some nearer home that were wise to do evil who to do good bad no understanding Jer. 4. 22. and therefore the Prophet there and in the following Chapters all to besools Jer. 5. 21. 8. 8 9. them Nicodemus a Doctor of the Law could not say his Catechism John 3. 10. The great Philosophers even in the wisdom of God knew not God 1 Cor. 1. 21. nay Noctuae Athenas In Athens it self was an Altar but to the unknown God whom ye ignorantly worship said Paul Act 17. 23 But was it not a bold part of him See Chrysostom in locum to brand those University-men with Ignorance who most abounded with knowledge Or was it not rather strange that to them that were so studious and inquisitive after news v. 21. God's Creation of the World and Christ and the Resurrection the three first great Letters in every Christians Primier should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange things v. 20. thinking as some of ours have observed Selden de Diis Syris that whilst he preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 18. the former had been a new God the latter a new strange Goddess which he had propounded to them to be put into their Calendar But it 's no news that Christ and the true God should be mistaken for a strange God to such as are strangers from God though never so well acquainted with other literature of whom is too often verified what Lucan said of the Dryades Solis nôsse Deos coeli sydera vobis Aut solis nescire datur There were learned men in England when yet Mr. Fox said to his friend Brother Brother Jesus Christ is not known in England We think there 's more knowledge in England now than there was then I fear though Christ is less known I am sure he is more blasphemed 4. Nay fourthly to this purpose consider that whilst we here carry this dark house of earth about with us even by grace we know but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. are but tender-eyed Leah's and Gen. 29. 17. Rev. 3. 18. therefore have need of Christ's Eye-salve that we may better discern his beauty and our own deformity Nay though the Spouse hath Doves Eyes and they are bright and clear yet they are inter cincinnos within her locks so that neither her beauty is seen by Cant. 4. 1. Brightman in loc others nor doth she see the beauty of Christ so fully as might be desired When nearest we are far from a full view and when gotten highest this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far above us that if duly considered would lay us low in thoughts of our own underling lowness as one that standing alone thinks himself a â—all proper man or by one that 's lower than himâ—â—â—â— overlooks himself if by a Giant seeth what a dwarf he is 5. This I only add that those whom God hath lifted up and advanced to highest abilities and serviceableness in his Church he hath been wont first to lay low in their own Eyes taken them off from their own Legs let them see how brutish Prov. 30. 2. and how childish Jer. 1. 6. they are in themselves able to know little and to do nothing that he being acknowledged to be All he may have all the praise they humbled at the first and he exalted both then and ever after Thus the transcendent height and excellency of the knowledge of Christ should lay us all low in our own Eyes But should withal raise up all our hearts to higher desires and Use 2 more earnest endeavours after it to be sure we purchase this wisdom at any rate for seeing its such supereminent knowledge we certainly are fools so long as we leave it out of
Chaldee and Syriack Henifii exercit Sacr. on Luke 21. 16. is to deny and to deny is to betray as Ambrose makes it his Title De proditione Petri cum de negatione agitur Peter became an half Judas the denier little better than the betrayer of Christ But the chast Spouse makes it the matter of her grief and complaint that she should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one that is vailed Cant. 1. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garb of an Harlot Cen. 38. 14 15. but would kiss her beloved in the open street Cant. 8. 1. you would almost think beyond a Womans modesty And of the true Israel which God hath chosen Isa 44. 1. one shall freely and openly say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel v. 5. as not ashamed of their best Parentage and Kinred but with their own hand enrolling themselves in their chief Captains Musters not only in word and open profession with the Primitive Christians proclaiming Christianus sum but also in their practice and conversation shewing forth the vertues 1 Pet. 2. 9. of him that hath called them so that they may thereby be known to all they converse withal and all that see them may acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61. 9. Thus in these and the like respects outward appearances and professions of holiness are not to be undervalued which was the first thing propounded 2. But the second more near to my present purpose is that these are not to be rested in as able in themselves to commend us to God but are to be accounted loss for Christ For notwithstanding the Pharisees were herein conspicuous and indeed over-glaring our Saviour for all that even when he speaks of these their outward formalities Matth. 23. doth again and again cry Wo to them Wo to you ye Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites and when God and Christ in Scripture pronounceth a Wo against any it speaks them in a most deplorable lost condition I do not remember any one instance where it was not irrecoverable It 's Wo even to Scribes Matth. 3. 7. 23. 33. and Pharisees if they be Hypocrites if a generation of vipers as John Baptist and our Saviour calls them foris pictae intus venenosae as he glosseth it If it be but a bare form it 's but a thin lank thing and may well be counted loss in comparison of Christ who is substance as 1. These bare forms and shews are only outward But Christ is within us Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Sodoms apples See Chrysoft Hom. 8. in 1 Thess When it is called A form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3. 5. that expression holds forth two things First that nothing is wanting on the out-side but secondly that there is just nothing within Should there be any thing wanting without it would not be a compleat but a defective form And therefore Pharisees Hypocrites herein use to be elaborate and accurate to compleat the Pageant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6. 1. as on a Stage in a Theatrical ostentation See Hammond Annot. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 16. that they may appear And for that purpose the outside of the Cup and Platter is made very clean and the Sepulchre very fairly whited and painted Matth. 23. 25 27. But now a Jew is not one that is outwardly but is one that is inwardly whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. Now the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart 1 Sam. 16. 7. and therefore is not so taken with out-sides as to be imposed upon by them His Spouse as her outward raiment is of needle work so she is all-glorious within and the inside of Gods Temple was all Gold and Psal 45. 13 14. 1 King 6. 18 21. Cedar materials precious and incorruptible True worth is modest and like the Windows of the Temple is narrowest outward takes up with privacy and retirement from the World and delights not to make too great a noise and glaring in the World think it enough that oftentimes God seeth it in secret now and for rewarding it openly is content to stay till the last pay-day and therefore looks at the Pharisees open praying in the streets as a trivial devotion and esteems him who sets out all on the bulker without any thing in the Ware-house within a very poor man and next door to a Bankrupt is so wise as to set a due price and value on Christ who is the treasure hid in the field Matth. 13. 44. and therefore esteems all these gayes but loss and dung in comparison of him because first but bare out-sides and therefore at the very best 2. Empty of all substantial reality as in themselves so in any comfort and support we can have by them Of all others fearfulness is ready first to surprize Hypocrites in a day of evil Isa 33. 14. when men hate them because they have a shew of Godliness and God more abhors them because they have but a shew who will not be put off with words though they swear to them Jer. 5. 2. But his eyes are on the truth and reality v. 3. And must this then come in competition with Christ in whom God is well pleased How great soever the sound was yet how hollow when nothing within but emptiness How faint will that poor mans heart be who hath indeed a rich and costly sute on but is within deadly sick and wounded Like your Flowers which spindle up all into Flowers usually die at the root so these out-side men that are all for the Gay-Flower with Nabal then have their 1 Sam. 25. 37. hearts die within them for want of an inward substantial support Suh unsavoury salt though it retain its whiteness is good for nought but to be cast to the dunghil and therefore may well be accounted dung But then how infinitely more worth is Christ who is substance Prov. 8. 21. And the Comforts of his spirit real and substantial It 's Compositum jusfasque animi sanctique recessus and inâ—octum generoso pectus honesto firm interest in Christ and solid substantial sincerity and reality of his grace only that will then support them when such neat woven Cobwebs will fail us and such shadows fly away 3. Especially if they be not only thus hollow and empty but as often they prove Covers of a great deal of under-hidden impiety and all other abomination as the Pharisees painted Sepulchre Matth. 23. 14 27. was within full of uncleanness and rottenness And their long Prayer was but a pretence the more cleanly to devour Widows Houses In Tertullian's Language Impietatis secreta superficialibus officiis obumbrant We delight in
