recompenced all his losses with double gain for he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand yoak of oxen and so God blessed the latter end of Job more then his beginning Job 42.12 Or thirdly by a temporal evil God wil work an eternal good for his children as it is here in the Text Our Temporary afflictions work for us Eternal Glory according to that of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 61.7 For your shame you shall have double a double portion of glory and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion everlasting joy shall be unto them And may not all these considerations make us willing to bear afflictions not only patiently but also thankfully I know it is a very hard lesson to take out But we have both Precept for it 1 Thes 5.18 In every thing give thanks Be thankful even for affliction And we have President for it Acts. 5.41 When the Apostles were not only threatned by the Rulers but beaten for their preaching up the Lord Jesus the Text saith They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and 't is elegantly expressed in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were honoured with dishonour And the Apostle could say Rom 5.2 3. We do not only rejoice in hope of the glory of God but we glory also in tribulation Had we but such a faith as he had we should be able to do as he did Du ∣ ty Third The third Duty that this Doctrine presseth on us is this viz. To labour for a sanctified improvement of every affliction that we may be able to say with the Psalmist Psal 48.8 As we have heard so have me seen this truth by experience We have heard that afflictions help to discover sin or prevent it or purge it out and blessed be God we have found and felt in our hearts this spiritual advantage by it We have heard That affliction helps to try our graces whether they be true or counterfeit and to exercise or brighten our graces that they may not be rusty for a rusty key though it be fitted for the lock yet til it be brightned it will not open it and to improve or increase our graces for the more they are exercised the more they are increased Now as we have heard so have we seen this spiritual benefit also We have heard that affliction helps to fit us for service and to quicken us in it and this we have seen also by experience that when we have been dull and drowsie and slow-pac'd in heavens way affliction hath rouzed us out of our sleepinesse and made us mend our pace in our heavenly journey It was the speech of famous Mr. Greenham when his friends about him were earnestly begging on his behalf that God would mitigate his pain which was acute and pressing No no saith he Lord give me the good the good of this affliction If the Lord teach you and me this spiritual Trade of improving our afflictions â—o spiritual soul-profit and advantage we shall find the merchandize of it is better then the merchandize of silver and the gain thereof better then the gain of fine gold as Solomon speaks of wisdom Prov. 3.14 Use 4 The fourth and last Use of this point is this It makes wonderfully for the encouragement of all Gods Children It may bear up their spirits and chear up their hearts in the midst of the saddest sufferings and heaviest pressures that can lye upon them for all these are making way for Eternal Glory that will abundantly recompence all our suffering and all our waiting nay I dare boldly say One hours fruition or enjoyment of that glory which is laid up for the Saints in light will preponder or out-weigh an hundred yeers suffering Therefore as our Saviour said to his Disciples John 16.33 These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation but he of good cheer I have overcome the world Observe here Gods people at the same time when they have tribulation in the world they may have peace in Christ at the same time when there is a great shower ratling upon the tiles there may be musick in the chamber therefore saith our Saviour Be of good cheer be not daunted or dismayed at those sufferings that ye must undergo for I have conquered them all and ye shall be conquerors in me and by me So say I to you Lift up those hands that hang down and those feeble knees Hebr. 12.12 Fear none of those things which ye shall suffer It is the counsel of our Saviour to the Church of Smyrna and he gives a strong cordial to support her in the midst of her fears and fainting fits in the next words Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten dayes Observe here how many Ingredients there are in this Cordial 1. It is true the Devil h. e. by his Agents and Instruments who do his drudgery shall cast some of you not all of you for some are not well able to suffer and therefore the Lord Christ will spare them for he is a tender-hearted carefull shepherd that gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in his bosome and gently leads those that are with young Isai 40.11 2. It is but a Prison that he casts ye into if he were not restrained he would cast ye all into hell fire 3. This imprisonment is that ye may be tryed not that ye might be destroyed or brought to execution 4. Ye shall have tribulation ten days if the Devil might have his will it should be for ten years together nay ye should never come out of prison while ye lived but his power and rage are limited both for the measure and the continuance of them therefore be