as it is in the Revelation that the time is now come too neer He that is filthy let him be filthy still that is let him go on to the end It is evident and apparent that sin is increased since the sickness it is apparent that our sins are aggravated though they are dayly cryed down And now at this time as if we would defie God to his face and call upon him to hasten his judgments upon our Land upon our Families and persons every one strives as it were who shall outdare him most in our excesses in impenitency in hardning our selves in a course of sin These things convince us of our security There are many more that might be named if the time would permit But put these together and they may shew us our wretchedness When we consider how little we have profited by judgments how little we have profited by the ordinances how full of vain confidence and idle dreames how notwithstanding all these we abound still in wickedness and there is no reformation of our hearts and lives what may we not conclude against ourselves If ever people were drowned in a drunken security we of all people under heaven are at this time For of all people under heaven we are in a manner the last God hath spared us to the last We have had warning by judgments inflicted upon others for many years together It hath come neerer to us hy degrees it began a far off in Bohemia and then in the Phalatinate and in Germany The Lord would have us see how he cometh to us by degrees by steps that at the last we may meet him by repentance But where is the man that yet gets out of the bed of security that cometh out of his sleep to meet the Lord that comes with a broken heart to beg for forgiveness of his sins past and to beg for mercy for the time to come Well now since it is so that we are convinced by these signs that we are in a carnal and sinful security we see then so many of us at least that are children of the light and of the day what cause we have to be awakened and to do that for others which they will not do for themselves to be more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our souls for our own sins and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgments and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us Is it not a fearful thing that when the Lyon roareth the beasts of the Forrests tremble Yet the God of heaven roareth against the world at this day and the proud hearts of men do not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the forrests be afraid of the Lyon more then the poor worms of the earth of the mighty God of heaven and earth But this is the horrible Atheisme and Infidelity that is in the hearts of men that they beleeve not Gods power and justice nor his threatnings I beseech you let every man be exhorted to stirre up his soule to this business to awaken himselfe in his own particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough be you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Be sober and watchful saith Saint Peter for your adversary the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your own Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soul it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstain as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that war against the soule Do as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemy against them they will be sure to keep their Watch. Beloved you cannot but know that your corruptions are awake you may perceive it in your sleepes and dreames take heed that you be not found in a spiritual sleep that corruption prevail not over you Besides these the enemies of the Church are awake Heretiques are awake every where to bring men from the faith to pervert the faith of many oh be awake to prevent those Besides others are awaken to ransack houses to destroy Cities oh be awake that you may be at peace with the Lord of Hosts the God of Armies that hath all power in his hand to keepe you safe Againe secondly consider the evil of this security you are in of this disposition of heart when you cry peace peace to your selves in the middest of Gods displeasure It is an evil disease a spiritual lethargy That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleep and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spiritual lethargy in this deep sleep of sin at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a sensless disease a disease that takes the senses from the soul and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a sign that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spiritual lethargy it shews not only that sin hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousness and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the means to escape out of it Thou saist saith Christ to the Church of Laodicea that thou art rich and needest nothing and that was the reason she sought not to Christ It is our condition we have knowledg enough therefore we care not for the Ordinances of God We have faith enough and therefore we care not for increasing it though none of us say thus with our tongues yet most of us beleeve thus with our hearts As David saith of the ungodly man the wickedness of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesness of men in the use of the means of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of security that they are in a spiritual lethargy that leadeth to death As it is an evil disease so it causeth much evil It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsel of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When we neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it self Doth not your own experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences somtime by secret incitements as it were a spur upon your hearts hath moved you to duty and to leave your sins How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to perform these duties to walk in the wayes
lively and active in the service of God yet there are many discouragements and temptations to draw him out of the way again that it may be he may fall if he have not somewhat to support him and hold him up therefore the consideration of the judgment to come it hath kept the hearts of Gods servants in a good frame when they have been in it Saith the Apostle be constant and immovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. As if he had said You know this that there will a time come when it will appear that you serve not God in vain therefore for the present be constant in the good you are in Hold fast that thou hast till I come saith Christ to the Church of Philadelphia and let no man take thy crown Rev. 3.21 Christ will come and it is but holding fast a-while and then the Church shall have a crown and the servants of God shall have a crown of glory an abundant recompence of all that they have done in the service of God therefore hold fast Hereupon Jam. 5. the Apostle exhorts co patience because they should meet with many persecutions and oppositions be patient for the coming of the Lord draws neer Bear the injuries that you suffer for the present and the indignities and the unkind usage of men for the coming of the Lord draws neer when you shall have a plentiful harvest so he goes on illustrating this by a comparison taken from a Husbandman that waits for a harvest and then he shall have a plentiful crop and increase for all his pains in Winter and in seed time so saith he the Lord will come and then you shall have a plentiful increase A word or two for the Use of this Since this is the Use that the servants of God have made and that we should make of the Judgment to come therefore to be more careful in the duties of obedience and holiness so to speak and so to doe as those that shall be judged It first shewes the cause of the discouragements of Gods servants and the prophaneness of the world is because they perfectly beleeve not the judgment to come The hearts of Gods servants would not droup so they would not be so faint so dejected and discouraged if they beleeved that there were such a judgment to come wherein Christ will abundantly recompence all their sorrows and labours wherein he will bring his reward with him plentifully Again the wicked world would not be so prophane as they are drunkards and swearers and Sabbath-breakers and all sorts of wicked persons they would not give themselves so to sin as they do if in truth they did perfectly beleeve there were a judgment to come when all their words and actions their company their time and every thing shall be brought to account I say the cause of all prohaneness is this here it begins men beleeve not the judgment to come The Apostles were troubled with these kind of scoffers Where is the promise of his coming So they hardened themselves upon the observation of the continuance of the seasons upon the face of the earth in like manner from the beginning Well saith the Apostle God is not slack as men count slackness but is patient and forbearing that men may repent but at the last he will come and come with flaming sire So this is certain whatsoever you think and put the evil day far off from you yet there is a judgment coming wherein all your actions and affections and speeches and your whole conversation shall be scanned and brought to the rules of this law that you have despised Therefore let men take heed and know it is a device of Satan to harden their hearts either to think that the law is a dead letter I mean in respect of the directing use of it that it is of no use to direct them it is a device of Satan to put them off for they shall find that that law will judge them that now should direct them And then again for men to think that there shall be no Judgment or not such proceedings according to the law this is a trick of the Divel to keep men in prophaneness and hardness of heart Therefore secondly if we would grow up in holiness in the fear of God Let us prefect and strengthen our faith in assenting to this truth that there is such a judgment to come wherein our words and actions and all shall be brought to account Therefore so speak and so do as those that shall be judged Thou art now in company and thou speakest amongst men but thy words are with God they are written in thy conscience as it is in Jeremy upon the Table of thy heart there they are written the words that thou hast for gotten seven years agoe it may be twenty years agoe and never tookest a course to get them blotted out by repentance there they are written and these words shall be brought to judgment and so many actions as thou hast neglected therefore look to it First bewail those words and actions past as things that else will come to judgement if thou judge not thy self before-hand And then again for the time to come set on a resolution to walk daily as one that may die every day and then shall be brought to judgment Therefore judge thy self daily renew thy Covenant settle thy peace on a right ground daily and perfect holiness in the fear of God daily as one that expectest a Judgment Saint Jude condemns those that feasted without fear They were at their Tables companying and feasting as men without fear S. Jerome speaks of himself that whatsoever he was doing he had a fearful apprehension of the day of Judgment Alwayes saith he whether I eate or drink or whatsoever I do I here the Trumpet and the voyce of the Arch-Angel saying Arise ye dead and come to judgment Well I say do thou so let this be thy serious thought and do it not slightly but think that this may be thy last word and thou must be brought to judgment for it this may be thy last opportunity and thy last action and thou must be brought to judgment for that Do things in this manner as those that so speak and so do that they must be judged Wouldest thou be content to have thy oaths brought before Christ in judgment if not take heed of swearing for it is judged already by the law therefore judg and condemn thy sins in thy self and forsake them that thou maist find mercy Wouldest thou be found guilty of Sabbath-breaking at the day of Judgment if not repent of thy former guilt and be more conscionable of sanctifying the Sabbath after And so I may say of every sin Wouldest thou be found an Usurer a Deceiver unrighteous in any course a scoffer a prophane person Wouldest thou appear
thing or other and therefore it was thus with him Nay Christ himself the censure of all men was thus much concerning Christ himself We did esleem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted The intent of the phrase is as one smitten for his own ill as if God had now manifested that he did not acknowledge him to be so holy and righteous So thus you see the inclination in the heart of man to uncharitable jndging of those that God hath cast down and suffers to be exercised under many afflictions and troubles Let us learn then spiritual wisdome let us learn love and spiritual mercy to judge more favourably of the state of those whom we see troubled in spirit Many times God infeebleth and distresseth the spirits of his best servants to abate the pride of men that none might exalt himself before God Nay in the very thing wherein they have excelled in the same thing he sometimes abaseth them you see Abraham he is called the Father of the faithful his excellency was his faith yet faithful Abraham is detected in Scripture of much unbelief in some particulars Who would think that he should expose Sara as he did to save himself that he should do it that was called the Father of the faithful you have heard saith the Apostle James of the patience of Job the very excellency of Job was his patience who would think that ever patient Job should utter such things as he did sometime even cursing the very day of his birth David a man of a chearful spirit a man full of the praises of God a man wonderous large when he comes to speak of the glory of God at several times A man would have thought him of an invincible fortitude and courage yet nevertheless you shall have David so cast down as that he thinks the Lord had forgotten him and that the Lord would shew no mercy upon him that the Lord had hid himself from him and that he would never regard him more who would think that ever David that abounded so in the comforts of the spirit sometimes should be so dejected at such times as those were when he was in such a conflict Why doth God do this To shew thus much that the very best of his servants in the chief of their excellencies are dependant on him still they have nothing of themselves or from themselves Therefore they shall sometimes seem to want that they have that the very having and using of it may be ascribed to his glory Then let us now reason thus when we see the servants of God in trouble exercised under disquiet Let us conclude now God is glorifying himself This the Apostle infers He will rejoyce in his infirmities because the power of Christ is manifested by it For our selves it should teach us according to the intent of this place above all things to labour that our hearts may be kept in that blessed plight of spiritual joy that we may be strengthened with freeness of heart to serve God in our inward man Let not your hearts be troubled How should this be done The Text tells us here and so I come briefly to the second thing observable in the Text the means you beleeve in God saith he beleeve also in me As the words are read in the translation they seem to be uttered by way of concession as much as if Christ had said since yon already beleeve in God now beleeve in me The Syriack seems to express it otherwise and so render it by way of command and to make here an intimation of two duties as a help of quieting the heart and so it reads it Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God beleeve also in me propounding a twofold object where-about faith should be exercised that the heart may be quieted in the time of any trouble The first is God considered in the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence The second is Christ Mediator God and Man Now saith he beleeve in God that is the first rest upon God Then the second is beleeve in me also as one that is the Mediator between God and you now making your peace with God So the second part seems to be the prevention of an objection For when he saith Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God they might say Alas shall we beleeve in God that are sinful men The sinners in Sion cry out Who shall dwell with consuming fire c. Therefore saith Christ beleeve also in me that is know that God will be your God in and for my sake he is reconciled and well pleased with you Therefore in all your approaches to God take me with you look up to God pray to him depend upon God through me still keep me as a Mediatour between God and you and this will preserve your hearts in peace The time would not serve if I should go over things particularly and in a full way Therefore I will touch the heads of things and it shall be thus much that A special means to preserve the heart of man from excessive sorrow and fear from trouble and disquiet of spirit is faith Let not your hearts be troubled But how shall we help it Beleeve in God beleeve also in me And this we shall see through the Scriptures David found it thus Psal 40. he speaks to his disquieted soul Trust in God I will wait on him he is my God Jehoshaphat in that excellent speech to his Souldiers that were now troubled for the multitude of their enemies against them Beleeve in God and you shall prosper beleeve his Prophets and you shall be established that is the way to stablish the heart to beleeve in God revealing himself in his Word It is noted of Moses in Heb. 11.27 He therefore endured all that he did because he looked on him that is invisible And those three companions of Daniel Dan. 3. Our God say they whom we serve is able to help us but if he will not we will not worship thy golden Image There was matter of trouble and disquiet in the heart to be put to such a plung that they must either worship or be cast into the Furnace heated seven times hotter Well this eased them of all trouble and disquiet they knew whom they have trusted and he was able to keep that that was committed to him to the coming of Christ As Saint Paul expresseth it with which he also rested abundantly satisfied On the other side the want of this hath been the cause of that perplexity and disquiet that hath been upon the hearts of Gods servants at all times That was the reason that Abraham was so disturbed and disquieted in that fear of what should be done to him in Egypt certainly he failed in this in resting upon God Moses was wondrously troubled when the Lord bad him go to Pharaoh and deliver Israel out of Egypt saith he Lord send by him whom thou shouldest send I am a