angerly nor dealt more roughly than in this Case John 2. But if it be as it was always in him rightly guided it proveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 8. 7. the flame of God in which the Soul like Elijah mounts up to heaven in a fiery chariot 2 King 2. 11. Judg. 13. 20. or the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flame of the Altar It 's the fire on the Altar a live coal whereof we find the glorious Seraphim having in his hand Isa 6. 6. all the holy Angels being a flaming fire Hebr. 1. 7. but those Seraphims have in a special manner their Name from Burning and are thereby in the upper rank of those Celestial Hierarchies and proportionably zeal makes us God-like Angelical sets such divinely inflamed Souls far above the ordinary forms of Christians as the fire is above the dull earth and other inferior Elements 2. And yet as essential to a Christian is inkindled in the breast of the weakest and youngest Christian for there is warmth even in conception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51. 5. my mother did conceive me or as the word is did warm me and in the very first kindlings of our spiritual conception and new birth in our first conversion when there was otherwise so much smoak there was some of this Divine fire yea very much of it yea and then usually more lively felt glowing and working for God and against sin than it may be afterwards What a fire did it make of those new converteds conjuring books Act. 19. 19. Had it then been a dilute flame and not more than ordinarily hot it would never have so burnt asunder those strong cords of sin and Satan which till then we were bound with as while frigus doth congregare bomogenea heterogenea calor doth congregare bomogenea segregare heterogenea So necessary is this natural radical heat and so unseparable are life and warmth that we cannot first ascend to the highest pitch no nor secondly reach the lowest degree of true spiritual life without some greater or lesser measure of it 3. At least not to any degree of lively activity How nimble and active is the fire whilst the torpid dull earth either sinks down or abides still and stirs not How listless are we to move and unable to do any thing to purpose whilest frozen and benummed with cold but when well warmed how pliable and active The warm wax then works and the melted metal runs And when the Prophet had his lips once touched with a live coal from the altar Isa 6. 6 7. then instead of his former wo is me v. 5. you hear him presently saying here am I send me v. 8. like the Seraphim that touched him with it who had Six wings v. 2. to express the greater readiness and swiftness of those heavenly Ministers as in Ezekiels vision we find their appearance to be like lamps and burning coals Chap. 1. 13. and accordingly we find they had wings to their hands and their feet sparkled for heat and hast v. 7 8. They ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning v. 14. and so we must be fervent in spirit if we would serve the Lord to purpose Rom. 12. 11. be zealous if you would repent or amend Rev. 3. 19. as John Baptist the Preacher of repentance was a burning and shining light John 5. 35. And hence it is that God useth to inkindle this Divine flame in the hearts of those of his Servants whom he raiseth up to any more extraordinary and heroick service and employment We read of Baruch as a special repairer of Jerusalems wall but we read then withal that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flagrante animo instauravit he did much but he was warm at his work and hot upon it Nehem. 3. 20. Apollos Acts 18. 25. was fervent in spirit and then he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. Fervet opus Phineas Elijah Jeremiah Numb 25. 7 8. 1 King 19. 14 14. Jer. 20. 9. Luke 1. 17. 2 King 19. 31. Isa 9. 7. 37. 32. John Baptist Luther Knox all noted to have been very active in their generations and that they were very zealous too In Scripture when some great thing to be done is spoken of it 's said the zeal of the Lord shall do this and it is the zeal which he inkindleth in the hearts of his more eminent servants that must go through with any such more noble atchievements whilst it either breaks or burns through all difficulties and oppositions as whilest the man that creeps or slowly goeth up the hill is wearied before he goes to the top of it another that putting to his strength runs up with more ease ascends it or as whilst a cold blunt-pointed iron cannot enter if sharpned especially if made red hot makes its way easie In the cold winter and cool night we freeze and sleep It 's the warm day and summer when we are abroad at our work and the heat of harvest that ripens and Isa 18. 4. brings in the crop The Palm-trees which are the ensignes of victory delight to grow in hot soiles on the contrary Bernard well observes that Adami voluntas non habuit fortitudinem quia non habuit fervorem Great is the proportion of activity in the hotter Elements above that which is in the more cool and heavy And proportionably there is a far greater riddance made of God◠work by them that are warm than by them that freeze at it When God washeth away the filth of the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem it 's by the spirit of burning Isa 4. 4. It 's hot water that washeth out such souler stains and defilements And accordingly it adds much to the valuableness of zeal that God so highly valueth and esteemeth of it that as he makes it the end he aims at in mercies bestowed he redeems us to make us a people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. So when angry he is pacified by it So he professeth that the heat of Phineas his zeal had quenched the fire of his wrath against Israel Numb 25. 11. that he accepts it and is prevailed with by it The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much James 5. 16. and without some measure of this lively warmth best duties avail nothing The richest sacrifices if not burnt with this altar-fire and Berengosius Bib. Patr. Tom. 2. pag. 550 551 552. the finest flowr and sweetest oyl if not baked in this frying pan as some of the Ancients apply it have no relish make no sweet savour in Gods nostrils No are very distastful He that is a spirit therefore will be served in spirit and in truth had rather you would let his work alone John 4. 24. than that you should freeze at it He will have the dull asses neck rather broken than offered to him in sacrifice and the slow creeping snail is among the unclean creatures His infinite
are to be taken with such trifles Our Apostle telleth us No that Meat commendeth us not to God nor doth his Kingdom 1 Cor. 8. 8. Rom. 14. 17. Prov. 8. 21. consist in meat and drink but in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost It is Christ who is substance that must make us substantially happy not zeal for trifles that can afford solid comfort 2. Sometimes our zeal is pitched upon that which is intrinfecally and sometimes notoriously bad and sinful So the smith sweats with making an Idol Isa 44. 12. So the Jewish Zelots Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 4. cap. 11. Hammond on Matth. 10. Annot c. under that name committing all riots and bloudiness imaginable And you will think Paul's zeal here was not very well placed when it was so hot upon it in persecuting the Church Oh the hellish heat of many Sinners in their hot pursuits of revenge malice lust c. But will zeal not against sin but for sin commend us to God who hateth it perfectly and punisheth it in Hell-fire Eternally No they must be the sweet spices burnt that make the Exod. 30. 34 35 c. holy sweet perfume in his nostrils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's good to be zealously affected always if it be in a good thing Gal. 4. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 zealously affect the best gifts 1 Cor. 12. 31. and if we would be a peculiar people to God we must be zealous but then it must be of good works Tit. 2. 14. It was not for sin but against sin that Lot David and Paul were so zealous that 2 Pet. 2. 7. Psal 119. 139. 2 Cor. 11. 29. gained Gods approbation And when it 's only sin that condemns us surely zeal for sin cannot justifie us 3. Our zeal may be against sin and yet not rightly pitched when it 's only against other mens sins and not our own So Judah was all fire and tow against Tamar for playing the Harlot bring her forth and let her be burnt Gen. 38. 24. till by the staff signet and bracelet he came to know that it was himself by whom she was with Child and then we hear no more of it the fire was quenched presently And it 's said that Davids anger was greatly kindled against the man whilest he knew not that he was the man 2 Sam. 12. 5 7. and our Paul as exceedingly Gal. 1. 14. zealous as he saith he was yet it was against Christians and their sins as often it falleth out that what we are so zelous against in others in not sin but what we conceit and make to be so whereas there was enough in himself and rather than fail even that his misguided fiery zeal for him to have been zealous against which he rather applauded himself in But this makes such fire of our zeal to be like some scare-fires in which the fire leapeth over the next Houses and seizeth on those that are further off whereas in nature fire warms and burns that first and most which is nearest and so in Grace God over-heareth Ephraim bemoaning himself most bitterly Jer. 31. 18. And David when more awakened cries out of himself Is it not I even I it is 2 Sam. 24. 17. 1 Chron. 21. 17. Deut. 33. 9. that have sinned let thy hand be against me and against my fathers house And Levi when he was zealous for God acknowledged not his brethren nor knew his own Children The righteous man who is accepted by God as he is justified and liveth by his own faith so he hath most indignation against his own sins not as some who as the Lamiae have their eyes in their pocket while they are at home and only put them on when they go abroad to see and to be hot and angry against other mens sins and as I said such often as they will make to be sins but indeed are not and let me add though they be indeed sins yet out of a natural proud and pettish frowardness in our selves and want of love to others that which makes us so angry and as we think zealous in other mens sins is because it displeaseth rather us than God and rather thwarts our touchy humour or it may be outward design or interest than Gods holy Nature and will But this is a distempered heat and no true zeal Passion without Compassion which our Saviours zeal was ever happily tempered with as we read Mark 3. 