faithfull unto death and then I will give ye a crown of life Oh what a heart-cheating Cordial may this be to every poor drooping disconsolate soul God do's but cast thee down for a while that he may exalt thee for ever he does but correct thee with a fatherly rod that being chastened of the Lord thou mayest not he condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 and beleeve it Sirs it is far better to be a corrected child then to be a cocker'd bastard if we want chastisement whereof all Gods children are partakers we are bastards and not sons Hebr. 12.8 It is better to go bruised to heaven then with ease and quietness to go to hell he does but cast thee into the furnace of affliction to purge out thy drosse not to destroy thy soul he loves thee in the fire as well as when thou art out and stands by thee all the while The Lord set home this comfortable cordial upon thy heart that it may stand thee in stead in the evill day So much for the first Doctrine Doctr. 2 The second Doctrine is this viz.
The Cross Crowned OR SHORT AFFLICTION Making way for ETERNAL GLORY Opened in a SERMON Preached at the Funeral of DANIEL WALDOE Esq in the Parish-Church of Alhallows Honey-lane May 9. 1661. By JAMES NALTON Minister of the Gospel and Pastor of Leonards Foster-lane London 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed by D.M. for SA GELLIBRAND at the Golden Ball in St Pauls Churchyard 1661. To my Honoured Christian Friend Mris Anne Waldoe Relict of Mr Daniel Waldoe lately deceased IT was the desine of your dear Husband while yet living that I should perform the last Office of Love to a Deceased Friend in preaching his Funeral Sermon The honour that I bore to him not the ambitious humor of appearing in Print ha's made me willing against my own inclination to expose these poor worthless Meditations to publick view This I have done the rather that thereby I might be an Instrument to perpetuate the memorial of so worthy and mitable a Christian and to commend his practise to posterity And for so doing I look't on that passage of Solomon as a sufficient warrant Prov. 10.7 The memory of the just is blessed yea the righteous saith David shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal 112.6 Wicked men though they be like Nimrod mighty hunters before the Lord Gen. 10.9 he great Oppressors and dare do this before the Lord as if they would provoke him to his face and though they have been the terror of the mighty in the land of the living as the Prophet speaks Ezek. 32.27 Yea though they use all means possible to perpetuate their memorial calling the lands after their own names Psal 49.11 as Absolom reared up a pillar and called it Absoloms place 2 Sam 18.18 and Cain built a Citie and called it after the name of his Son Enoch Gen. 4.17 and some men at this day can build Hospitalls with the money which they have got by force and fraud and crushing the needy Yet all this will not make their memory last the name of the wicked shall rot and their Remembrances shall be like ashes Job 13. 12. that is Those things by which they would be remembred and mentioned among the Sons of men as Wealth and Honour and Power and Greatness shall be but as ashes of no value but trodden under the foot of men but the remembrance of the godly even when they themselves are dead shall still be kept alive with men to be renowned and with God to be rewarded How precious is the memorial of Moses and Aaron though dead so many hundred years ago The Spirit of God sets a Star of Honour upon them Exod. 6.27 These are that Moses and that Aaron And certainly among all those Christian Vertues which do en balm the memorial of the dead there is none of a more sweet and fragrant savour then the Grace of Charity Witness the Speech of our Saviour concerning the woman that annointed his feet with precious ointment Matth. 26.13 Verily I say unto you Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her Maries name now smells as sweet in all the Churches of Christ as her ointment did in the house where it was poured out such an honourable remembrance did blessed Paul leave as a Legacy to Onesiphorus and his family on the same account 2 Tim. 1.16 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain And Greg. Nazianzen speaking of Rahabs entertaining the Spies has this remarkable Passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her charitable hospitality conduced not only to her commendation but to her eternal salvatition I knew not to whom the Dedication of this Sermon so properly belonged as to your self who was so nearly related to that eminently charitable Citizen whose death occasioned the preaching of it Such as it is I here present unto you not that the view of this Monument should renew your sorrow but that the frequent Commemoration of those vertues wherewith God was pleased to enrich him and the pious fruitful and exemplary conversation wherin he walked before you might not only moderate your grief for the loss of so dear a Husband but also provoke you and all that knew him to tread in the same steps according to the counsel of the Holy Ghost Heb. 6.12 Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises The Lord Jesus reveal himself more fully and graciously to your soul fill your heart with joy and peace in believing sweeten your outward loss with those inward comforts of his Spirit which may