comparatively describes it and sets it forth he saith It is like a vapour that appeareth for a little while and vanisheth away According to the method that the Apostle hath laid down so shall my Discourse go on and first I will say something of the question he layeth down And then I will say something of the words of the Text. First to let us see what a poor uncertain thing we trust to when we build upon life the Apostle throws out this question Your life saith he What is your life Where first the Apostles phrase he speaks in is worthy to be observed your life not ours yours that make such accounts and reckonings as these promise to your selves what you will do in following your worldly business and increase your worldly gain What is your life The life of Worldlings the Apostle would secretly tax as some Expositers collect noting a difference and disparity between Christians in their wayes and Worldlings in theirs Worldlings are altogether for this Life and the things of this Life they never dream of any other to come Post mortem nihil c. as the Epicure in the Poet. Death that is an anihilation and after death there comes nothing Therefore all their projects and practices draw downwards they project for a worldly Life their buyings and sellings and markettings and profits these are the things they mind and seek after all the thought of their hearts are bent upon these cares all the dayes of their Lives are spent upon these things but there is another manner of Life that Christians look for There is a life hid with Christ in God they know there is another Life to come after this therefore their hearts are set upon other manner of objects They are not such as have their affections set upon the World they make not account of themselves as men of this World Plato being asked the question what Country-man he was he said he was a Citizen of the World a Christian is not so he is no Citizen of the World but a Citizen of Heaven therefore it is said We have our conversation in Heaven Phil. 3.10 The Greek word properly signifieth Citizens or Burgesses therefore Saint Jerome in his Epitaph upon Neapotian renders it so and Beza pertinent to the sense though not proper to the Text We carry and behave our selves like Citizens or Burgesses or Free-men of Heaven they have all their affections 〈◊〉 all their thoughts and desires bent that way if they can obtain that they have as much as they desire to crown their wishes withall they care for no other buying but of the truth they fear not selling but of their Souls they wish no gain but Heaven And indeed this Life doth only deserve to be called a Life this Life which the Saints which Christians live the Life that they live to God and this Life is that that must prepare them for a better Life the life in Heaven Of any other Life but this we may ask the question in the words of the Apostle What is it what is it It deserves not so much as the name as he saith though in name it be a life indeed it is a death but pretermit the disparity and difference between lives some are comparatively and other simply considered The Life simply considered is the subject of the Apostles question What is your life Questions alway in the Scripture are emphatical whether they tend to magnifie and advance or to the villifying and abasing of what they aim at this here is most emphatical to shew us how poor and base a thing Life is like that question in Job to shew how poor and base a thing man is Job 7.17 Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or settest thy heart upon him So David Psalm 8.4 Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou desirest him He shews how poor and base a thing man is and he himself gives the answer to it Psalm 114.6 Man is like to vanity Nay more plainly in Psalm 39.6 Surely man is vanity nay surely saith the Prophet man in his best estate is altogether vanity What could have been more emphatically spoken there is not a word there but it hath its force Man is vanity Every man is vanity Every man in his best estate is vanity Every man in his best estate is altogether vanity and then there is a word of asseveration by which he seals and buckles up all Surely every man in his best estate is altogether vanity If the Apostle had but barely and nakedly said what he had to say concerning the uncertainty and shortness of mans life it had been sufficient if he had said thus Your life is a vapour that appears for a little while c. but he fetcheth it in with a Quere he puts it to a question as if he would demur and have us to pause and consider of it he brings it in with a What is your life By the Apostles leave we may be bold to quit another question with him what the Apostle means to express it thus Surely it is to inculcate that into us more throughly and to make us pause upon that more seriously such questious as these make a great stop in a mans way as Amaza's body in 2 Sam. 12.12 it stopped the passage of the people that they could not get forwards so the interposing of such questions as these make a stop in our wayes and proceedings they make us take new thoughts and think again they make us enter into new cogitations whether it be better for us in that we are doing to persist or to break off Let the consideration of it teach us wisedome especially in perusing and foreknowing of our worldly business when we are about it let us ponder and pause and suppose and put the question whether do I well to do thus or what is it that I thus eagerly pursue what is it that I seek after Is it honour that I am ambitious of why what is our honour but a breath a height that many are raised to out of favour rather then desert like Phaetons Chariot or Icarus Plumes a Pinacle of honour upon which he that stands must expect advancement or ruin to some it is a cloud of smoak that the higher it mounts the sooner it dies Is it riches that we set our hearts upon let us ask the question what is riches but thick clay as Habakuk tearms it red and white earth as Bernard faith or the baggage of the earth as another expresseth it as baggage is to the Army so is riches to men it cannot well be left behind but alwayes hinders the march and sometime loseth the battel in the getting of them there is a great deal of labour in the keeping of them a great deal of care and in the foregoing of them a great deal of sorrow a man may have them and not be happy a man may
man of a stammering tongue saith the Lord I will be with thy tongue He bids him quiet his heart in that perplexity and rest on him that made the tongue to be with his tongue And because there was another secret that troubled him the Lord knew his heart God saith go the man that sought thy life is dead as if he should say Moses though thou wilt not confess it I know what troubleth thee thou art afraid that the men that sought thy life are alive in Pharaohs Court and that therefore when thou comest thither thou shalt be executed No saith he they are dead he would have him rest on him and that would revive his heart that he should not be troubled and disquieted So you may see in other servants of God that this was alwaies the reason of any indirect course they took Jacob and Rebecca in that case why did Rebecca use that device in getting the blessing with Jacob Because she failed in her trust in God she saw how she was perplexed with the daughters of Heth Esaus wives and many troubles that way And Isaac was dim-sighted and had many weaknesses upon him she knew not how he might mistake and give the blessing to the other therefore she deviseth a way to get the blessing but she got many sorrows you know what a hard service it cost Jacob and how many evils it exposed him to and all was because through fear and disquiet of heart he cast not himself upon God in his way but they would find out wayes of their own It should teach us in all disquiet of spirit to look principally to the strengthening of our faith This is called a shield Eph. 6. when all the darts of temptation that fire the soul and perplex it many wayes are cast upon a man here is a shield to preserve and keep him safe Therefore let us ever have this for our use whose and found You shall find that even the servants of God have so far been in a comfortable estate as they have been in the exercise of their faith Take David for an example when Ziglag was burnt and his Wives and servants and goods and cattel were all carryed away and the Souldiers in the rage of their hearts and discontent began to think of stoning of him yet faith the Text Then David comforted himself in the Lord his God When there was no comfort in his Souldiers about him or in those that were neer him every thing was taken away at this time David comforts himself in the Lord his God So Job see how quiet his heart is and well satisfied when he rested on God in the greatest occasions and troubles his goods was carried away his sons were slain all added to Jobs misery but he comes to this The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Lord when he can look above the creature to God and settle his heart upon this rock he finds comfort in it On the other side the servants of God are never out of trouble and disquiet when they neglect this as the Disciples in the tempest upon the Sea Math. 8. they cry out they are utterly undone Save Master saith Christ Oh ye of little faith The not exercising of their faith did so perplex and disquiet them as it did and if you look upon all the complaints of the lives of men for the loss of such friends and the decay of trading for the ill dealing of Customers for sickness c. Men are always complaining What is the reason Because they place too much hope and confidence in the creature they look not above these things with the eye of faith and hence comes that disturbance and disquiet if the outward means be taken from them they look not upon that God that hath all means and opportunities in his own hand You beleeve in God beleeve also in me They that would have their hearts quiet by beleeving in God should especially exercise faith in resting on Christ Beleeve in me saith Christ for the heart of man flies off from God Alas the Lord is holy and I am a sinful man he is righteous and I am sinful who shall come before this holy and righteous God Now when faith can look upon Christ and set him between God and me and look on God through him now the soul rests he looks on God as a Father through Christ his Son when the soul looks on Christ as my husband married to me as my head and I am united to him as a member as my Lord that hath taken me into his protection when the soul thus looks on Christ now it looks upon God in all his attributes wondrous glorious and comfortable to the soul This is the thing that I can but touch at this time There are two things considerable in it First there is no ground of reposing the soul upon God but by beleeving in Christ he is the Mediatour Therefore in John 8.24 saith Christ Except you beleeve that I am he whom the Father sent you shall die in your sins The Jews they did beleeve in God they were the children of Abraham and worshipped the God of their Fathers and beleeved in God but saith he except you beleeve in me that I am he that God hath sent as Mediatour you shall die in your sins And so in this Chapter I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me there is no other way to the Father That as the high Priest under the law was in all things pertaining to God he was between God and the people So Christ our great high Priest is in all things that concern the glory of God and the salvation of man and the acceptance of a sinner in all things between God and us Here is the first thing Secondly it is worth our consideration how Christ comes to be thus he was willing to die a cursed a shameful and cruel death of the Cross and to be despised and abased and all this for man and yet Christ crucified is despised and scorned in the world therefore if ever you will have acceptance of God beleeve in me In me that am now going from you that am to be taken away by a cursed ignominious death Here is another truth then They that believe in Christ must believe in Christ abased and Crucified as well as in Christ in Glory That is a thing that flesh and blood despiseth indeed all the World speaks well of the profession of the Faith and believing in Christ when Christ is in triumph Conquering to conquer every man glories in Christians but when Christianity and profession is cryed down in the world when Christ is Crucified when all the World speaks ill of the wayes of Christ and of the obedience of Faith now to obey a crucified scorned despised Christ in the sight of the world to rest on him in the midst of his abasement this will comfort the