5. when he looked upon the Jewes with most anger that he was withal grieved and that for the hardness of their hearts And thus in these and the like respects our even Religious zeal may be far from commending us to God if first thus misplaced and mis-pitched upon wrong objects Secondly if ill grounded for the inward cause and principle To which let me add and as ill guided in the undue management of it if not principled and managed with knowledge sincerity and love First If principled and managed without knowledge For this sharp knife need be in a wary hand and wisely handled So our Apostle tells us the Jews had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a zeal and that of Act. 21. 20. God a religious zeal but it was not according to knowledge as also Act. 22. 3. he himself had and acted acordingly but he saith he did it ignorantly 1 Tim. 1. 13. but therefore oftentimes the more headily and furiously as the mettled blind horse runs headlong Sedulius on Rom. 10. did minus dicere when he said Non multum prodest habere zelum non habere scientiam that zeal without knowledge did little good No rather knowledge without zeal doth little good but zeal without knowledge is in danger to do a great deal of hurt The one is like a Ship that hath a good Card and Pilot but without Sail and so stirs not the other hath a large sail but wants Compass and Pilot to steer it aright and so soon runs upon the Rock and here oftentimes the more blind the more bold and the less light the more heat more ignorant men are usually the more zealous This sometimes hitteth right as it hath been observed of the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes the more unlearned men and the weaker women were more couragious in the cause of Christ than the greater Scholars the spirits of the one being more in their heads but of the other more in their hearts And here we may use Bernards words Bonum erat tibi si ignifer magis esses quà m lucifer But most commonly it falls out otherwise Serm. 3. in Isaiam that zeal without knowledge as in the Bores wars in Germany and our combustions at home proves most tumultuous and pernicious when he is most cried up as Calvin saith sometimes he was chosen as the best Preacher ut quisque clamosissimus erat stolido furore praeditus quem illi zelum vocant quo nunquam arsit
but four thousand men to entertain his disciples asked the question and knew not how to answer it whence shall we have bread in the wilderness to fill so great a multitude Matth. 15. 33. Now blessed be God that our Christ is no such barren wilderness but that in other greatest wildernesses he can and doth and will feed far greater companies And not one of them not the least meanest poorest neglected or sent away empty Such in other crowds are often overlooked But our good Housholder comes in to see his Guests takes notice of all that none may be without their dimensum You heard that he filleth every sorrowful soul a little Benjamin's mess may be the greatest To be sure whatever the man be he will have the best and fullest meal that feeleth himself most empty and therefore hungreth most and feedeth heartiliest The poorest Christian that knoweth not what other treasures mean in Christ hath them and filled too and that with the fullest In that entertainment of Christ even now mentioned his guests besides four thousand men were women and little children His Provisions therefore must needs be full which could welcome so many But it may be you will say though they were many yet it was not much that they received Philip indeed then spake of every one of them taking a little John 6. 7. But I am sure It was as much as they would v. 11. and the next verse saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were filled and that 's the word in my Text other Matth. 15. 37. Mark 8. 8. Evangelists say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that word signifieth a more full repletion 2. Which is a second proof of the Point that there is full provision in Christ in that as he gives to many so that it is so much Not only to all but to all liberally James 1. 5. The same Lord over all is rich unto all Rom. 10. 12. which argues infinite both sufficiency and Bounty For man's that is bounded The more it gives to the less it is that every one of them receives but this heap is so great that one man hath not the less because another carrieth away the more from it This Ocean so vast and full that one Vessel is never the emptier because another is fill'd by it whilest both are full O the bottomless abyss of God's Bounty in Christ that notwithstanding the vast multitudes of persons and capacities however some receive more than others yet all so much as they are all filled and that so fully as if it were for them only In Christ there must needs be a full supply when so much for so many Much very much 1. Because indeed all things So the Apostle styles him All in All Col. 3. 11. And therefore might well say All are yours when he could add And ye are Christ's 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. And elsewhere I have all saith Jacob Gen. 33. 11. and I have all saith Paul Phil. 4. 18. Mark what Bills of Receipts his Servants bring in And truly if by knowledge the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant Riches Prov. 24. 4. then it 's no wonder if the Eternal and Essential Wisdom of God here in the Text be able to fill our Treasures with all varieties and fulness of whatever is more substantial To him that overcometh he promiseth that he shall inherit all things Revel 21. 7. It 's very much when in the general first it 's All. 2. More particularly fully able to supply all our wants and that in the greatest extremities of them as Bethsaida's Pool cured every patient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whatever disease he had John 5. 4. so truly in Christ there is a salve for every sore He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All and in All both persons and wants And ours are very great and many Our Souls and selves without Christ are a very Tohu and Bohu wholly empty and void a vast emptiness and every Creature though in its kind never so useful and helpful though never so full as we think of comfort is but empty And emptiness put to emptiness will not make up any fulness At best is but bonum particulare helps but in part Our meat satisfieth our hunger but doth not cover our nakedness and our garments cloath us but do not feed us But Christ as God is Bonum Vniversale is All doth All. There is no pit of destruction so deep which he cannot fill nor any want so great which he cannot supply And that in their greatest Extremity 3. So full as to satisfie all our desires and that in their utmost capacity You heard of a mouth promised to be filled when wide open Psal 81. 10. And this is more than the former Your ordinary plain saying is that you may better fill a wantons belly than his eye Truly such wantons often are many foolish men The Psalmist speaks of their bellies being filled Psal 17. 14. when yet the Preacher saith the eye is not satisfied Eccles 1. 8. So naturally capacious are the rational Souls of men and so sinfully and unreasonably greedy are their desires and lusts that nothing in the World can fill them But it 's well that God and Christ can As God He satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 16. and as Mediatour he saith Drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Cant. 5. 1. Spare not my cost but enlarge your appetite Man's desires may be large but God's Goodness and Bounty in Christ is infinite able to supply all our wants in their extremity and all the desires of our Souls in their utmost capacity But of this I spake something in the first Point and therefore here forbear 4. Yet let me add this in the fourth place as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only good measure pressed down and shaken together but also running Fons est qui vincit sitientem over that Christ doth not only fully answer our wants and desires but abundantly infinitely exceeds them as a full well-head doth not only feed the Conduit but hath a slaker When he is the Entertainer though his Guests be never so many or hungry there will be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when all are filled and have received Matth. 14. 20. 15. 37. John 6. 11 12. as much as they will there will be so many baskets of what remained more of the fragments than the first provisions came to He being able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do abundantly above all we can ask or think Ephes 3. 20. David's Cup is so full that it runs over Psal 23. 5. Some of his Servants have been so filled with spiritual joys that they have desired him to hold his hand as not being able to receive or hold or bear any more Yea so full and exuberant is this fountain of life that it runs over in many common bounties even to Strangers and Enemies so that not only the Children are fed but even the Dogs