enable you feelingly to say with the Psalmist In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psal 94.19 And this will be better to you then the comfort of all Relations yea it will be Marie's portion that shall never be taken from you And that it may be so is and shall be the hearty prayer of Your much obliged Friend and Servant in the Gospel James Nalton â—HORT AFFLICTION Making way for ETERNAL GLORY 2 COR. 4.17 â—â—r our light affliction which is but for a moment The Text. worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory THe holy Apostle in the fore-going Verse layes down an excellent Lesson for us all to learn by his â—â—ample though there be sew very 〈◊〉 that have learnt to write after 〈◊〉 Copie in these words For this cause â—…faint not as if he should say Though 〈◊〉 meet with sorrows and sufferings 〈◊〉 all sorts temptations afflictions persecutions reproaches fightings without and fears within yet we do not sit down in despondency and despair but we bear the burden that God hath laid upon us without fainting and without fretting It is true indeed our outward man doth perish that is our body together with our bodily health strength and welfare doth decay and decline but yet our inward man that is our soul together with the powers and faculties of it being renewed by the spirit of grace and strengthened by the graces of the spirit is in the midst of all these troubles and tryals more and more repaired and revived day by day this is strange may some say But would ye know how it comes to passe The Apostle answers in the words of the Text and renders a reason of his not fainting under all his sufferings For our light afflictin which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory The Text contains in it the twofold state or condition of a believer One in this life The other in the life to come And both these ballanced or compared one with the other in a threefold computation First The state of a Beleever in this life is a state of affliction his condition in the life to come is a condition of glory Secondly The afflictions of a beleever in this life are light and
in the Kingdome of their Father Matth. 13.43 Vse For the application of this Doctrine If the glory of the life to come be so weighty and transcendent then we learn this undoubted truth That the service of God is no unprofitable service It was a lying slander that those Blasphemers cast upon the ways of God when they said Mal. 3.14 It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts Just like some at this day What good is got by fasting and praying and that precise walking that Preachers presse us to from day to day O had these men ever seen but one glimpse of that beauty that is in grace which is glory begun or one tast of that heavenly glory which is grace ferfected then they would acknowledg we can serve no such master as God is either for work or wages as he is the best master so is he the best pay-master To thee therefore that walkest after the course of this present evill world and according to the will of the Prince of the air the fpirit that worketh mightily in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 Let me propound that Question which Saul did to his servants that stood about him 1 Sam. 22.7 Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds So say I to you Can sin or Satan or the world give you such wages as this such transcendent glory as this in seeing God enjoying God and being made like to God No no they will pay you with sorrow and vexation with shame and confusion and condemnation to all eternity Consider seriously of it before it be too late for the time will come when you will befool your selves and say O what sots and senseless wretches were we that willingly deprived our selves of that weighty and transcendent glory for a few stinking lusts and the pleasures of sin for a season We thought the service of God unprofitable and burdensome saying What A weariness is it Mal. 1.13 But now Oh that we had been a thousand years fasting and praying mourning and weeping Oh that we had been ten thousand years excercising the strictest duties of Religion self denial renewing repentance mortification contempt of the world and the like rather then have lost this weight of glory for it is an invaluable unconceiveable and irrecoverable loss the tears of Hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of Heaven Thus will it be I say it again thus will it he with all you that neglect so great salvation and account Gods service an unprofitable service The Lord of his infinite mercy awaken you to Repentance So much for the second Doctrine Doct. 3 The third Doctrine is this viz. That the afflictions of this life are but for a moment the glory of the life to come is an everlasting glory That the Afflictions of this life are but for a moment appears in this Because our life if it were ten times longer then it is in comparison of Eternity is but a moment of time Mine age is nothing before thee Psal 39.5 It is but as a drop of water in comparison of all the water in the Ocean That the glory of the life to come is an everlasting glory the Scripture brings in abundant Testimony the Righteous shall enter into everlasting life saith our Saviour Matth. 