being so common and we apt every moment to fall under some trial or other There be four vertues and special effects that faith works in the soul which will inable us to go through great trials and therefore we should labour to get this grace of faith into our souls First faith gets assurance Secondly breeds submittance Thirdly dependance and lastly conveyance First faith gets assurance it can eye God as our God though the storms be very great yet God can quiet it When a man though he sees his outward comfort dead yet Faith sees it in the hand of a living God Faith assures the soul God will put an end to the trial though there be a changeableness in the outward condition yet there is safety in God and setledness in God Though a man may look with a dull eye upon his loss yet if he can look upon God with the eye of faith as his God the absence of a poor creature cannot so much trouble him as the presence of a gracious and a glorious God can comfort and support him Secondly submittance is another effect of faith which faith works in the soul our outward condition is subject to many changes and many times we meet with them and we are hindered in our comforts and naturally we grow impatient and murmur and quarrel with Gods providence but now there is a vertue in faith it fashions the heart and the mind to the condition faith makes a man submit to God in all estates to make us stoop to our burthen it is the Lord saith Eli. 1 Sam. 3. let him do what seems good unto him and in the 39. Psal saith David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because the Lord did it Observe this unbelief makes a man dumb and faith made David dumb Zachary because he beleeved not the word that the Angel spake he was dumb and David because he beleeved the word of the Lord he was dumb unbelief procures dumbness as a judgment from God but faith makes a Christian dumb from complaining it quiets the soul in silence from murmuring against God it doth not make a person dumb as not to pray and to praise God but dumb in complaint Good is the word of the Lord saith Faith A third effect of Faith is dependance it will make a man trust God in frowning dayes though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Faith we can never lose any outward comfort but Faith can find a better in God though an outward loss may come yet Faith can make it up in God in the want of an outward comfort it will trust God Lord what wait I for saith David truly my hope is in thee Though the Christian estate may be at some time moanful yet at no time it is hopeless A fourth effect that Faith works is conveyance it can convey something to inable the soul to bear it up in all trials as Faith is an active grace to inable the soul to the performance of duty so Faith is a passive grace to strengthen the soul to suffer and bear affliction To you saith the Apostle it is given not only to beleeve but also to suffer for his Name Faith will call in strength enough to bear affliction we see many times a poor Christian by the strength of faith is able to bear a great loss and undergo a great trial God is pleased to exercise a Christian with great affliction but Faith carries the soul along through all remember this Faith bears Gods trials with Gods strength there is a power in Faith which exceeds all outward crosses and losses Faith draws strength from the Promise for there is no cross nor affliction but Faith can find a support in the promise of deliverance Faith makes a man see the affliction as it were come out of the hand of the Lord out of the hand of Mercy Faith can convey comfort to the soul in affliction by making it see the chastisement delivered from the hand of a wise and loving Father that our chastisement is for our profit for our future advantage and that this is sent for our personal good if thou couldest get but a sensible denyal of thy self and by faith see all things measured out by the Lord this would make us with patience take from God what he imposes upon us Faith will make a man conquer himself it will silence all murmuring and make the Soul bear its cross with patience THE PRIVILEDGE OF THE FAITHFUL OR The Joint-Inheritance OF ALL BELIEVERS SERMON XXXIII 1 PET. 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life TO let pass all by-passages you have in this Text the priviledge of Women which is the very same with that of Men especially in relation to the greatest priviledge that belongeth to either of them The very priviledge it self as at the first view of the Text may appear to you affordeth a fit Theam for such an occasion as this is which is the solemnization of the Funeral of a Grave pious and prudent Matron who was indeed while she lived a Mother in Israel in the Church of God who in her life-time testified much love to the Saints of God and in that respect I may say deserved now she is taken away this respect of Gods Saints and Children which by you is now shewed to her in accompanying her to her bed of rest The forenamed words of my Text doth branch it self forth into two parts One setteth out the priviledge it self The other the partakers thereof The Priviledge therein you may observe two points First the kind of it Life Secondly the ground of it grace The partakers of this priviledge are set forth in a compounded Article Joynt-heirs Co-heirs heirs together having relation to Women The simple consideration of the Word shews the right they have to the forenamed priviledge they are heirs The compound shews the extent of it Co-heirs one with another Men and Women heirs together of the grace of life That yet you may a little more distinctly discern the scope of the Apostle in this Text in a word note the inference of it upon that which goeth before or the connection of it therewith Lift up therefore your eyes but a little higher to the words going before and you may observe the Apostle giving a direction to men to honour Women notwithstanding they are the weaker vessels Vessels they are therefore capable of that which God shall be pleased to infuse into them his grace they are weak vessels so are men also they are earthen vessels these are the weaker these comparatively may be said to be as glassie vessels and yet notwithstanding you have a common saying that a glass with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex be brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were
clay and then to sum up a large Bill of the particular goods he intends to Religion for Churches and for Hospitals and the poor with other such like benevolences makes but a simple satisfaction for thy unjust courses in procuring such wealth to the prejudice and detriment of others this is nothing to thy advantage all this while thou art a thief and givest stoln goods Nay thou maist further assure thy self that Hell shall be the greatest recompence of thy charity because thou bestowest that which is not thine Thou oughtest first to have made thy estate clear and have restored the things that belonged unto others and reserved thine own by it self and then to give free scope to thy charity to the doing of any good action which time and occasion could propound This is the first duty of any man that will do good in giving he must give justly Secondly he must give wisely too it is made the marke of a man fearing God He considers wisely of the poor and he orders his affairs with judgment What is that Judgment hath a twofold respect it hath respect to the quantity of a mans gift and to the quality of the person to whom he gives There must be a judgment a wise ordering of things in respect of the quantity which a man bestowes according to that expression of the holy Ghost in Acts 11.29 They gave according to their abilities they kept within the limits of their estates and exceeded not So must thou or else another man may perchance lose by thy liberality Again there must be respect had to the quality of the person to whom he gives My goodness extends to the Saints that are on earth to the faithful ones as the Text faith here to the houshold of faith It is not necessary to give to every one that comes next to hand There be some persons I told you before that are not to be releeved except in case of extream necessity We must extend our Benevolence to those of the houshold of Faith Give unto Christ and to the naked and hungry members that belong unto him and thou shalt not want a sweet and comfortable return of thy charity Again as it must be done justly and wisely so if we desire to do good in releeving we must do it simply In the simplicity and plainness of our hearts Let him that distributes do it in simplicity faith the Apostle What is that simplicity when a man looks up to God with a single eye as the eye may be said to be single when it viewes but one object at once so the heart is small when it respects God onely in this action of charity and makes no other reckoning of any outward object A double-minded man he looks up to God and yet carries some respect to the outward honour which he expects of the World and more often times to the World then to God at least he joynes them together But if a man be desirous to bestow his benevolence with a purpose to receive recompence from above let him do it for his sake that commands it and reflect upon God in all things This is the testimony of our Conscience faith the Apostle that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation among you not affecting the praise of men but aiming to approve our selves to God in that we do This is that which Christ advised the Pharisees that they should not admit their right hand to know what their left hand did Lastly as it must be simple so it must be chearful God loves a chearful giver And this is a perfect sign of chearfulness when a man doth not only give without grudging upon all opportunities but when he will be careful to prevent them in his willingness to seek them as I said before So much for the second point the duty it self Now I proceed to the last thing that is the description of the persons to whom this must be done First generally All and then particularly The houshold of faith First generally Do good to all It is as I have told you to all that endure such wants and necessities as that it may be a work of mercy and no transgression of the rule to releeve them for those that live unprofitably and become burthens to the Common-wealth except in case of extream necessity it loses the name of mercy to relieve them and deserves neither reward nor commendations Yet if they live in extream necessity then take the Rule of the Apostle Do good to all even to them also We have the Parable of our Saviour to direct us in this path where the good Samaritan lends his assistance to the Jew that fell among theeves We cannot but know of the opposition and enmity between the Samaritans and the Jewes yet we see that in case of extremity the Samaritan helps the Jew Therein our Saviour teacheth us that every man in this case is a mans neighbour and therefore the same law that commands to love thy neighbour as thy self intends we should do good to all if necessity require The Reason is in regard there is the same maker of one as of another We have all one Father saith the Prophet and hath not one God created us Then by Creation we are all alike Children though not by Adoption and especial Grace and as they are the Creatures of God and bear the Image of their Maker there ought to be some consideration extended toward them in case of extream necessity Again there dwels a part of Gods Image in all man-kind and that resemblance makes us alied to each other by the bonds of Nature then if we love not our brother whom we see daily how shall we love him whom we never saw faith the Apostle To make some use briefly of this Is it so that doing of good is to be extended to all when necessity requires it Then let it teach us without all evasion and protraction of those duties commanded to embrace every object and occasion that may invite us to do good and to be merciful But some man may reply in this fashion my intent is very plyable that away of goodness I could willingly extend it toward such a man but he is a stranger unto me and one with whom I was never acquainted What is this but the churlish reply of Nabal to the servants of David there are divers men abroad whom I know not there are some servants that are run from their masters shall I give my bread and that I have provided for my shearers unto them Nabal was his name and folly was with him Abigai did truly interpret his nature to be answerable to his name which signified a man of folly for if his conditions had been otherwise he would not have sent them empty to their Master knowing their absolute necessity in which case a stranger ought to be relieved and we cannot thrust
ill in this fain he would stisle the light in his conscience which if he would open his eyes would clearly discover unto him a future tribunal yet sometimes he cannot smother it and therefore as Tully who saw a glimering of this truth observeth he is wonderfully tormented out of a fear that endless pains attend him after this life Well let the flesh and fleshly minded men deem or speak what they list concerning the state of the dead the Spirit of truth faith that all that die in the Lord are blessed But where faith the Spirtt so In the Scriptures of the old and new Testament and in this vision and in the heart and conscience of every true believer First in the Scriptures let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like unto his refrain thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy works shall be rewarded and there is hope in thine end faith the Lord precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the Righteous shall wash his foot in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous Christ is in life and death advantage for I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Secondly in this vision for Saint John heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write it as it were with a Pen of Iron upon the Tomb of all that are departed in the Lord for so faith the Spirit Lastly the Spirit speaketh it in the heart and soul of every true believer lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibber or on the saggot did not the Spirit seal this truth above all other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortaility they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jaws of it When Job was in the depth of all his misery the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shal I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my rains be consumed within me offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O death where is thy sting Mors nonest stimulus fed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feel none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himself spake in him He is come he is come You have heard where the spirit faith so give ear now to a voyce from heaven de claring why the Spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well pain as pains broyls as toyls as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek so pain and pains in english are of kin for labour is pain to the body and pain is labour to the spirit and therefore what we say to be punished and tormented with a diseafe the latine say laborare morâ—…o and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing we call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortality granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from pain and pains taking What then may some object do the dead sleep out all their time from the breathing out their last gasp to the blowing the last trump as they suffer nothing so do they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a room and filled up a blank in the Roman fasti Nam bibulo factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuam without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect act or as Tullie renders the word a continual motion as the word is taken in that old proverbial verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more be and not work then the wind can be and not blow the fire and not burn a diamond and not sparkle the sun and not shine therefore it is not said here simply that they rest from all kind of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toilsome labours sore travels and again from their own labours or works not the Lords They keep an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their own works but Gods they rest from sinful and painful travels but not from the works of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soul is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it self with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soul unto return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Bodies rest in thier proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continual work and their work is their life and their life is their happiness which the Divines fitly express in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifyeth them God glorifieth them bycasting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light back again and casting their crowns before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having born the heat of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatory for blessedness cannot stand with misery nor