earth and as much above a fouler sinner as heaven is above hell But how then cometh it to pass that the roof of hell should be so nigh as I may so speak to the floor of heaven that there should be so little difference between the Apogaeum and highest of moral Heathens or other natural men and the Epigaeum or lowest of a collapsed or go-by-ground Christian Doth not this puff up proud Nature and if not debase the Divine yet make our Philosophical Christians think low and meanly of it Make it in these mens esteem but a name a thin fine notion and them that are partakers of it some Eutopian fancies which Preachers talk of but the world seeth little of SERMON XIX ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND therefore that we may either prevent or refute these Preacht at St. Maries Jan. 17. 165â— their misprisions and blasphemies and convince them that this we speak of is a very reality be we exhorted to 3. things 1. To aspire and indeavour really to attain to this high dignity Vse 4 of being indeed partakers of this divine nature 2. Then to walk answerably to it and worthy of it 3. Because both will be here imperfect to long for heaven where both will be in their full perfection 1. First I say let us with our whole might aspire to this highest dignity and not rest till we arrive at this Divine Prerogative of being the Sons of God and so partakers of the divine nature John 1. 1â— And to quicken us hereto consider 1. How studious and ambitious men have alwayes been of nearness to great Princes and for that purpose of an imitation Camerar med cent 1. cap. 66. Eunomius cum impeditae linguae erat hoc facundiam fuisse dixit Philostorgius Niceph. lib. 12. cap. 29. Epist ad Laetam and likeness of their deportment fashions gestures and oftentimes even of their both moral yea and natural vices and deformities Poppea's yellow locks a beauty in the Court Leonides his gate and manners Alexander could not forbear to imitate as his Courtiers did many things in him A wry neck or a long hooked nose much doted on because it looked like an Emperours And for the minds complexion Hierom from experience could say Quorum virtutes assequi nequeas citò imitaris vitia when we cannot reach their vertues we are very prone to take up in imitating their vices like foolish wanton children when we cannot stride their steps in fair way we will follow them through the dirty puddle Exempla exemplaria so that the imitation As Lactantius observes lib. 5. c. 6. mores ac vitia regis imitari genus obsequii judicatur of their manners and vices their subjects account to be a piece of the homage they owe to them which therefore made Tully say that plus exemplo quam peccato nocent 3 de legibus they do more mischief by their example than by their sin Great mens examples I say are Laws and holy mens tempers and carriages have a kind of necessitating cogency in them to imitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Paul to Peter Why compellest thou the Gentiles to Judaize Gal. 2. 14. So like do we desire to be to good at least to great men but how much rather should we aspire and endeavour to be like to him who is Optimus Maximus to the great King and most holy God even God blessed for ever whose nature is most holy whose works are truth and his ways judgment Dan. 4. 37. in whose Divine Beauty is no deformity And therefore as our Saviour said to his Dâ—sciples Ye believe in God believe also John 14. 1. in me I may well say to all Do you imitate man shall we not imitate God and Christ rather If foolish men glory in an Apish symbolizing with men like themselves and that in their humane infirmities how glorious and therefore desirable should it be to us to partake with God in his Divine Nature and perfections 2. And this the rather because this high honour and happiness Obj. But you will say heaven is high and we cannot reach it God infinitely higher and therefore no possibility of imitation is attainable The happy event puts it out of question Many in all Ages of the Church have arrived at this height who have shewn forth the vertues of God who hath called them 1 Pet. 2. 9. who by emanations of Divine Grace in heart and life have expressed a participation of the Divine Nature and what in this kind hath been in some by the same Grace may be in others Ab esse posse c. did we but put forth the strength and activity of Pauls faith who could be and do all things through Christ strengthning him Phil. 4. 13. The Text in hand had we nothing else doth sufficiently clear this possibility for it doth not only say that precious promises were given to them that they may be partakers of the Divine Nature and Gospel-promises do at least assure us of a possibility and when by faith laid hold on of a certainty of their accomplishment but withal adds the happy event in their having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust In which this actual participation of this Divine Nature in part consisteth and by which according to the true sense and intention of the Apostle in his adding of those words it is evidenced Well then it 's hence plain that such a participation of the Divine Nature may be had and truly then such a may-be of such a mercy should be enough to any awaekned spirit to imploy and improve its utmost endeavours for the attaining of it It encouraged the Widow of Tekoah to make a great petition to David because she said in her self It may be the King will grant it 2 Sam. 14. 15. And It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction said David himself and upon that ground patiently endured it 2 Sam. 16. 12. Who knoweth saith the Prophet Joel 2. 14. and Who can tell said the people of Nineveh Jonah 3. 9. whether God will turn and repent and so the more seriously they set upon their duty that he might Truly Gods may-be's are better than mans shall-be's A may-be of salvation is one of the first casts of faiths eye to justification In matters of outward estate we much value even our possibilities and they set the whole world upon busie action What crowds of poor where a doal may be had What trâ—dging over sea and land for a may-be of profit And if such an height of honour or place may be got up to what creeping up though upon hands and feet as Jonathan 1 Sam. 14. 4 13. V. 6. between sharp rocks to come at it upon this very ground it may be the Lord will work for us As it was enough for Jacob to hear that there was corn in Egypt to be had though he was not assured to have any of it to
vigilia defendit he wakes that we may sleep his Head is filled with cares that ours may be quiet and his Heart sometimes with fears that ours may be more confident Nehemiah's a good Governour example in this kind is remarkable Chap. 6. 14 15. and justifieth An a good Common-wealths-man's answer to him that found fault with him for neglecting his own occasions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I said he take care of my Country Thus Honorable Lords you have seen not so much your Duty as your Honour and Happiness your being just in making us happy And therefore for close what was said of Eliakim Isa 22. 20 21 22 c. let me apply to you and conclude You are our Eliakims as he under their Hezekiah so you under ours whom God and our King have Clothed with the Robe and strengthened with the Girdle have committed the Judicature to your hand and appointed for Fathers to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the House of Judah ver 21. The Lord still fasten you as a Nail in a sure place as ver 23. that as it there followeth we may still and still ever safely hang upon you not only all the glory of your Fathers Houses but also our Off-spring and Issue all Vessels of small quantity from the Vessels of Cups even to all the Vessels of Flagons that the poor Man may come and hang his little Cup upon you in his petty matters and the great Man may come and hang his Flagon his greater Cause whether lesser or greater Matters yet all may hang safely on you whilst fastened as Nails in a sure place settled in your places but more settled in a course of Justice judging and ruling in Righteousness and Wisdom and Moderation and so prove a Hiding-place from the Wind and Covert from the Tempest c. meant of Christ fully as I said at first And therefore what I say now at last is with all humility as becomes my place and yet with all assurance of your Faithfulness in regard of yours to desire and hope that what you would now and at the last day have Christ to be to you you will still please to continue to be to God's and the King's People The Wind may blow and Flouds may come and beat against your Houses and greatest Princes strongest and highest Palaces and therefore you and they may then especially stand in great need of a Covert and Hiding-place in Christ Inward and Spiritual thirst and drought may betide those that water others with clear streams of Justice Sure at the last day when the whole World will be on fire then those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooling days or days of refreshment Acts 3. 19. A River a Shade then would be welcome Christ both now is and then and ever will be all this to his and therefore I said what you would desire him to be to you then I promise my self you will continue to be to his People The Lord grant in Christ for his Mercies sake that still long and long our gracious King may reign in Righteousness and his Princes and Counsellors and Judges may rule in Judgment that He above them and they under Him may be as an Hiding-place from the Wind and a Covert from the storm as Rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land Even so Amen Lord Jesus our everlasting Melchisedech SERMON XXVII ISA. 32. 1 2. II Sermon at Boston before Mr. Kirk and other Courtiers Behold a King shall Reign in Righteousness and Princes shall Rule in Judgment And a Man shall be as an hiding place from the Wind and a covert from the Tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land ANd so we dispatched the Text as a Plat-form of other Kings and Princes in Hezekiah's Type but behold a greater than Hezekiah yea than Solomon is here the Lord Jesus Christ our Melchisedek the King of our righteousness and peace and so in this second brief view of the words as principally meant of him we have First Christs righteous Reign and Government ver 1. He that King who Reigns in Righteousness and his Apostles and Ministers those Princes that rule in Judgment Of which point because I have dilated on Psal 45. 