25.46 And heaven is called a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Hebr. 12.28 Earthly Kingdoms are quickly shaken to pieces the great King of Kings and Lord of Lords can as easily tosse Kingdomes as we can toss a Tennis ball where are the four great Monarchies of the world the Babylonian Persian Grecian and Roman They devoured one another and death devoured them all but this heavenly Kingdom cah never be moved neither is it capable of any change corruption or alteration Doth not the Apostle call it an inheritance incorruptible and undesiled and suck a one as fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Doth he not call it a crown of glory that never withers of waxethold 1 Pet. 5.4 O this ETERNITY ETERNITY ETERNITY It is such a great depth or bottomless Ocean that it swallows up all our thoughts it is that which makes every mans condition either infinitely happy or incomprehensibly miserable In reference to the wicked such as have no interest in Christ no work of grace upon their hearts no fear to offend God nor care to please him It may smite their hearts with that fear and consternation that gastly horror and doleful confusion that if I had the tongue of men and angels I were not able to express it suppose a little Bird should every thousandth year fetch a drop of water out of the Ocean how many millions of years would it be before this bird could empty the Ocean Surely this is but a picture of eternity so long and infinitely longer shall those damned wretches suffer the torments of Hell fire without end or ease without mitigation or intermission In reference to the godly this Eternity may ravish their hearts with admiration and holy exaltation or rejoycing in Spirit that the glory prepared for them is such as shall never have end After a million or thousand thousand years expired their glory is but begun and when ten thousand millions are past their glory is not hear to an end That golden speech of Bernard Momentaneum est quod delectat aternum quod cruciat The pleasures of sin are but for a moment the punishment of sin is everlasting may by way of Inversion be fitly applyed to all true beleevers the sufferings they meet with are but for a moment the pleasures at the right hand of God which they expect are for evermore at thy right hand saith David Psal 16.11 are pleasures for evermore In brief it is the highest pitch of the misery of the damned in Hell that their punishment is everlasting and yet their torments are so great that every moment seems an eternity On the contrary It is the highest pitch of the Saints happiness in heaven that their joyes are everlasting and yet these joyes are so fresh that their eternity seems but a moment Vse For the Application of this Point There are four duties of infinite concernment that I would presse upon you in reference to this eternal glory O that I could prevail with you to put them in practise Duty 1 First Give all diligence to clear your title to this eternal glory that you may know it is prepared for you I say for you Quest But how may we clear our title to this Inheritance Ans Ye must labour to get evidences of your election make your calling and election sure saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.10 that is make your Election sure by your calling prove one and prove both if ye be called with an internal as well as an external vocation ye may be confident
ye are elected Therefore get evidences of your effectual vocation by returning an Eccho to Gods call that when he saith Seek ye my face if thy heart can answer thy face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 When Christ saith Come to me poor dejected sinner thou that art weary of the work of sin and heavy laden with the weight of sin Come to me and I will give thee rest Mat. 11.28 If thy heart can answer Lord I would creep to thee on hands and knees when the spirit of God whispers in a voice behind thee saying This is the way walk in it Isai 30.21 If thy heart can return a yeelding answer Lord if it be the way though it be a narrow way and full of difficulty yet I will walk in it this is an evidence of thy effectual calling So likewise Get Evidences of your Adoption that ye are the children of God because ye are like your father and get evidences of your justification and sanctification by feeling the Lord Christ coming neer your hearts both by blood and water pacifying your Consciences and purifying your hearts and lives this is the way to clear your Title to this everlasting Inheritance In brief There are two things will exceeding much conduce to the clearing of your Title Viz. 1. The Adding to your Graces Viz. 2. The Acting of your Graces For the former Hearken to the counsel of the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.5 7. Give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue that is a well composed life saith Judicious Calvin and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity This adding to your Graces is a Laying up in store for your selves a good foundation for the time to come that you may lay hold on Enternal Life as St. Paul expresseth it 1 Tim. 6.19 That as wicked men are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom 2.5 So ye on the contrary by these Additionals will be treasuring up grace against the day of glory For the latter Be still acting of your Graces and exercising of your selves to godliness 1 Tim. 4.7 For example 1. Let Faith be in exercise still feeding upon the Promises and making