the world that desireth not that every Saint should be gathered in and the whole body of Christ perfected in the whole members of it before Christ come to judgment None must be neglected every beleever must frame his will to the will of God God hath revealed that the number must be gathered in and when it is so Christ will come and gather all together under his wing Now the Saints of God think not much that the number should be gathered in they are well contented with it So likewise God hath revealed his will that though he be exceeding patient to wicked men yet he is not forgetful of his promise God will be contented though he be provoked every day infinitely by the highest sins of the world patiently to endure all this and to offer conditions of peace and mercy even to the worst to shew himself rich in mercy and so full of goodness that he makes offer even of goodness to the worst Now the Saints of God here frame their will to Gods and are content still to wait because God still putteth forth his patience and still offereth Conditions of mercy and peace to those that are wicked and out of the way whereby some are converted and others convinced and prepared for the work of Gods justice So this question need not trouble men or hold them off from a chearful and fruitfull expectation of Christ though he come not in our age as he hath not in others before The use of the Point is this First if this be the property of the godly to wait and earnestly to expect the coming of Christ then we may observe the general ungodliness of the World by the general want of this expectation And if ye say but who is there that doth not expect the second coming of Christ and who doth not beleeve that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I answer notwithstanding that every man confesse this Article of faith with his mouth yet every man beleeveth it not with his heart for every man frameth not himself according to the faith of it Very few are those faithful servants that wait and prepare for their Masters coming Christ when he cometh he shall scarce find faith on the earth What a number of Men and Women are there though they hear these things and they are beaten upon them upon many occasions and they are in their judgments convinced that it must be so yet notwithstanding the faith of their hearts apprehend it not they do not beleeve it they do not listen and frame to it We like Caleb tell them of the good Land and the fat of the Land and the fruit of the Land and the fulness of the Land of Canaan but generally men like the unthankful Israelites murmure and repine and rebel and scarce hear us or if they do they do not beleeve it For if men did beleeve it it could not be that men should live like Saduces as they do that neither beleeve the soul nor immortality neither that there are spirits nor Devils nor resurrection nor nothing the lives and conversations of men plainly bewray that they beleeve not this Doctrine though they can profess with the mouth that Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead but like the Cardinal of whom we read that profest he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise so men live as if they would not give their part here on earth for a Childs part in Heaven Like that wicked Pope that we read of when he was about to die now saith he I shall know that which I never beleeved whether there be a Heaven or Hell an immoatality of the soul or no. So men live as if they never meant to know those things or beleeve them till they come to the tryal and experience of them And besides what a number of men and women are there that can profess these things with their mouth but they cast themselves into a fast sleep in sin and security and sleep on both sides Gods Messengers and Ministers cannot awake them but as though their souls were to sleep everlastingly so they sleep on in their lusts and sins and will not be awakened And my brethren who doth not observe that it is not the fashion of men even of those that profess themselves Christians to say come Lord Jesus till they be on their death-beds and till they be scarce able to speak or breath out a word they never say come Lord Jesus till they know not what to do with themselves till they can enjoy their lusts and the World and their sins no longer they cannot tell how to bequeath themselves longer to the service of sin and unrighteousness till then they never call after the Lord Jesus to come to them and when they do it is not out of love and affection to Christ but out of self-love to help them out of the hands of death that is too strong for them and to fetch them out of that misery they are too weak to sustain Therefore they call Lord Jesus but as I said it is far from the love of him in their hearts for were these men to live over their lives again and to be restored to health again it would be the last breath of their lives still to call the Lord Jesus My brethren where these things are and we find them too general every man that looks into his own heart may find himself in some measure touched therein certainly it cannot be that this same lively desire of a Christian can be there and these persons can have little comfort in themselves they have few arguments to prove themselves Elect of God having the Spirit of God or to be those that hear the promises with faith or those that thirst after Christ there is no argument in them that they are Christs because they long not and desire after him But therefore in the second place since this desire is so rare let us try our selves a little even those that profess better things and hope well that they are indeed the Spouse of Christ Let us try and search our selves whether this expectation be with us or no that we may find comfort in our estate and in our union and conjunction with Christ For tryal of this Point first we must know that a necessary attendant and companion of this expectation of Christ and waiting for him is sighing and longing and a vehement desire after him It is no slight no superficial desire but an inward vehement desire a sighing and panting after Christ as those that see the need of him And therefore as the Wise man saith hope deferred paines the heart the godly desires of the soul bring pains to the soul for want of Christ in the absence of Christ And as the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. the 8. We sigh in our selves saith he wayting for the redemption of our bodies We sigh in
the Clergy that dejected sinners may with safety lodge their grievances in their breasts let me desire them That as the Lawyer and the Physician are true to their Profession so they would be faithful in their Ministery that poor souls may fly to them with confidence for comfort in their sad conflicts for sin and with sin This makes so many Christians to carry their sin with them to their graves rather than they will disclose it because they dare not repose any trust in those that ought to be as true to them as there own hearts If we find a man truly penitent for his sins let us cover them with the vail of Charity and onely declare his repentance to the world that God may be glorified and good Christians on Earth as the Angels in Heaven rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner I have much to speak but am willing to contract my self as knowing you are fully satisfied in that faithful Testimony I have already given you Be not so uncharitable as to think I might be mistaken in this good Gentleman I was often with him and had frequent converse with him and the freedom to speak and I found him alwayes in the same humble frame and temper of spirit and I must profess this I have not often received more satisfaction from any man in respect of the fruit and comfort of my endeavours than from him I met with an humble and tractable spirit willing to hear of the wrath of God due to sinners and careful and solicitous how he might avoid it truly sensible of the weight of his sins much dejected with the thought of them and so far the sense of his sins had humbled him as that I may say Malice it self could not judge worse of him than he did of himself And that which made me believe the truth of his humiliation for sin was this That I found no presumptious thoughts arising in his heart of Gods mercy but when I sought to cheer him with the hope of Gods mercy to penitent sinners he told me He was not yet humbled enough to partake of it I was much satisfied in this answer as knowing the deeper the foundation is laid the surer is the building the more humble we are the firmer will our confidence be in Christ And from that time I strove to comfort him with the precious Promises of the Gospel and told him he might upon the word of Christ challenge an interest in them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Such as are truly penitent and onely such might claim a special Title to the Promises of Christ This did revive his fainting spirit and the thought of Gods mercy in Christ did as much cheer him as ever the sense of sin had dejected him Then he began to feel the comfort of Gods love glowing in his breast soon after he felt the heat of it and his affections were so enflamed with the love of God as that his thoughts were restless till he enjoyed him whom his Soul loved and this made him to count every minute too long to be parted from Christ his Saviour Therefore being now fit for heaven and weary of the world and desirous to enjoy God in a better place the last words I heard him utter were these Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Christ cannot come too soon for that heart that is ready to receive him The Lord makes us fit for his coming and we shall be happy whensoever he comes And now after all this that I have spoken you will say I have said nothing for the honour of this good Knight I have not buried him like himself I have strew'd no flowers of Commendation upon his Herse befitting his quality and Degree and the House he came from I confess all this As he desired all vain pomp and oftentation should be laid aside at his funerals For what have I done said he that I should deserve it so have I declined all pomp and vanity of words in the Pulpit which is no place to shew our quaint and lofty strains of Oratory but our zeal to Gods glory and the edification of his people I came not so far to sawn and flatter but to testifie my pious respects to the memory of the Dead and my unfeigned affection to the Souls of the Living But what Is not this that he dyed a good Christian that he loathed his former Vanities that he was truly humbled for his sins and rested upon the Mercy of God in Christ for the free pardon of them If you value not these things pardon me if I think there is nothing to be valued in you but vanity and what the value of that will be you will know at the hour of Death God grant you may know it sooner and then you are happy when you will find that piety in the heart is more to be accounted of then all the wealth and honour in the world I think I have said enough to honour this Noble Knight at his Funerals that he dyed a true Child of God and left a goodly Inheritnance on Earth to be possessed of a better in Heaven There have I a good ground to believe he rests in peace and joy and there I hope we shall all meet at the last And thus in an holy intention to Gods glory a zealous desire of your good and an honourable respect to my Friend I have now run through the duty of this day not aiming God knows my heart at the least applause from you nor yet valuing the censure of malevolent spirits who shake off all Charity to the Dead and to the Living I have endeavoured to approve my self faithful to God in speaking nothing but the Truth faithful to my self in the discharge of a good Conscience and faithful to my Friend in publishing the truth of his Conversion to the world Thus have I sought to honour God to right your worthy Neighbour and in so doing I hope I have not wronged my self And now it is my earnest prayer to God for you not that I may injure the Dead but in love to your Souls that all of you may have the grace to live better than he did And this I wish again from my heart hoping the best of him and fearing the worst of some of you that ye may obtain the like Faith and Repentance to die no worse than he did His Soul now rests in Bliss and joy do ye that survive labour to enter into that rest which remains for the people of God in the glorious Mansions of God the Father Now bestir your selves and do your best for heaven while ye have time and opportunity work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling shew all diligence by Faith Repentance and Obedience the old and sure tract and road to Heaven to make your calling and election sure live holily that ye may die comfortably Learn to number
safety be confest by the hearers then exprest by the Preacher in his place Answ I have three things to return in answer hereunto First grant the Objector speaketh very much of truth herein yet if the times be so bad as he complaineth their badness will serve for a toyl to set off his goodness and render it the more conspicuous making him Phil. 2.15 to shine the brighter as a light in the World in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation Alas thy little faith would have made no show hadst thou lived in the age of Abraham thy Patience would have seemed but a dwarf to the Gyant patience of Job hadst thou been his contemporary thy meekness had appeared as nothing if measured with the meekness of Moses had you been partners in the same generation Whereas now a little Faith Patience Meekness and so of other graces will make a very good presence in the publick if the Age thou livest in be so bad as thou dost complain and others perchance do believe Secondly I suspect this to be nothing else but a device of thy deceitful heart thereby to cozen thine own self The Objection speaks the state of thy soul to be much like the temper of the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 23.30 If we say they had been in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partaker with the blood of the Prophets Yet these pretended pittiful persons were indeed more cruel then their Ancestors Their Fathers killed the Men they the Master their Fathers the Servant they the Son their Fathers murdered the Prophets of God they the God of those Prophets so far forth as he was murderable in his humane nature and it is vehemently to be suspected that if thou beest bad now thou wouldst not have been good had the time of thy Nativity answered thine own desire It is a shrewd presumption that he who behaved himself as a Woolf in his own generation would not have been a Lamb in what Age soever he had lived Lastly Beggars must be no choosers thou art not to serve the generation before thee nor the generation after thee nor any other of thy own election but thy own generation wherein Divine Providence hath been pleased to place thee Saint Paul saith Ephesians 5.22 Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands Some will say had I such an one to my Husband I could willingly obey him he is of so meek mild and sweet a disposition but mine is of so morose and froward a nature it goes against my nature to be dutiful unto him However though she hath not the same comfort she hath the same cause of submission obliging in conscience to Gods command husbands must love their own wives wives obey their own husbands husbands and wives with David must serve their own generation But now that my sword may cut on both sides as hitherto we have confuted such who are faulty in their defect and will not serve their generation so others offend in the excess not being only servants but slaves and vassals to the age they live in prostituting their consciences to do any thing how unjust soever to be a Favourite to the Times Surely a cautious concealment is lawful and wary silence is commendable in perilous times Amos 5.13 It is an evil time therefore the wise shall hold their peace And I confess that a prudential compliance in Religion in things indifferent is justifiable as also in all civil concernments wherein the conscience is not violated but wherein the will of the times crosseth the will of God our Indentures are cancelled from serving them and God only is to be obeyed There is some difference in reading the precept Rom. 12.11 occasioned from the similitude of the words in the original though utterly unlike in our English tongue some reading it serving the Lord others serving the time I will not dispute which in the Greek is the truer Copie but do observe that Davids precedent in my Text is a perfect expedient to demonstrate that both Lections may and ought to be reconciled in our practise He served his generation there is serving the times but what followeth by the will of God there is serving the Lord this by him was by us must be performed Saint Stephen Acts 7.2 began his Sermon to the people with these words Men Brethren and Fathers which words I thus expound and apply By Men he meant young folk which had attained to the strength and stature of men and were much younger then himself By Brethren those of his own standing and seniority in the world probably forty years old or thereabouts and therefore he saluted such with a familiar Appellation as a badge of equallity Thirdly Fathers being aged people more ancient then himself as appeareth by his term of respect addressed to persons distanced above him This distinction will serve me first perfectly to comprise then methodically to distinguish all my Auditors in this Congregation I begin with you men which are of the Generation rising it being bootless for me to address my self to children not arrived at their understanding concerning whom I turn my preaching to them into praying for them and wish them good success in the name of the Lord. It is your bounden duty to omit no opportunity to inform your selves both in Learning and Religion from those that living with you are of more age and experience and demean your selves unto them with all reverence and respect O let them go fairly their own pace and path to their graves Do not thrust them into the pit with your preposterous wishes Filius ante diem O when will he die and his name perish rather endeavour to prolong the dayes of your Parents by your dutiful deportment unto them stay but a while and they will willingly resign their room unto you in earnest whereof those superannated Bazzilbaes do contentedly surrender the lawful pleasures of this life 2 Sam. 20.37 to you their Chimchams their sons and successors to be by you with sobriety and moderation peaceably possessed and comfortably enjoyed You Brethren who are pew-fellows in the same Age with my self who are past our vertical point and are now entred into the Autumn of our life give me leave to bespeak you with becoming boldness familiarity beseeming those of the same form together there is a new Generation come upon let us therefore think of going off the Stage endeavouring so to Act our parts that we may come off not so much with applause from man as approbation from God If we live long we shall be lookt upon as the barren fig-tree that combereth the ground we must make room for succession as our fathers have done for us And set this be our greatest care to derive and deliver Religion in all the foundamentals thereof in as good a plight and condition to our sons as we received it from our Fathers O let us leave Gods house as tenantable as