6. on those words the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter therefore I here now wholly forbear and only take a short view of the second part namely of the blessed and peaceable fruits of his Government ver 2. That God-Man whatever Hezekiah or best King is yet He above all is an Hiding-place from the wind and a Covert from the storm Rivers of waters c. From which we may observe briefly I. What Christ is to us and therein see his All-sufficiency II. What that cost him from whence we may more fully descry his Love 1. He is no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 11. All and to all and so an All-sufficient both protection to his People in the two first comparisons A hiding-place from the Wind and a Covert from the storm And refreshment in the two latter Rivers of waters in a dry place and the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land But that we may as it were more distinctly spell this blessed Truth take it asunder into these four 1. That he is able and ready to help when greatest Evils fall on us 2. Nay when all meet in us 3. And yet then be a full help 4. Most proper for our Malady and most seasonable for Time and Occasion Which all put together make up this full word of Comfort That when greatest Evils befal us and all evils do round about beset us yet then Christ protects and refresheth most fully and seasonably 1. When greatest Evils befal us For our blessed Eliakim is such a Nail so fastened in a sure place that we may not only hang on him Cups but Flagons Isa 22. 23 24. not only our lesser sins and miseries but if we have but an hand of working Faith to hang the greatest and heaviest in both kinds our Burdens Psal 55. 22. our burdens though so heavy as otherwise would sink our Bodies into the Grave and our Souls into Hell yet of him it 's said that not only Morbos nostros pertulit that he hath born our lesser Griefs but also Dolores nostros bajulavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath carried the heaviest Burden of our Sorrows as the word signifieth Nor doth this first particular weigh down the weight of the words in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here holdeth out the most blustering Wind from which yet he hides us and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most violent Storm and Stream from which yet he covers us The dry place argueth extremity of Thirst which hath with it acutest Pain Which yet these Rivers quench and ease And this weary Land implieth the more weary sweltred Traveller which
strange fire Lev. 10. 1. upon new Mercies new sins instead of new wayes Israel when but now delivered from Egypt begins to worship strange Gods which their fathers knew not Jer. 19. 4. new Gods Judg. 5. 8. And Judah when newly returned from Captivity fall a marrying strange wives Ezra 10. 2. When David's at rest from his wonted enemies then a stranger comes with whom he was not before acquainted 2 Sam. 12. 4. And when the Christian Church was rid of Heathenish Persecutors their old bad Neighbours then Superstition and Idolatry crowd in who before were strangers Never are we more in danger of being foiled with a renewed charge or a new on-set than when we are ready to cry Victoria To prevent which God's care of our safety is very observable in these two particulars in Scripture 1. That when he intends a perfect Rescue to his delivering Mercy he joyns guiding Mercy his preventing and following Grace keep company Thy rigteousness shall go before thee and Psal 40. 2. the glory of the Lord shall be thy Reward He both leads the Van and brings up the Rear Isa 58. 8. v. 10. Thy Light shall rise in Obscurity there the Prison door is opened and Light is let in but he had need be led by the hand when he is got out and therefore vers 11. it 's added and the Lord shall guide thee continually answerable to that 2 Chron. 32. 22. The Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem and the Lord guided them on every side and they had need of it for vers 25. when God did but a little leave him the better to prove him you know how desperatly he stumbled at the first step and therefore in all our Deliverances let this be one of our Prayers Lord as thou hast delivered us so do not now leave us but still lead us as thou hast reached me thy hand to pluck me out of the Snare so lend me it still to lead me in the Way which when come out of straits we are in most danger to go astray from as a man whilst in a narrow deep Lane cannot so readily go out of his way but when got out to a wide Common As Hos 2. 6 7. where there are many paths which may deceive him he hath most need of a Guide Nor have we more need of Deliverance from danger when we are in it than we have of Guidance when got out of it which God therefore in mercy grants when he means to compleat his Mercy 2. And secondly therefore also is wont not to perfect a Mercy or Deliverance at the first nor it may be at all in this life but leaves a Canaanite when Israel is in Canaan an Hadad a Rezon and a Jeroboam whilst Solomon sits peaceably on his Throne to allay the heat of the Pot which else would boyl over Few such Mornings like that 2 Sam. 23. 4. in which there is no Cloud or if so in the morning yet not usually so all the day to keep us the better in who else would be running out and playing the wantons in the Sunshine Christ was never lost but once in the Crowd Luke 2. 43. Nor God ever so often as in the crowds of his Mercy and therefore somthing we shall have that we do not pine and yet not all that we would have that we do not surfeit Something he gives to incourage but still somthing he withholds the better to nurture us and to force us still to wait upon him who else like ill-nurtured children when they have got all they desire should be then most like to run away farthest from him some Worm in our fairest Apple and some Blemish in our greatest Beauty some bitter in our greatest sweet to make all medicinal In our greatest enjoyments somthing shall be wanting or cross to our desires which may be as a constant Memento and really say sin no more because else we shall be then ready to sin more than ever For first it is not in the nature or power of Affliction unless Reas 1 sanctified to mortify Corruption that as soon as we are freed from the one we should be rid of the other The Winter-frost may nip the Weeds and keep them under ground but yet so as that they sprout out again the next spring Solomon speaks of a Fool in the Mortar and Jeremiah of Dross in the Furnace This Cripple in the Text though after thirty eight years weakness he had been healed by Christ did not yet know Christ at the first and some may never and then no wonder if notwithstanding all they prove never the better but much the worse 2. For that Corruption which Affliction doth not heal it doth at most but curb and when that Curb in a Deliverance is removed the Corruption is the more fully and violently manifested and exerted as Antichrist when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was taken away was more openly discovered 2 Thess 2. 7 8. And Joâ—dan when the Preist's feet were once out of it and so that Dam as it were broken down runs down his Channel more violently than before In times of danger and trouble Conscience often proves a Shrew and will chide and God's angry and we fear will strike The Angel stands in the way with a drawn Sword to stop us and when seen will make a Balaam stand still Thus then these pricking Thorns hedge up the way and a stormy day shuts the door and keeps us in but the next fair blast that opens it makes the wanton run out with the more eagerness As the hunger-starved Man with his food the longer he was before kept from it the more greedily he now falls to it as much as he pined before he surfeits now as they are wont to say of Sailers that they are not more calm in a Storm than they storm in a Calm or when got to Shore 3. As in this case the Affliction was but a Curb so the Deliverance and Mercy proves a Snare adds Fewel to that Flame which the former rainy day quenched or at least kept down strengthen's the recovered man's Lust which Sickness weakned affords matter for the rich man's Pride which his Poverty humbled entertains the Wanton and Worlding with other company whom Straits and Dangers for that time inforced to seek after God and made him glad of his acquaintance As in Bloud-letting upon the return of the Bloud we are then most ready to faint I wish that after our Bloud-shed upon the return of Mercies our former Reformation that seemed to have some life in it do not quite dy away and that Ephraim and Manasseh do not continue Brothers still the one's Name signifieth Plenty or Fruitfulness and the other's Forgetfulness that in the plenty of restored Mercies we did not forget our Misery and our selves and our God altogether The Lord make good that Promise Job 5. 24. to us that when being kept long from home we may visit our Tabernacles and not sin to which we are