vigorous application of them to your own Souls If the Promises feed your faith your faith will feed your Assurance and carry you with comfort and confidence to your journeys end 2. Let Repentance be in exercise by renewing that godly sorrow which comes from God and leads the soul unto God looks on God offended and ends in God reconciled Holy Job though he had a strong faith as appears by that much admired speech of his Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I put my trust in him yet in the same verse ye may see he was frequent in renewing his repentance I will saith he reprove my own wayes before him so some read the phrase and the Hebr. word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will well bear it q. d. I will be so far from justifying my self that I will disallow mine own wayes and disavow my own righteousness yea repent daily and abhor my self in dust and ashes Job 42.6 3. Let Love be in exercise Love the Lord Jesus dearly and sincerely Be sick of Love towards so sweet a Saviour as the Spouse was Cant. 2.5 Love nothing much but onely him whom you cannot love too much And if you love him see what he himself saith in that comfortable Scripture John 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Now if Christ manifest himself to thy Soul then certainly thy Title to heaven is cleared 4. Let fear be in exercise Happy is the man that feareth always Prov. 28.14 and the more ye walk in the fear of the Lord the more ye walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 This is the first Duty Duty The second The second is this Be more eager and earnest instant and constant in the pursuit of this Eternal Glory than ever ye have been to this day Oh that ye and I could go up to the top of Mount Nebo as Moses did Deut. 32.49 and view the pleasant Land afar off and tast some of the Grapes of Canaan by serious Meditation Oh that we could seriously consider 1. From what we are Redeemed 2. To what we are appointed Redeemed from wrath appointed to meâ—cy Redeemed from the pit ot hell and appointed to the glory of heaven Redeemed from those infernal flames and everlasting burnings but appointed to those everlasting joyes which no heart can conceive nor tongue express Were these things soundly digested and seriously considered they would awake our drowsie spirits and set the wheels of the soul a going that we should not onely walk in the way that leads to life but we should cheerfully run the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 The truth is we might do a great deal more in the pursuit of our glorious hopes than we do if we did but put forth our strength to do what we are able and we might put forth our strength more than we do if we were not sick of a spiritual Lethargy and we are sick of a spiritual Lethargy because we do not prize those glorious hopes that are set before us according to the worth of them In Gods fear therefore let us hearken to the Counsel of the Holy Ghost Heb. 6.12 Be not slothfull but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promses This is the second Duty Duty The third The third is this Let us call off our affections from the world the pomp and glory and vanity of it that they may be set upon that Eternal Glory which is prepared for the Saints in light To you that are called with a holy calling and have had a tast of that everlasting Consolation and good hope through Grace God seems to speak in that language wherein Joseph spake to his Brethren Gen. 45.20 Also regard not your Stuff for the good of all the Land of Aegypt is yours So faith God to you set not your hearts on trash and trifles there is a Crown of eternal glory set before you Is it fit for Kings Children to be raking in dunghills This duty of weanedness from the world is seasonable at all times but most suitable to the times whereinto God has cast us for now God seems to say to us as he did to Baruch Jer. 45.4 5. Behold that which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up even this whole Land And seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not Oh that we had such a spirit as Moses had he refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter he trampled upon all the honours and pleasures of Egypt Because he had an eye to the Recompence of Reward Heb. 11.24 26.
It is Storied of Alexander that when he heard of the riches of the Indies he gave away all his present Possessions that he had in Macedon and being asked why he did so He answered I hope and look for far greater things than these Oh that we could imitate this Heroick Resolution To contemn our present enjoyments in comparison of our future hopes This is the third Duty Duty The fourth The fourth and last is this Let us frame our selves to a Heavenly Conversation Though our commoration or abode be upon earth let our Conversation be in heaven Phil. 3.20 For hereby we shall be sitting our selves for that Glory that shall be revealed If one of you were to have an Inheritance in Spayn you would learn the Spanish tongue and the Spanish fashion you would frame your selves to the custom of that Country or Kingdom where you were to spend your dayes Why surely ye look for an Inheritance in Heaven among the Angels yea to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equal to the Angels Luke 20.36 Why do you not frame your selves to an Angelical Conversation You