parts the main matter whereof things were made and shall that be the destruction of that whereof it is made Yes saith the Apostle All things were made by water too and yet they were destroyed by water and why not then by fire But God deserreth the promise of his coming What of that He putteth it not quite off though he deferre yet it is not long with God for there is no time long to him that is eternal and in that he deserreth it is that some men may be brought to salvation and others made inexcusable Thus the Apostle takes off all objections of the Atheists of the world and sheweth that there shall be a day of Judgment Secondly it serveth for instruction If there shall be such a Judgment to come if God will have such a time of rekconing with all his Stewards in the world Then it teacheth us first not to busie our selves in judging one another why because there shall a time come of Gods Judgment Who art thou saith the Apostle that judgest thy brother we shall all stand before the Judgment seate of Christ As if he should say What a bold part what a presumptuous part is this that thou shouldest judg thy brother Dost thou not know that there is one that shall judge him and thee is it fit that he that is a prisoner at the Barre should come and leap up into the place of the Judg and sit in his seat Ye are all fellow prisoners together and ye must all stand before the Judgment fear of Christ So in another place the same Apostle when he would take men off from judging saith he Judg nothing before the time Why for the Lord will come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As if he should say Thou art not able to judg aright it may be that man that thou dispraisest at that day may find praise with God Secondly Turn the Judgment on thy own heart be more in Judging of thy self that thou mayest not be Judged of the Lord. Will God call thee to a reckoning then begin to call thy self to a reckoning first How shall that be done There is a double reckoning that every man must undergoe that will avoid this reckoning with God First he must reckon with his own heart Secondly with others First with his own heart Every man must take all the advantages opportunities that God hath given to reckon with himselfe Doth God awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his word Descend into thy own heart It is that that the Lord looks for that a man should say What have I done Doth God smite thee with some afflictions if with losses reckon with thy self how thou hast gained thy wealth If with disgraces reckon with thy selfe about thy pride and ambition and vanitie of thy heart If God smite thy body with sicknesse reckon with thy self about the imployment of thy health and the well usage of the times and seasons of grace Every evening call thy self to an account What have I done this day where have I been In what company how have I carried my self there what good have Idone what good have I received In the matters of thy calling reckon with thy self with what heart thou hast followed it with what care to conforme thy selfe to Gods word the rule of righteousnesse If thou hast been in pleasures whether they were lawful and if they were whether they were lawfully used Thus must every man reckon with his own heart as the Church in Lament 3.39 Wherefore is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sinâ—… let us search our wayes and turne again to the Lord. There are many that 〈◊〉 to out-face God and men in their sins but know this who-ever thou art that if thou forbear to reckon with thy own heart God will assuredly reckon with thee thou must reckon here or hereafter with thy self or with God therefore saith David Psal 4 Commune with your own hearts upon your beds that is be sure to take time from your sleep rather then to neglect this businesse of reckoning with your own hearts Secondly Reckon with others too Let that man that is in authority a Magistrate so carry himself in his imployments that he may reckon with the people and give an account to them if need be as Samuel did Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith The Lord saith he is a witnesse that ye have not found any thing in my hand And not only so but that they may be able to witnesse that they have been great instruments of Gods glory and of the good of others Let Ministers reckon with the people committed to their charge as Paul did when he took his leave of the Ephesians and was to go up to Jerusalem I take you to record this day saith he that I am pure from the blood of all men for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God and I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and tought you publikely and from house to house And because I know that after my departure there will somewhat remain to be done for Grievous wolves will enter in not sparing the flock therefore I will be carefull that there be a succession of faithfull Ministers afther me and therefore I give carge to the rest that follow that they take heed to themselves and to the stook over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud Let Masters reckon with their Familes their servants and children whether they have done their duty as faithful Masters not only in furthering the service of God but also in furthering of them by instruction and example to all good Let those that are in a way of traffique learn to reckon with those that they deal withal If thou hast wronged any by unjust gain thou must reckon with him by restitution there is nothing that thou hast gotten unjustly for which thou dost not reckon now but as Saint James saith at that day shall eat they flesh as it were fire Therefore Zacheus when salvation was brought to his house If I have done uujustly and wronged any I restore it Doubtless there are many men that cloath themselves in Sattin and Velvet and abound in all variety and bravery that would now be houseless and moneyless and apparelless it may be if they should make restitution of their unjust gain Well do it as ye love your own souls you shall reckon as you are Gods Stewards with him how you have come by every penny that you have in the world and
therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for works of mercy what thou hast been wanting in to thy brethren thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done wich thy estate Josephus reckons up three several tenths that were expected and exacted of the Jews Wouldest thou be less liberal now in the time of the Gospel then they were under the law Is God lesse merciful or hath he less interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poor or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stock Beloved you cannot if you look about you want objects of mercy and means to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would be faithful stewards to God say thus I have been thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poor to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that be not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his own heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Let this then stir us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Judgement when there shall be such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ There is no way to escape the Judgement to come but by making peace with the Judge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercy-seate that was to be compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to look toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of our transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimony but by the great Mercy-seat the Lord Jesus Christ upon whome the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since look expecting the covering of the guilt of their sins from the wrath of God by no other means but by this propitiator or Mercy-seat that covereth the Arke of the Testimony Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrin of the day of Judgement Seeing saith he that we locke for these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlidesse Alas beloved little do you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearful dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Judge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himself How shall I stand at that time at that Judgement All our care should be that of the Apostle Pauls Whether we be absent from the body or present in the body we labour that we may be accepted of the Lord Whether we live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that we may be found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith he in another place because there shall be a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Look to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the books are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts clear between you and your Master by obedience and repentance by works and by faith happy shall that servant be whome his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Use is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the variety of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall be made even The Apostle Saint James exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe be not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envy an enemy that is now in prison though he have some good chear there though he have some friends that come and see him there because he knows he is but a Prisoner and he shall be brought out at the Assizes and then he shall be righted The world is the common Jayle whereinto Adam was cast after he had sinned and we are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chains are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Judgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein he will call all his Stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall be in this life and after death when God strikes men down by death it is that they may be brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution or condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soul o man in that intelectual manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Judgement You have now a spectacle of mortality before you one of Gods stewards took away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot be expected that I should say much or any thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Country For his dying He was here but a day or two before he was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremity of his weaknesse and it took him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden change more then we looked
and the same person arising from divers principles In every renewed soul there is is a principle of nature and a principle of grate I speak not now of corrupt nature but of pure nature for we may so speak There is a desire that ariseth from nature and that tendeth to the conservation of a mans beeing and to the conservation of a man in all the comforts and contentments of his beeing This is and may be in a child of God But then it is overswayed by grace which makes a man now resign up this will of his to Gods hand to be content against his own natural desires to be disposed of according to Gods will This we may see in our Lord and Saviour Father faith he if it be possible let this cup pass from me Hear is a desire to keep not onely in his natural beeing but to keep in the comfort of nature and life And this is lawful and a good desire for these affections are the works of God upon the soul of man The will of man moveth naturally by these affections these desires they are the fruits of nature and so the works of God in nature and therefore not simply to be blamed But now that which keepeth them within compass is an over-ruling work of grace whereby the creature is made to acknowledge his distance from the Creatour and that subjection he oweth to God as the soveraign Lord of nature and of all creatures And in this sense our Saviour Christ doth check his natural desires if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt faith he So here is a work of grace ordering and over-ruling nature that it might not exceed that proportion of the creature and those desires that should be in nature So then you see what kind of willingness we mean such a kind of willingness as in the issue and close resteth in Gods will The object of this Patience is Afflictions and the changes of this life Affliction is properly any thing that is grievous to a mans sense any thing that crosseth a mans will There are some things that indeed are Afflictions but not to this or that person because he is not sensible of them or because he is not carried with any desires against them But when a man is crost in his will that is an affliction to him but specially when this is set on him with a change when God brings as Job speaks changes upon him when a man is in another turning and course of life this is an affliction indeed A man that hath tasted the sweetness of prosperity now to be left in affliction this was Jobs case and this is specially the object of Patience You have heard of the Patience of Job But how did Jobs Patience appear in the Afflictions in the changes of his life That notwithstanding he had felt the sweeness of a prosperous estate and the comfort of freinds yea and the comfort of Gods favour shining upon his heart and many other particular mercies yet when God turned his hand and took away the comforts of his life the comfort and society of his freinds the comfortable expressions of his own love to his soul and threatned the taking away even of life it self Job could now in this case resolve to rest in the determination and appointment and will of God Here is Patience now Thus briefly you have heard what the duty is to which the Apostle exhorteth It is Patience that is a willing resigning of our selves to Gods appointment in the changes of our life But now that is not enough the Apostle contents not himself to say Have Patience but let Patience have her perfect work He would have them grow in Patience to grow from one degree to another to abound in Patience as the Apostle speaks of Hope and Joy in Rom. 15.13 that they might not only have patience but have it brought to perfection which in Coll. 1. 