Water of Life freely Rev. 22. 17. And then as the Lord saith Jer. 30. 21. Who is he that engageth his heart to approach unto me So I in the Name of the Lord whilst I look upon this great Congregation am bold to ask the Question But who amongst you all is such an Enemy to his own good as will not now and henceforth ever hereafter engage his whole heart to make yet nearer approaches to this God who is so good and in drawing near to whom consists our everlasting happiness Some Interpreters upon that Text think that the Question Who is he that engageth his heart c. is made by way of a troubled admiration that so few do But I beseech you let it not so be but that as others rather think by way of encouragement as though he had said But who is that blessed Man that I may see him and go out to meet him And therefore as Jebu in another case said Who is on my side who and it 's added That two or 2 King 9. 32. three Eunuchs looked out Though I desire not in other things to make any sidings there are too many already yet in regard of our drawing near to God I make no factious question if I ask of you all But who will be on the Lord's side who Who of you will now engage your hearts to approach to God Let it not I beseech you be two or three but many O that I could prevail with you all Here say one and all I and I and as it 's said in the Prophet I will go also Let the forwardest Christian Zech. 8. 21. that hath advanced furthest say I by the Grace of God will make one and let the humbled sinner that is now but first looking after Christ say and I fain would make another Instead of our present uncomfortable estrangements from Christ and one another happy we if with our faces Sion-ward we could take hold one of another the strongest of the weakest and those that are estranged of them with whom they have been most at odds and so go hand in hand together saying Come let us Jer. 50. 5. join our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten This joint drawing near to God in the good old way of the Power of Godliness which by our new Devices is now too much out of fashion would make us leave off our crooked by-paths and cross walkings in which we now so justle and at last so quite loose one another Loud calls and strong perswasions in this kind are not wanting 1. In this blessed Motion the Terminus ad quem is God who is so good as that there is in him vis infinita magnetica such a wonderful attractive power and force as may trahere nay rapere animam draw and snatch the Soul to him in a way of a sweet but irresistible violence Our Saviour said That when he was lifted up he would draw all Men to him John 12. 32. Even so Amen Lord Jesus thou faithful and true Witness Especially as God in Christ looks out and comes out to us how earnest is he to call us how glad to welcome us how ready more than half way to meet us When the Prodigal began to come the Father ran Luk. 15. 20. Desperate Prodigal when thy Heavenly Father draws near wilt thou draw backward Oh take heed of it lest God's Soul take no pleasure in thee Heb. 10. 38. Think what a step thy Saviour took in his Incarnation to come to thee Inaestimabilis dignatio penitus inexcogitabilis Serm. 1. de Advent quod in carceris hujus horrorem descendere dignata est Celsitudo as Bernard speaks When he cannot express it he cannot think of it without admiration Non est Consuâ—tudo divitum ut ad pauperes veniant c. At least therefore though we cannot go being lame and blind at saltem conetur erigere caput aliquatenus assurgere in occursum tanti Medici And yet besides in all the after-travel of his Soul think how he came leaping over Mountains and skipping over Hills that he might get to thee before thou perishedst eternally By his Word and Spirit doth he not sometimes come very near thee In the Sacrament though there be no Transubstantiation yet is there not a very near union with thee And is not all this enough to draw thee 2. If not consider then the Terminus a quo that estate which of thy self thou art in and think if it may not drive thee It may be thou art of their mind who when God bad them return return'd this answer We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Jer. 2. 31. Though God be never so good and it be very good to draw near to him yet we are so well that we need not trouble our selves in making out after him I so woful blind Creature that hast lost thy self and thine eyes together that thou canst not see it wer 't thou not deadlily lethargical thou wouldst be more sensible of thine own wants wert thou not wholly a stranger at home thou wouldst see nothing but misery and beggery there that would thrust thee out for supply elsewhere So far as thou art off from Christ so far from Righteousness Isa 46. 12. and just so far from blessedness And what then so deadly sick and not so much as to send for thy Physician such a Sinner and not so much as to look out for a Saviour Doth the Avenger of Blood pursue thee and dost thou not fly to the City of Refuge to the hope that is set before thee Doth Hell behind thee gape for thee and no need no care of Christ and Heaven to receive thee But had we less need in that kind yet even in outward respects the World is never so good but when at best it 's good to draw near to God But it 's now so bad that I think David's Prayer will not sound ill in any of our Mouths Lord be not thou far off for trouble is near I delight not to read State-Lectures out of a Pulpit I am not of the Privy-Councel either of God or our Governors to tell you what will be but without me your own hearts will tell you what very probably may be though the Weather for the present be somewhat fair yet at best it 's very doubtful If we consult our sins they 'l tell us that there is likely to be a Storm and then if we would consult our own peace we cannot but think it good to be provided of a shelter Our sad experiences of all that hitherto we have had recourse to fully evidence to us that none of them are tight enough but it may and will drop through save God only and therefore in such doubtful Circumstances I think it safest to join with the strongest Party But mistake me not I mean not such as Men out of self-interests are wont to close with that 's falseness
Paradise Haec est maxima merces interminabilis is the highest Point of the Alcoran's Divinity I omit to shew how in point of honour and preferment in which the ambitious place the highest pitch of their happiness such statelier Plumes lure high-soaring Spirits how Beauty draws after it many Men's eyes the loving Wife the pleasant Child the faithful Friend take our very hearts and that too often from God In company and enjoyment of them our Souls are so snatcht to them so immersed do so dwell in them that we are ready to sit down and say with Peter and more inconsiderately than he it 's good to be here rather than to advance on and with the Psalmist in the Text to say It 's good to draw near to God 2. Which is the other part of our sin namely our Aversio a Deo our froward aversness and awke hanging off from God as from the greatest Stranger or worst Enemy So false-hearted that after fair Advances we often draw back in a sly retrograde Motion Heb. 10. 38 39. So peevish that when he reacheth out the hand we pluck away the shoulder Nehem. 9. 29. when called to him we run the faster and farther from him Hos 11. 2. So proud that we are Lords and will not come at him Jer. 2. 31. So profane that we are either afraid or ashamed to be near him and therefore such bid the Almighty depart Job 21. 14 15. and the Prodigal gets himself into a far Country that so he might be further out of his Father's fight and so with more freedom satisfie his lusts and will rather join himself to a Farmer to feed Hogs and to be fed with Husks than to come home to his Father to have Childrens Bread any way rather than home and Sub oculo Catonis Cupiditas junxit porcis a patre piissimo quem sejunxit Chrysolog Serm. 1. any thing rather than a Father's presence Fond desperate Soul Nescis temeraria nescis Quem fugias ideoque fugis Didst thou but know what thou leavest thou wouldst draw nearer and what thou pursuest thou wouldst stand further off Will a fainting Man leave the Snow of Lebanon And shall the cold flowing Waters be forsaken Jer. 18. 14. Do not such Shadows the faster thou pursuest them fly the faster from thee Like the foolish Boy running after the Bee to catch it sequendo labitur assequendo laeditur Have not all such things which draw out thy Soul so after them as to withdraw it from God have they not either a Wing to fly away that thou never overtakest what thou seekest or a sting to hurt thee when thou hast overtaken them that thou gettest more hurt than good by them Is not Dina ravished thy Soul abused and defiled by such out-gaddings Is not I say not Health Estate Esteem but it may be thy Life thy Soul lost in such ramblings and which is worst of all and above all God lost too Cain went out of the presence of the Lord but he thereupon dwelt in the Land of Nod as a trembling amazed vagrant Wretch in a most unsetled condition ever after Gen. 4. 14 16. Jonah also fled frrom the presence of the Lord but a tempestuous Wind is sent out with Hue and Cry after him and when laid up in the close Prison of the Whale's belly he then confesseth he had forsaken his own mercy The Prodigal went into a far Country but the further from his Father the nearer to Ruine Though we are studious to put far from us the evil day Amos 6. 3. Yet as the Lord liveth there is but a step between us and death as long as we keep at such a distance from the God of our Salvation mischiefs then near at hand to come and irrecoverable when come It 's said that Laish had no Deliverer because it was far from Zidon Judg. 18. 28. But who will be thy Deliverer when Enemies are near Ezek. 9. 1. Death near Psal 107. 18. Judgment near Heb. 10. 25. And thou further from God In this case H. de S. Victore tells us what In Psal 63. Men usually betake themselves to Aliis in necessitate bonum est consilium suum aliis in prosperitate bonum est gaudium suum mihi unicum bonum est adhaerere Deo In Prosperity they think it 's good for them to betake themselves to their delights and in straits to their shifts But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This one direct course of drawing near to God will be of more use than all their other Shifts and Applications Illos consilium non liberat gaudium non conservat as the same Author there adds all other nearest and dearest Friends may fail us may not come at us Nehem. 4. 19. may cast us off as Psal 27. 10. It 's God only drawing near that must relieve us And then wo to us if he only draw near to us as an Enemy or Judg as Mal. 3. 5. to take vengeance not to rescue us as our best Friend And therefore in the last place this is of special use for direction Vse 5 1. Of our Judgment in a right estimate of true goodness which most Men are inquisitive after It 's the Voice of Nature Who will shew us any good Psal 4. 6. and yet which very few are well resolv'd in according to that of Solomon Who knoweth what is good for Man c. Eccles 6. 12. But the Psalmist affords a full Answer to both those great Questions when after a long and strong debate in the foregoing part of the Psalm he concludeth It 's good for me to draw near to God and by good as we have shown he meaneth the prime and chiefest and best Good mihi quidem optimum so the Arabick hath it Now then primum in unoquoque genere est mensura reliquorum The first and chiefest in every kind is the Rule and Measure of the rest Let this therefore be the Standard by which we always measure the goodness of every thing that we most value and set the highest price on and let this be the Rule which in such prizings we go by that that is indeed good by which we are drawn near to God and that best by which we get nearest My God is my goodness Psal 144. 2. and therefore that only at least that principally I must call good by which I am drawn nearer to God Indeed because Bonum Ens convertuntur we are ready to call any thing good and because finis bonum convertuntur accordingly every thing is good at least in our eyes which either is an end we aim at or a means conducing to it And so as the Apostle said in another kind There be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. So there are many things which in Scripture-phrase and ordinary use are called good a good Day good Company a good Work or Employment and so of the rest But in a