look to be like them in dignity strive to be like them in duty To do your Fathers Will on earth as the Angels do it in heaven To this end Let us every day take a turn or two with Christ on Mount Tabor take a prospect of heaven and turn every Solemnity into a school of Divinity Let us say as Fulgentius did when he saw the Nobitity of Rome sit mounted in their bravery Si talis est Roma terrestris qualis est Roma caelestis If Rome be such a glorious place what is Heaven If the Musick on earth be so delightfull how unconceivably sweet and melodious will the Musick of heaven be Thus a Sanctified fancy may make every creature a ladder to heaven Use 2 To close up al with a word of Consolation This Doctrine may be as an Alabaster box of precious oyntment to refresh and revive the spirits of all true Believers all the Saints and Servants of Christ in the midst of all the troubles and trials sorrows and sufferings that can befal them There is a Crown of Eternal Glory prepared for you which may make your hearts dance for joy yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry and when he comes he brings his Reward with him Rev. 22.12 Then shall ye hear him speaking comfortably to you he will speak to your hearts and say Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Enter ye into the joy of your Lord and Master Mat. 25 20. q. d. This joy cannot enter into you because of your straitness but ye may enter into it because of its fullness The Sea cannot enter into a Hogshead because the Vessel cannot contain it But the Hogshead may enter into the Sea because the Sea can fill it To conclude There are 4. principal Names whereby the Holy Ghost expresseth the felicity of the Saints in heaven 1. It is called a Life and such a Life as is Eternal 2. It is called a Glory and such a Glory as is a Crown 3. It is called a Kingdom and such a Kingdom as is Immutable and Unmoveable 4. It is called an Inheritance and such an Inheritance as is Immortal Now tell me poor fainting drooping Soul What is it that thy heart can wish Or what can bear up thy spirit under all afflictions reproaches difficulties and discouragements whatsoever if this cannot do it Is there any thing thou lovest better than life Is there any better life than a life of glory Is there any glory greater than a Crown of glory Is there any Crown so desireable as that which comes by Inheritance Is there any Inheritance so admirable or delightfull as that which is immortal undefiled and such as newer shall fade away Lift up thy head therefore because thy Redemption and eternal Glorification are so near at hand say to thy own Soul as that godly man did on his death-bed Hold out faith and patience thy work is almost at an end Encourage thy self as Basil tells us the Martyrs encouraged one another when they were cast out naked in a Winters night being to be burned at a stake the next day Sharp it the cold but let us endure a while and Abraham's bosom will warm us Troublesond is the way but the end of the journey will be sweet and pleasant Let our feet burn awhile that we may dance for ever with the Angels Let our hands feel they fire that we may lay hold on Eternal Life The Lord Jesus work these things upon our hearts that they may make an abiding Impression Amen I have done with the Text. Let me speak something to the Occasion How seasonably this Text may be applied to our dear deceased Brother Daniel Waldoe Esquire one that fined for Alderman in this famous City whose Funerals we this day solemnize ye that knew him and his Conversation may easily conceive He was a man trained up in the school of affliction for many years together being exercised with that acute and tormenting disease of the Stone about 30. years And doubtless God by that long and sharp affiction was preparing him for eternal glory partly by purging out his dross and making him white as the Scripture phraseth it Dan. 11.35 and partly by teaching him the exercise of Patience and perseverance For that speech of the Apostle was verified in him Rom. 5.3 Tribulation worketh patience It is a Paradox to Reason for affliction in its self and its own nature worketh Impatience and makes a man fret and fume like a wild Bull in a net as the Prophet speaks Isa 51.20 But when God works with it then it worketh patience and makes a man say with David Be silent unto the Lord O my Soul Psal 62.5 Do not utter an impatient word Yea his Afflictions taught him not onely Patience and submission but also self-denial and sympathy or a fellow-feeling with others miseries He could sigh in their sorrows and bleed in their wounds and be affected with their sufferings as if they had been his own In brief the Rod taught him that excellent Lesson To have a heart weaned from the world for the Rod has a voice Micah 6.9 and it spake to him in that language which the Prophet used to the Jewes in Babilon Micah 2.10 Arise ye and depart for this is not your rest The Testimony therefore that I may give of this worthy Citizen without flattery or partiality is this First He was a very humble man low in his own eyes no way self-consident or self-conceited And I am of the same opinion with that famous Divine Dr. Harris late of Oxford that was wont to say He valued no man for his gifts but for his humility under them Certainly the more Grace any man hath in his heart the more base he will be in his own eyes Did ye