11. is called all long suffering that there might not be the least defect that they might have a measure of patience proportionable to the measure of Tryals that look as God increased the measure of their tryals upon them so they might have patience to answer those tryals somewhat to support the heart when the greatest weight should be laid upon the soul to press it down so the word Hipomene that is translated patience signifieth to bear up a man to support him under a burthen that he be not prest down by it So he would have them have such a measure of Patience as might bear up the soul in the greatest pressures that though they were afflicted they might not be broken in their afflictions Thus you have the duty opened Let Patience have her perfect work The reason is that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing That you may be intire Some understand it thus that you may be intire in respect of every grace in respect of all gracious habits that you may have one grace as well as another that as you have knowledge and faith so you may have Patience too that which is so necessary a grace for a Christian as well as any other Others by intireness here and wanting nothing think that the Apostle meant this that they might have that which might supply comfort to their souls in all their wants A man is then said to want nothing when he is content and satisfied with that estate wherein he is as if he had all things So David when Ziglag was burnt his Wives carried away captive his souldiers began to mutiny and threaten him yet nevertheless he seemed to want nothing when he could comfort himself in the Lord his God Godliness is great gain but how with contentment that is there is such a sufficiency with contentment of heart as if a man had the things he wants So then hear is the thing that you may be intire in respect of all gracious habits necessary to the beeing of a Christian that you may have that inward store and supply of comfort that may support your hearts in all outward wants Thus you have the meaning of the words The parts are two An exhortation to duty An argument to enforce that exhortation The duty whereto they are exhorted is that they should be perfect in Patience let Patience have her perfect work The Argument whereby they are perswaded to this duty is that they may be intire and wanting nothing that they may have all that is necessary to a Christian We will observe two Conclusions hence which we shall follow at this time The first is this That Patience is necessary to the perfection of a Christian Or A Christian is not perfect without patience The second is this That every Christian should strive for a perfection of degrees of Patience Or that a Christian must labour to attaine the highest degree and perfection in Patience These two Conclusions we
not but this I am sure of that there have been too many unkind passages where the fault is your selves know But this is to be taken into consideration that God removeth them from ye as if ye were worthy of none If God send us these helps and Lampes that waste themselves to shine to us and to break and dispence to us the bread of life shall we not give them incouragement in their studies that they may go on quietly and peaceably A word is enough for that Howsoever some of ye would not suffer him to rest God hath taken him to his rest There is more might be said but I will not say too much For the other since I came from my house I had information at my first footing in the Parish they said she was as good a woman as lived At my first footing in the house they said she was a very good woman Those that have lived in the Parish they testifie that she was a woman most eminent for her piety and vertue Shall she want a memorial I asked of those that have known her of old they say she was a righteous woman for the righteousness of piety and a merciful woman for the righteonsness of mercy She had respect to both tables to her duty to God to her Neighbour For the mercy of charity she was good to the poor she was a lender to those that were in necessity and a giver too For the mercy of piety she was very compassionate to those that were in afflictions she sympathized with them visited them and comforted them For the mercy of peace in time of contention she laboured to set all strait she had a soft answer co pacifie wrath She was a merciful woman and God hath given her the reward hath took her to his rest She was a lover of peace he hath taken her to the place of peace She was one hat studied happiness and he hath taken her to a place of happiness He hath took her from these evils that we are reserved to and that we may fear That is the difference between a godly and an impenitent man Impenitent men if they be took away they are taken to further evill if they be left alive they are left to further evil Merciful men if they be took away they are taken away for the eschewing of evil and if they be left on the earth it is for the diverting of evil They divert them while they live and shun them when they die As they labour to honour God in their lives so God gratifieth them in their death he takes them to himself This consideration and occasion is a proof of the Text. As it is proved in all the Text let us disprove it in our selves that this word may never go in the course it lieth here but in a contrary course That righteous men perish and men do lay it to heart let it be said so and merciful men though they be took away yet there are those that take it into consideration I have done with the last part and with the occasion THE GOOD MANS EPITAPH OR THE HAPPINESSE OF Those that Die VVell SERMON IX REVBLAT 14.13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them THE Scripture will afford us many Texts for Funerals Me thinks there is none more fit nor more ordinarily preached on than two and they are both of them voices from heaven One was to Isaiah the Prophet He was commanded to crie The voyce said Cry And be said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field You will say That is a fit Text indeed So is this here A voyce from heaven too But Saint John is not commanded to cry it as Isaiah was he is commanded to write it That that is written is for the more assurance It seemeth good to me faith Saint Luke in his preface to his Gospel Most excellent Theophilus to write to thee of these things in order that thou mightest know the certainty c. It did not please God for many generatious to teach his Church by writing The Fathers before the flood he did not teach by writing They lived long their memory served them instead of books and they had now and then some Divine revelations They needed no writing But after that the dayes of man grew short as they did in the time of Moses the man of God the dayes of our years are threescore years and ten then I say when the dayes of man came thus to be shortned it pleased God to teach his Church by writing And although the whole will of God all things necessary to solvation be written yet God did appoint some special things above all others to be written some passages of divide truths As that same history of the foil of Amalek in the wilderness Scribehoc ad monumentum saith God to Moses write this for a memorial in a book So God commandeth Isaiah to take to himself a great roul and to write in it with a mans pen. So to Exekiel Son of man write thee the name of the day even of this same day the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day And Saint John to go no further though he was commanded to write this whole Epistle and all the Visions he saw yet there is some special thing that God in a more special manner would have him to write And here is one Write this same voyce this 〈◊〉 that came down from heaven write it Though that writing addeth nothing to the Authority of the Word For the word of God is the same Word and is as well to be obeyed and as well to be beleeved when it is delivered by tradition as when it is by writing yet notwithstanding we are to blesse God that we have it written How many Divine truths have been turned into lies And how many divine Histories have been turned into fables when things have been delivered by tradition from hand to hand and from man to man Tradition was never so safe a preserver of Divine truths We are to thank God I say for the whole Scripture for every part of it for whatsoever is written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope But what comfortable thing is this that here Saint John is commanded to write Write what Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord so saith the spirit they rest from their labours and their works follow them In the which you have five things First you have a Proposition Dead men are blessed Blessed are the dead Now because this is not generally true therefore Secondly you have a Restriction all Dead men are not blessed But who are blessed then
the say this but Baruch When men cavil against any part of Gods word or hide any truth from themselves and with-hold the truth in unrighteousness Here is a man living to himself How many points are there in Religion that many men are willingly ignorant of And when they cannot but know them how do they labour for distinction how do they dawb over the matter that they may hide the truth from themselves that it may not work upon their consciences to make them leave their profitable fins Some would have the keeping of the Lords day according to Judaisme though it be revealed to them that there is a broad difference between the Jews observation and the Christians keeping of it Another man he will not understand Usury to be a sin because his course is usurious he will not know this willingly because he would not disadvantage himself Another will not understand what he is bound to do to the glory of God with his estate in what measure according to all the good that God hath blessed him with to honour God and give the first fruits of all his increase nor in what manner that he should be ready to every good work to contribute willingly to the necessities of the Saints what he should do to pious and merciful uses what for publike what for private occasions he would not willingly know these things he should have less ease he makes account Thus when a man is not willing to be informed in any thing to sift the truth to the bottome to the uttermost to know any thing concerning a duty in any kind when he laboureth not to convince his heart to this end that he may be brought in every thing to obey God when he standeth out with God in any one point this man liveth to himself and walketh not as he should according to the rule of God Now then beloved let us be convinced of it I beseech you take it home and let every man consider of it with himself Sometime in the actions of religion there cometh matter of glory in the world and this setteth me forward much when these things are spoken against and when I shall suffer disadvantages I cannot hold out At another time though all things be well yet if it cross me in such a course I murmure as if it were an unprofitable thing to serve God And then again when God revealeth his will my froward and rebellious heart hath hung back and been unwilling to submit to Gods will in this point all this while I have lived to my self And if it be true If a man be in Christ he liveth not to himself then it follows if a man liveth to himself he is out of Christ If the weakest Christian live to Christ then the best that liveth to himself is out of Christ Be convinced of this first Secondly Be convinced as it is the case of our selves so it is an ill estate for a man to live to himself You see still it is the whole drift of wicked men to took to themselves Haman aimed at himself when the King asked him what should be done to the man whom the King would honour He thought whom should the King honour but himself He looked to himself Here was the difference between Haman and Mordecai both had honour in the world Haman seeks himself in all his honour Mordecai seeks God and his glory and the welfare of his Church in his honour A great difference Saith Nabal shall I take my bread and my drink and give it to a man that I know not Here was a man that lived to himself Compare him with Job He was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind he continually fed those that wanted food A great difference Job lived to God and therefore he honoured God in releeving many with the estate that God hath given him Nabal lived to himself therefore he regarded none hut himself and his own house and sheep-shearers and those that depended upon him This is the property of a man out of Christ to seek himself and live to himself in all things Again consider others that have gone further in matters of religion yet they have still turned out of the way as far as they have halted in this Matt. 6.22 If thine eye be single the whole body is light but if thine eye be wicked the whole body is darkness A wicked eye is supposed to a single eye a double eye is a wicked eye What is a single eye That that looks but upon one object upon God and God onely and God principally and on all other things in him and with reference to him Now the double eye is that that though it looks to God and do many things in obedience to God yet it looks to somewhat else and takes other things as greater incouragements this is a wicked eye and such a man walketh in darkness when he looks to God he hath light in the duty when he looks to men and other things then he turneth aside and runneth to by-wayes And therefore a double-minded man is unconstant in all his wayes What is a double minded man He is a double-minded man whose mind is set upon more things then one first on the world and then on God as far as he sees it is profitable he will serve God or else not This man is an unconstant man You see it is an ill estate So much for the first Use for conviction Secondly therefore As many as are guilty of this labour to get out of it not to live to your selves any more Let it be enough that you have lived thus long to your selves that you have desrauded Christ of his due that hath puchased you with his bloud and not served him in holiness and righteousness so many dayes of your life Now for the time to come let us serve him better And that you may do thus I will give you two sorts of directions or helps I can give you but the heads of them First be convinced that our good is in God and not in our selves our life is in God and not in our selves our selves are in God and not in our selves that as the beams of the Sun are in the Sun more then in themselves so a Christian is more in Christ then in himself Whatsoever is good and comfortable to him is in Christ he hath all by vertue of a union with Christ he is not at all happy or blessed further then he is in him If then all our good lie in him it is great reason all our actions should returne to him that he should be the Center where all our lines should meet the mark whereto all our actions should aym Let not the strong man glory in his strength or the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his riches but he that glorieth let him glory in this that he knoweth me that I am the Lord. Jer. 9.24 What