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said some read it you may you shall And therefore for the Application 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the common Vse reading is Christ here commands us to endeavour that we may possess our lives in Patience At the best we are but Tenants at will and if some of us consider our Ages and others our Weakness and all of us the perilous Times we are cast into we may well think that our Leases are fast hasting to an expiration What Man therefore is he that desireth Life and loveth many days let him seek peace saith the Psalmist Psalm 34. 12 13 14. and let me add Patience for Patience is one of the best Preservatives Prayers and Tears were wont to be the Churches best offensive Weapons and Patience one of the chiefest Defensives Not by Might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith God when he stiles himself the Lord of Hosts Zech. 4. 6. And truly the Spirit of Meekness and Patience hath in it the Spirit of a Conqueror As therefore Christ our Lord vanquished the Devil not by fighting Qui pro nobis mundum vicit non aâ—mato milite sed irrisà cruce Austin in Psal 62. ad finem but by dying so our way to overcome the World and save our lives is rather by patient yeelding and suffering than by peevishly contending I mean not by a base unworthy complying with Mens sins but by a generous suffering of their rage and ever with a silent and meek submission to the righteous Judgment of God Yea in the way of thy Judgments have we waited for thee O Lord said the humbled Church Isa 26. 8. And waiting as it implyeth a still and quiet attendance so with God it ever finds at last a gracious acceptance Thou wilt never bid that Beggar stay and wait whom thou at last intendest to send away empty much less will God make thee content quietly to wait whom he intends to send away discontented by wholly frustrating thee of thy Expectation The prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evil time saith the Prophet Amos 5. 13. How evil our times are I need not say and therefore if we would shew our selves prudent and wise for our selves as we love our lives let us keep silence and that 's the Expression which in the Old Testament Patience is usually and almost only set out by Not a malicious silence as Absalom's was 2 Sam. 13. 22. whereby we bite in for the present but lie in insidiis to watch opportunities of mischief and revenge but a shamefaced silence in sense of our own confusion and guilt an humble meek silence not murmuring against God's dealings or an angry clamouring at evil Mens proceedings but a quiet submitting to his hand and a patient enduring as long as God continues it of their oppressions saying if any thing with the Church I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have Micah 7. 9. sinned against him or rather with our Saviour though led as a Sheep to the Slaughter and as the Lamb before the Shearer so Act. 8. 32. open we not our mouths as Paulinus to his Friend Nos taceamus Epist 1. ad Aprum istis loquentes ad Dominum silentio humilitatis voce patientiae tunc ipse qui invictus est pugnabit pro nobis vincet in nobis So the dumb Dove's mourning in a far Country was heard and she delivered if you compare the Argument and the 56th Psalm together And Christ the meek silent Lamb though slaughtered yet shortly after was raised from the dead to whom if we be Unisons in this sweet still-Musick we shall for certain have our lives for a prey either preserved or restored either kept from death or if the two Witnesses be now to be slain shall have part in a better Resurrection For so if we should take the word in the Text for our lives so it holds good that by our patience we may and therefore ought to possess our Souls But take the word Soul in its more proper signification for 2 Soul that nobler part of Man and so most understand our Saviour's meaning when he here saith In your patience possess ye your Souls In which words we have these two Particulars considerable 1. That it 's our duty to possess our Souls 2. That Patience is one special means to keep this possession As always so especially in evil and perilous Times for such Doct. 2 our Saviour here speaks of whatever else we are deprived or thrust out of our great care and endeavour must be to possess our Souls Whatsoever the force be we must stand to it and keep possession Above all keepings keep thy Heart saith Solomon Prov. 4. 23. And keep thy Soul diligently saith Moses Deut. 4. 9. Take heed to your Spirit saith the Prophet Mal. 2. 15. And so here In your patience possess ye your Souls saith our Saviour A dear and great Pledg it is which both God and his People do mutually betrust each other with and both to our present purpose They him looking at it as their Jewel and considering their own weakness and heedlessness leave it to be kept in his safer Hand That we may possess it as the Child gives the Mother that it would have kept we put it into God's Hands to keep it for us And so it 's Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1. 12. his Depositum which he leaves with God And our dying Saviour when now to be dispossest of his Life that he might keep possession of his Soul saith Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Luke 23. 46. And he them it being one of his chief Master-pieces and Possessio siduciaria therefore as soon as it comes out of his hands he commends it to every Man's best care as a great Talent which he betrusts us with and will have at last a strict account of At our Birth sent out from him and in Death Eccles 12. 7. again to return to him that he may have an account how it hath been abused or improved whether kept or lost When thrust out of this House of Clay whether we have not lost it and it Heaven For so this possessing of our Souls includes a double care and endeavour 1. That it be not utterly lost 2. No nor so Distempered and Disguised that neither we nor it be our selves 1. First I say our care must be so to possess our Souls that they be not utterly lost for so the Scripture speaks of losing the Soul Mat. 16. 26. And what is quite lost is then out of our possession And on the contrary that in Matthew He that endures to the end shall be saved Chap. 10. 22. and this of the Text In your patience possess ye your Souls are by learned Interpreters Grotius Brugensis made Parallel so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to possess the Soul and to save
our desires and call out our more earnest Cries and Groans the more to quicken the earnings of his Bowels towards us and so the more to hasten our deliverance Which tells us in these times of our perplexities and dangers Vse what bad Friends we are to our selves and what Enemies to our Salvation in our neglect of this first Particular of waiting for it 1. In want of these stronger out-goings of the Soul and these warmer breathings after that Deliverance and Mercy which we stand in so much need of not that our outward peace and safety were either in it self or in our deliberate esteem less desireable no less than Health and Life is to a Man in a Lethargy But that Disease makes him sensless so as that when he stands in most need of it he is least of all affected with it and so lieth still as dead without desires of it or any other way making out for it O the deadness of our hearts such a Lethargy I fear hath too much seized on us Our Straits are many our Dangers very great and yet our Hearts very dead because of later years we have been accustomed to troubles and now like a Man before tired out with labour and watching fallen into such a deep sleep as he cannot be wakened We are very far from an awakened frame of Spirit to look up to God and to look out for Salvation and the right way to come by it as the Prophet complained though we fade like a Leaf and our iniquities like the Wind are ready to take us away as a blustering Wind doth the fading Leaves from the Trees in Autumn yet there is none that calleth upon God that stirs up himself to take hold of him Isa 64. 6 7. We are very secure in the midst of danger The drunken Man is asleep on the top of the Mast in the midst of the Sea And although Prov. 23. Dan. 7. 2. the four Winds of the Heaven strive upon the great Sea from all quarters of the World nothing but Storms and Tempests 〈…〉 ever yet those sweeter gales are very silent a spirit of Prayer is very much down and when the said as Jonah 1. 2. Wind is down the Showr is wont to pour down The Lord grant it may not be a Showr of Fire and Brimstone that Sodome's sins may not bring upon us a Sodom's overthrow But so much for the first particular of this waiting viz. an earnest desire 2. The second was a confident expectance For waiting is an act of Hope and Hope the Daughter of Faith and Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11. 1. the very subsistence of things hoped for Faith assures and thereupon Hope expects and thereupon also waits My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him Psal 62. 