be straitned and because the Apostle intends it not as the main thing I do but only name it The second thing and that which Saint Paul mainly intends is that because we have but a little time we are even ready to strike sayle and to go to the Harbour presently therefore he that had a wife should be as if he had none and he that used the world as if he used it not c. And there the Lesson that I noâ—e is this That the serious meditation of the little and short time that we have to remain in here below should be a great means to cut us off from the world and to put us upon thoughts and actions concerning heaven I shall not need to give you a better ground of the point then is in the Text. The time is short saith he the time is contracted you are ready to strike sayle therefore do this I might give you a world of Scripture to prove this But I will satisfie my self in laying you down two or three grounds of it First we know that all things that ever a man can enjoy in this world they all die assoon as ever this time is gone Mark it All things here below let a man dote never so much upon them let him have wife and children and beauty and credit and pleasures and learning or whatsoever it is if his glass be out if his time be gone ther 's is an end of all those to him Now the soul of man careth not for that happiness that hath no continuance at all in it Yea the rarest thing that mortal men seek if they should know before hand that they should enjoy them but a little time the soul careth not for pitching upon it If a man were offered the goodliest woman for his wife that ever lived in this world if God should send him this message there take her I bestow her freely upon thee but to morrow thou shalt die who would care for marrying To be a King we know is simply the greatest thing that men seek after in this world yet among the Grecian Cities as that of Sparta because one was but to have the Kingdome but for a year and then to lay down his Crown and become a private man all the wisest men of the City strove as much not to the King as we to get great places Why because they knew that that honour was but for a year and that would be gone presently therefore they cared not for it So the Apostle teacheth in this place Though thou shouldest have a wife that thou shouldest love mightily though thou shouldest have pleasures that thou takest full content in Why doest thou so We are ready to strike sayle we have but a little time to continue So that because all the blessedness of this life let them be never so many never so great yet they all die with us when our time is ended he that could but seriously think that he hath but a little time to continue below he will never let his heart be set violently upon them that is the first Argument The second and principle Reason why the meditation of the shortness of our time should be such a marvellous means to take us off from all the things of the world is this Because we shall find work enough in this short time for things that more concern us Now the very nature of our soul that God hath put into us is this that a man cannot intend earnestly and violently two things at the same time Let a man for a certain hour wholly be took up with some business though there were a great many other things that be could find in his heart to think upon yet the soul intends that one mainly and can find no time for the other This is our case We have but a little time but in that little time admirable is the work we have to do before this time be spent if we would give a comfortable account What have we to do I tell you in a word The main and needfull thing of all that we have to do in this little time here allotted us is How to shoot the gulph of hell how to make our peace with God how to get his favour in Christ how to have the corruptions of our soul cured and healed how to grow up in grace and to get sure evidence against that day when all shall stand naked before him that then we may be found in Christ Have I ever heard that I have a great work to do and that I have but a little time to do it in Surely then if I seriously think of it I cannot find in my heart to let my soul pitch earnestly upon the things below Beloved our time here is the only time we have to make heaven sure It is the most precious thing that ever we have in the world Now if a man have such a precious thing and but a little of it will he go and spend it for toyes and baubles It is a thing that the Emperour Caligula is laughed at for in all Stories There was a mighty Navy provided admirable and strange and all trimmed and every one expected that with it the whole countrey of Greece should be conquered and so it might have been But he imploped his souldiers to gather a company of Cockleshells and Pibbles and so sayled home Had not every one cause to laugh at the folly of this Emperour Verely such a fool is every man and so we would acknowledge if we would but weigh this God hath given thee but thus much time it may be twenty years it may be but a day or two more in this time he hath furnished thee with that which may be a means to conquer heaven it self now if â—…hou lay out this little about wife or children or to purchase a little wealth or chese things here below is it not the greatest folly that may be Suppose that a servant hath a great deal of work to do and knows that he must give an account to his Master thereof and that if all be not done that should be done he can never appear with comfort before his Master and he sees also that the Sun draws low and the day hastneth to an end do you think that this servant can find time to play If a man have much to write and but a little paper to write in he must write small and thick and close as ever he can So it is with every one of us â—… warrant you there is not any soul of us but we shall find so many thousand things to repent of so many graces to obtain that we stand in need of so many evidences or heaven to get that yet we have not got sealed so many particulars concerning better life that a man may wonder that ever any one should find one half day to 〈◊〉 any thing else Thus you see the reasons why the serious meditation of
that hath a Wife hath two things that another hath not that hath no wife The first is He hath a great deal of joy and comfort he hath a second self a loving yoak-fellow one in whose Bosome he can pour his heart at any time one that he can make partaker of all his contentments one that is willing to help him to carry all his crosses so in a Wife supposing her to be a good Wife he hath that comfort that another knows not of Secondly he that hath a Wife hath a great many cares that another hath not he hath a great deal of fear lest he should leave her in distress a great deal of care how she and the children that are begotten by him of her should be provided for when he is gone so that as Saint Paul saith he cannot but care for the things of the world how he may give content to his wife These two things a man hath that hath a Wife Now What is it to be in this as if he had no wife That is this In all contentments that come by a wife to use them as if he had none at all that is to be moderate not to glut himself and to think now I am a happy man I need no more God hath given me such a yoak-fellow and I have abundant joy in it But to moderate his heart in this And for the other thing for care and thought how to provide for her and her children to go on as if he had no wife and children to provide for to leave all to God to go on in his calling in obedience to God and let God do what he will And for matter of providing food and rayment when he is gone let him even carry himself as if all the world were gone when he is gone This is to have a wife as if he had none to be as moderate in the injoying of the contentments that come by his wife to be as moderate in cares required for a Wife so moderate in them as if he had no wife at all to joy in or to take care for For the second They that weep as if they wept not That is for matter of Affliction One man cometh out and he exceedingly glorieth in his happiness that he hath a wife Another complaineth no man is so full of crosses as I every day one cross after another no man hath such children such a husband such an estate so poor so afflicted so weak ever groaning and complaining Now saith Saint Paul be as if not in weeping That is let the thoughts of the neereness of the shoar make you so contented as if there were no cross at all lying upon you For I still follow the Metaphor the Spirit of God useth he that is the poorest man in the Ship he that doth nothing but dress the sayles and as I said before ply the pumpe and it may be is beaten withal yet in the midst of all these he thinketh I shall by and by cast Anchor and though I work hard yet one hour more will make me free So it should be with us in all afflictions as if not that is Think Death will come and end all I am sick in body I am crost in my good name in my yoak-fellow Well Death will end all these I have but a little while ro tarry in this world and short things must not be tedious On the other side He that rejoyceth as though he rejoyced not That is in all the contentments of the world in all the joy a man hath in the things below as suppose a man have an estate here and credit given him or any thing that makes the world account a man happy Remember all these things will be gone assoon as I die as still to use the comparison let it be the Master of the Ship he may think with himself all these are under me I can command them and punish them if they disobey yet as soon as I am out of the Ship they are as good as my self I am now neer the shoar and shall be soon out of the place I am in let me therefore moderate my self So let us in all worldly contentments be so moderate as if we should take our leaves of them and they of us And so for a man to be as though be possest not That is for a man not to inlarge his heart as the world is enlarged But if I have now so many pounds and therewith buy such a purchase and such a purchase let me live and carry my self in my thoughts as if I had nothing but food and rayment And then lastly cometh in the main of all the rest They that use the world as not abusing it By world he means all the good things of the world all that I named before and all that you can else think of Wife and children prosperity and adversity every thing on the right hand and on the left all cometh within the compass of the World use all these things so But especially he aimeth at worldly businesses the things we are exercised about do them as not abusing them as not letting your hearts be set too much upon them but be temperate and moderate in all that we may ever be fit for that great service that God hath to imploy us in Now out of all these put together the main Lesson that I would speak of is this That the true servants of God true beleevers all the blessings and crosses they meet with in this world they must have them as if they had them not This is the point I would open to you That in wife children prosperity crosses think what you can a beleever must be in them as if not as if he were not in that condition To give you for the proof of this any other Scripture then my Text I suppose I need not the Apostle Saint Paul you see layes it down in so many words Yet for the better confirmation of the point I will add to that two or three other plain places Only first I would a little explain to you what it is for a man to use all these things as if not And I cannot for my life better lay it open to you then by such a comparison as this Look how worldly men use the things of heaven so a heavenly man use the things of the world To instance in a few duties that I will but name Suppose it be the duty of prayer Bring me out a true beleever and a worldling let them both be put upon this duty of prayer The true beleever his heart before he goes to prayer is so full of care that he may pray aright so full of fear lest his heart should not carry it self as it should when he is in the duty his heart is so violently bent to it it so strugleth and striveth that he may do it as may please God When he hath done he hath much joy and
they will never be comforted for their brother for their sister for their children c. What shall we say to these things Do you think the Lord speaks not as he meaneth or that the Apostle when he saith here absolutely and determinatly that thus and thus you must do if you be Christians if you be brethren Shall we do the contrary to all this and yet think that all will be well I know you may put it off many of you and alledge many things we have callings and we must follow our Callings if God brings me in imployment blame me not if I follow it And I know not how to live if I do not do thus and thus But be not deceived God is not mocked In a word therefore to put you on the tryal If thou findest in the middest of thy trading and merchandizing or whatsoever calling thon art of thy heart daily gathering towards heaven that thou canst say blessed be God for this and other commodities but Christ is my darling this is good And then in these things if thou hast a care to use them aright as well as to get them and to thank God for them and that thy project is how thou shalt do good with that thou hast that thou art alwayes saying with thy self Lord how shall I do good with so much as I have got by such a bargain God forbid I should say against thee though thou be full of business from morning to evening But alass there are many good people and godly that have hope that they serve God yet if they go home and examine themselves throughly their own consciences will tell them that in the things of this world they are not as if not but rather that they have been over-careful and too full of distractions in business And so for matter of joy if a man have a little pleasure or preferment given him his heart is so up that he knows not where he is he is so transported that he hath clean forgot himself This cannot stand this is not to be as if not and therefore I beseech you in the fear of God think of it Now if a man would know how he should come to have his heart in a good temper to be in these things as if not In one word let me tell you that rule of Saint Paul In all things be filled with the Spirit and then thou wilt not take thought much for other things if once you let your souls be filled with the things of a better life then wife and children and wealth and pleasures or any thing else will not draw away your heart Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ work out your salvation and that you may know that you are beleevers upon good grounds and that you have the graces of the Spirit of God in you indeed and in truth that you are new creatures And then often think of the rare things that are provided for you in another life What to have God to be your Father and Angels your keepers to be children to be the companions of Angels Weigh these things daily and then you will be as if not in all these outward and worldly things And untill thou dost this and thinkest withall of that I have formerly said that thou art ready to strike sayle I will never beleeve that thou wilt be as if not This is the second thing A word or two of the Third and so I have done And that is the Spur that the Apostle Saint Paul useth And it is necessary he should use such a spur for it is a very hard lesson If you would be as if you were not consider this The fassion of the world passeth away That is it signifieth I touched it before such a fashion as is on a stage All these things below they are but as the Acting of a Comedy as a Scaene it may be it is done in half an hour and though it make a fine shew yet in truth there is no substance in it There is one it is a fashion besides it passeth away So then in this spur there are two things I will but name the heads First That the things of the world all that I named before are but a shew without a substance Even as a Scaene or Comedy things that have a glorious glittering shew to the eye but if you look indeed and in truth upon them there is no such matter That is one thing that I note that our life is but as the acting of a part in a Comedy and so by consequence in all these outward things thy contentment in wife or children or credit or pleasures thou dost but act a glorious part it may be thou hast a goodly outside fine clothes rich apparel an outward representation of comfort but look thorow them and there is no such matter But the second thing which I rather would presse is that it is suddenly gone it passeth away saith the Apostle As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the world so all the things he enjoyeth in the world are wondrous inconstant That look as it is in a Play he that now acts the part of a King it may be next he may act the part of a Begger or as it is with some of your delicate fashions that while you are speaking of them the fashion is spoyled Even so the fashion of this world it will not continue That is the sum of that I desire you to take notice of that if you will not be perswaded by me or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy minister to use the things of this world morderately and carry your selves as you ought in crosses and afflictions yet know this that the fashion of these things will shortly be spoyled And if they be all so unconstant what a fool art thou to set thy heart upon them We may learne this wisdome from the foolery of our English Nation esteemed now the idlest people of the world for changing their fashion They will never make clothes twice of one fashion but one gown of this fashion and another of that and though he be never so good a Taylor that makes it yet he must make no more of the same fashion but the next Terme they will come to another Learn I say this wisdome from that foolery Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in thy wife set not thy heart too much upon her the next Term the fashion may change Now thou art rich let not thy heart dote upon thy riches it is but a fashion a shew it passeth away to morrow thou maist be a begger to day a man to morrow none But if thou wouldest keep the fashion get the fashion of grace get a right to heaven an interest in God and be content in Gods name to follow his fashion If the fashion that God will have thee be in be to be an humble dejected man be content with that fashion if anon