5. Waits as long as it expects and no longer as long as you expect a friends coming so long you will wait though it be very long but give over looking for him and then you will wait no longer When that desperate Courtier in a pang of despair said Behold this evil is of the Lord which he will not and we cannot remove and so despair of remedy then what followed but that desperate conclusion why should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 King 6. 33. But a meekned Believer because he expects much is very willing to wait long and in this patient waiting he continues confidently expecting according to that Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord and I will look for him Believing Waiters are men of great hopes and expectations Mordecai is confident that enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews Esther 4. 14. Our God whom we serve is able yea and he will deliver us said Daniels three fellows Chap. 3. 17. and fainting Jacob here in the Text though whilest he foresaw the strength and prevalency of Enemies and the sins and sufferings of his posterity and especially of the Tribe of Dan which he now speaks of yet as old Simeon having it revealed that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ Luke 2. 25 26. So old Jacob here seeing for certain a great deliverance by Sampson and a greater by Christ in the midst of all disheartning discouragements whilest he expects he waits and whilest he waits he expects Gods Salvation This did he and this should we and that in greatest straits wait and look wait and look to God 2 Chron. 20. 12. nay wait and look for much from God as the Cripple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looked on the Apostles expecting to receive something of them Act. 3. 5. Especially when Peter had before in the 4th verse said to him look on us And the very same word God saith to us when we ly before him in a more miserable condition look unto me and be ye saved Isa 45. 22. As the Stung Man looked on the Brasen Serpent in assurance of cure and the Servant on the hands of his Master in expectance of a langess so our Lord and Master in this our waiting posture would have us by Faith look to him not only with desire but with expectance of Salvation And this as very much making also 1. For the Glory of God which was much advanced in the former particular by having the Eyes of all Creatures looking to him in way of desire but much more in this when they are fixed on him in expectation That spake him an alsufficient Soveraign but this proclaims him a gracious and bountiful one for otherwise with men some may be so able that much is desired of them but withal so strait-handed that it 's but little which is expected from then but how glorious is our God that is as gracious as great not more powerful than bountiful from whom his servants may promise themselves as much as they ask My God will hear me Micah 7. 7. yea expect more than they desire as being both able and willing to do more than we can ask or think Ephes 3. 20. This glory of his free and rich Goodness is his great Design especially in the Covenant of Grace and therefore it is that he makes choice of the recumbency and expectance of Faith by which he will dispense not only eternal but even temporal Salvation as that which in so doing much sets forth this his Glory 2. And secondly as much furthers and facilitates our Deliverance for great Expectations are great Obligations even with Men of generous spirits to do much for them that rely much on them and promise themselves much from them that the others good thoughts may not exceed their goodness and this sometimes to those that can plead no Merit that it might appear to be mere Goodness and Mercy If thus with ingenuous Men then much more than so with an All-Gracious God who hath professed that he delights in them that trust and hope in his Mercy Psal 147. 11. and therefore takes pleasure to answer
Torturers had to inflict them I do not say that all especially weak Christians do or can arise to the Heroick spirit of these Worthies and God forbid that I should fear the safety of their Estates who from weakness of Faith and want of Assurance are afraid of Death and because they dare not as yet die pray with David Psal 39. 13. O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more But yet this I must say to such that whilst thus they pray for time to recover strength they must acknowledg that it is their weakness which is not to be rested in And if it be from their former careless neglect of preparation for Death or contracting of and continuing under the guilt of some favoured Sin which makes Death terrible they have the more need to make haste to get out of it Or if it be as it may be sometimes it is because in their former Life they among their other many Petitions have not so much pressed that for comfort in Death they had then need plie it the more and listen to holy Bradford's On the Lord's Prayer last Petition Counsel who thus adviseth Pray when the tide of Death comes that we may hale forth of the Haven of this Flesh this World chearfully Nor indeed should it be a Haling but a ready going with the Stream as St. Austin saith In Death we should be like live-Honey which is the best not to need pressing out of the Comb but to flow freely from it But the Wax of this Comb sticks too fast to us and makes us cleave too much to this present Life that we have need to chide out our restive Souls with him Egredere O anima egredere rouse up O slothful Soul get up and get out Go forth O ye Daughters Cant. 3. 11. of Zion and behold King Solomon with his Crown Are you afraid to shut your eyes from seeing the World and Men that you may open them to see God and Christ as Cyprian speaketh De exhortatione Martyrii Cap. 12. ad finem De mortalitate S. 15. Is Death to the Godly but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exitus Heb. 13. 7. an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1. 15. an Out gate as of Israel out of Egypt Nay as Cyprian else-where saith Non exitus sed transitus temporali itinere demenso ad aeterna transgressus And shall we be unwilling or fearful to go out of our Prison into our glorious everlasting Mansion Is it but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as even now we heard and after a long tedious and dangerous Journey should we be troubled to return Home and there to have our Burdens taken off as we said that word signifieth Is it but an Accersitio as Lucianus in Cyprian stiles it but our Father's sending for us Home after a long absence from him Epist 22. S. 2. either by our wild Vagaries or upon his sending and occasions and should not then even the Prodigal when come to himself say I will arise and go to my Father Luke 15. 18. And lastly In the Text is it a Gain Then what bad Husbands we if we be backward from making out after it But is it indeed Gain Then all the time before we arrive at it if it be not Damnum emergens accruing loss as too often by our prodigal Mispenses we make it yet at best it will be but Lucrum cessans it 's a ceasing and intercepting of that Gain which we might have had by it And then Quis hic anxietatis sollicitudinis locus est Quis inter haec trepidus moestus est nisi cui Cyprian de Mortal S. 2. spes fides deest What place is here left for Anxiety and Fear as the Father speaks unless it be in them that have no hope or but a weak Faith if any It 's for Heathen Romans to have a God whom they made the president of Death and therefore called him Viduus because he did Corpus animâ viduare and therefore would let him have no room in their Houses but shut him out and let him stand without and so Romanà Religions damnatur potius quam colitur But the assured Christian with Joseph of Arimathea may well place his Sepulchre in his Garden of delights and put Death and the thoughts of it in his Bosom not as a Snake to sting it but as a Jewel as his Gain to enrich him Ejus est mortem timere qui nolit ad Christum ire Idem ibid. It 's for them to fear Death that would not go to Christ and they that have no assurance of a better Life may be loth to leave this because they know not where to mend themselves so Earth in possession they think is better to them than Heaven in reversion But how more happy will it be if after Christ hath been our Life Death prove our Gain After whatever I have in this Life lost for Christ if not here yet at Death I shall be sure to be no loser by Christ but there may be able with David and our Blessed Saviour to commend my spirit into God's Hands then Psal 31. 5. Luke 23. 46 when there will be enough to take our Goods and Honours and other Earthly possessions to enjoy them and some it may be to take our dead Bdies and bury them but none but God to receive our Spirits who only can secure and save them Then then to be able with much peace to say Father take my Jewel and lay it up in thy Bosom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my only One my Darling my Glory and glorifie it with thy self for ever How happy will that be and how blessed shall we be then Which in a way of close walking with God and working for God we should labour now to get assurance of and then after a longer or shorter days labour not to fear Death but be glad to go to Bed and to rest with God for ever This at all times but especially in these times Of the Old-age and Ruine of the World and it may be of some of our now almost spent Lives And of these our troublesom and perilous Days It 's good dying in Evil-days if assured that we shall then live with God for ever No hurt to be taken away from the evil to come For the Ship to be put into the Harbor when the Storm threatens a Shipwrack Upon this Ground the Father exhorted the Christians Cyprian in his hard Times to be willing to Die though it were by Martyrdome Vt qui cernitis caepisse gravia scitis imminere graviora Because they saw sad things and fore-saw sadder coming on Death should not then be bitter when such things as are more bitter than death are in view for those that live longer Let this be the Rule by which we estimate true Gain viz. If Vse 4 it prove so to us at Death and Death