Nation or Kingdom it is an infallible sign of judgement falling upon it And is must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it cometh or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must befall men and places when they are under this carnal security First look to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall do well It proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sin should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they go on in a course of sinning against God Durst they add drunkenness to thirst one wickedness to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that he hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear prepared an Ark. He beleeved the word of God was faithful that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Ark for the safety of him and his house and therefore he feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Ark. So likewise Josiah when he read the book of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sins of the people his heart melted within him and why because he beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sins wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a discription of a beleever in Isa 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what is the reason why infidelity doth presently bring judgements upon men The cause is apparant infidelity it draweth men from God An unbeleeving heart departs from the living God And when a man departs from Gods presence God pursueth him with his judgments All the judgements of God are upon that place where Gods presence in his graces is not If I go faith David to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there if I go into the deep thou art there And how there Not only as an observer but as a punisher that is when men come to this point to flie from God Now unbeleef is a drawing of the soul from God to the creature therefore it provokes God for it sets up an Idol in the heart of man and Idolatry exceedingly provokes God and therefore he bringeth judgements upon it Beside that marke the threatning of the word against this Deut. 29. When a man heareth the words of this curse and blesseth himself and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart the Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the plagues that are written in this book shall be heaped on him When is that when is the time that the wrath of God shall smoak At that very time and instant when he flattereth himself with his vain conceits that he shall have peace though God threaten judgement then at that very instant the wrath of God shall fall upon such a man In this manner did God deal with the Israelites in Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and why so that they may see and not perceive that they may hear and not understand lest they should be converted and I should heal them How long shall this be saith the Prophet till the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate When God giveth over a people to be regardless in hearing the Word that they hear and do not hear ken they hear and do not regard they do not comforme and reform according to the doctrine delivered then God intendeth to sweep them away by judgement that they may be utterly left desolate as the Text saith You see then it must needs be a grievous fore-runner of a judgement upon a place or City or people or nation when they remain impenitent in their sins and yet cry peace Again secondly If you marke the concommitants what accompanies that carnal security in the heart of men and it will appear then that it must of necessity bring a judgement upon a Land and place What is that that accompanies it A disposition slighting of God himself When a man I say heareth the Word the judgements threatned heareth the Law warning him to take heed of wrath the Gospel alluring him to repent and yet all moveth him not but still he flattereth himself I say here is a disposition slighting God himself God in all his Attributes is slighted His power his wisdom his justice his truth is slighted yea his mercy and patience and long-suffering all are slighted when a man in the course of sin goeth on in carnal security Especially amongst the rest this is a slighting of Gods patience and long-suffering and forbearance of men Wherefore do men harden themselves against exhortation to repentance but because they presume upon the continuance of Gods long-suffering toward them Mark how the Lord takes notice of this The forbearance and long-suffering the goodness and mercy of God should lead thee to repentance and therefore God hath forbore thee all this while that he might bring thee to repentance But what if he do not Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart heapest up as a treasure to thy self wrath against the day if wrath What day is that The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if he should say Now you obscure Gods justice and righteousness from others and from your selves Well God therefore will take a time to declare his righteous judgement for that purpose God hath a day of wrath and thy daily going on in sin against the long-suffering and patience of God it doth but add wrath to that day Thus it is when God hath borne with a man his own self So it is likewise when God warneth a man by his patience toward others What hardneth men in security Do we not see God hath been merciful to many sinners why may he not be so to me too He gave them repentance after many sins committed why may he not do so to me Mark what Solomon faith Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer or an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in
of God to please him in all things the neglect of those purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardness Again it lettethin Sathan When the unclean spirit is driven out he goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last be returneth from whence he went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himself Alas how many men are there that for a sit in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sin they have grown secure and careless and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleep was in a spiritual slumber and Christ goeth away She seeks him whome her soul loved but she could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleep their hearts it may be are awake but they walk not with that watchfulness and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thank themselves Christ hath hid himself to teach them to be more watchful And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgments You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their security And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his coming and therefore he eats and drinks with the drunken what is the issue of it He shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held down with secure thoughts of Gods displeasure and thinks it is at peace with God it is an evident sign that wrath is a coming Nay beloved in that measure you are in carnal security in that measure you are under wrath let that therefore be enough to awaken you and say thus with your selves It were better for me a great deal to be among the number of those that complain and are mourning Christians then to be in the number of those that are full of jollity and joviality that rejoyce and sport themselves that put far from them the evil day I might then escape the wrath of God as they do Who are they that escape wrath See in Ezekiel 9. Those that were awake when others slept those that mourned when others laughed those that humbled themselves before God when others hardned themselves those were the men that were marked in the forehead by the Angel and they escaped And in the third of Malachie Those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name in those evil times that spake oft one to another there was a book of remembrance of them and they are Gods jewels he will be sure to keep them safe But how shall we come to be awakened I should have told you some helps for this I will but touch upon a few in a word First I will propound sobriety as a main help Would you be watchful and kept from spiritual slumber take heed that you keep your selves sober I speak not of sobriety as it is opposed to drunkenness though that be one thing Be not filled with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the holy Ghost Ephes 5 As if he should say you cannot be filled with the holy Ghost and with excess of Wine persons that take liberty in excessive drinking certainly they are destitute of the holy Ghost and so of life and salvation But I mean a further sobriety that is as it is opposed to worldly-mindedness Take heed that you plunge not your selves too much in the world and worldly pleasures and cares for these are against the rule of sobriety Be sober in your diet in your apparel in your gaining in your spending in your mirth in your company in every thing that is moderate your selves and your affections in these things A man may soon grow to such a drunkenness by excesse in worldly affections that he may be in a dead sleep neglecting Gods judgements and his own estate as we see men that plunge themselves in worldly business are It takes away the thoughts of those things that concern our spiritual good I say not that you should leave off the business of the world for every man must continue in the calling that God hath set him But I say moderate your affections to the things of the world Do worldly business with heavenly minds in obedience to God Do them with waking hearts to repent for the sins of your callings to avoide the sins of your callings And that that I say of labouring in your callings I say of pleasures and of every thing else we should be watchful and sober as S. Peter saith Be sober and watch Secondly if you would be free from security which is a forerunner of judgement be sure to keep your selves in exercise A man that would keep himself awake will busie himself in some exercise and imployment or other What exercise should a Christian use The exercise of grace and of the duties of obedience Be sure to keep your selves in the exercise of all the advantages that God giveth you in your lives to imploy your graces in In difficulties and straits exercise your faith In provocations to anger and discontent exercise meekness In crosses and troubles and afflictions exercise patience In the miseries and wants of others whether spiritual or corporal exercise mercy And what I say concerning grace I say concerning duty Keep your selves in the exercise of prayer and reading and meditation and conference some one thing or other some holy employment or other that may keep the soul waking For I tell you you shall find that whensoever you let fall spiritual exercise you will at that very instant fall into carnal security in some kind or other Thirdly would you keep your selves from this dead sleep of carnal security then keep your spirits in fear Sorrow and grief makes a man heavy but sear keeps a man waking when Jacob feared Esau he kept a watch that night Sampson feared the Philistims and it wakened him out of his sleep Fear makes a man watchful You may perceive it in your own experience In that measure that the fear of God prevaileth security is expelled Keep fear therefore Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart falleth into evil Mark how he opposeth the hardning of a mans self in carnal security to the fear of God Keep your heart in a constant feare Reason thus Alas shall I do this thing and sin against God
we carry in our bosomes The Divell is a Serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome We carry it with us where ever we go It is a con-natural concorporate Enemy All our other enemies could do us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemy that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who ever thou art there is no Enemy like thy self thy self is the worst enemy of all All the sparks that slie out of Sathans engines could never sindg a hair of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the winds that blow in the four corners of the world could not make shipwrack of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soul and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not what the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemy and had an eye upon him to do him mischief How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach me thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemy That is one thing I have to note Again another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemy then in all probability it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment it is I told ye before He is the General of the Army And beloved beleeve it the Divel is very politick and subtile in marshalling his forces he will not place his best Souldiers in the forefront of the battel but keeps them in the Reare he puts them behind that when all the rest have wearied and tired us they should set on us afresh He is so cunning a disputant that he reserveth the best arguments for the last A cunning Gamester that plaies his best play at the last A cunning Archer that shoots his best shaft at the last So since Death is the last Enemy it is like to be the sorest Now the sorer we are like to find him the carefuller we should be to arme against him alwayes to put our selves in a readiness that whensoever he cometh he may find us weaponed that if it were possible we might be alwayes doing as if we were dying it being the height of the perfection that any soul can attain to as the heathens themselves well obierved for a man to spend every day as if it were his last day That is one reason why the Apostle here calleth Death the last Enemy because the last is like to be the worst Again another reason As it is the last by which we are assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed That the Apostle principally meant here as Interpreters commonly understand it when he saith the last enemy that shall be Destroyed is Death he meant that Death is the Enemy that shall be destroyed last And this leadeth me to the last point I propounded to speak of That Death is an enemy and the last enemy and at last shall be destroyed It shall be destroyed that is one thing Who undertakes the doing of it Our selves In likelihood Death is more likely to destroy us then we it But as it is said of the seven-sealed book in the Revelation when there was none in heaven or in earth or under the earth that was able to open it the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the book So the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevaileth to destroy this enemy that none in heaven or in earth or under the earth but only he is able to destroy He saith of him as David of Goliah when he defied the host of Israel and all men ran away Let no mans heart fail him So saith the son of David The Lord of David let no mans heart fail him I will go to fight with yonder Philistim Oh Death I will be thy death It is spoken in the person of Christ whom Saint Peter calleth the Lord of life He subdueth all Enemies and it is he that will destroy Death he will not leave him till he have trod him under foot But when will Christ do this We see Death playes the Tyrant still it killeth and spoyleth as fast as it did his sickle is in every ones harvest as fast as the corn grows up he cuts it down he leaveth not an ear standing How long Lord how long before this that the Apostle tells us of will be At last His meaning is at the general day of the Resurrection when the end of the world shall come then Christ shall destroy him And he bringeth it in the rather to assure the Corinths of that that some of them doubted of namely that there should be a Resurrection For unless the dead should arise how can Death be destroyed But Death shall be destroyed therefore it is out of question that the dead shall rise again But what comfort have we in the mean time if Death be not destroyed till then if till then it play the domineering Enemy No not so neither We have comfort enough in that that Christ hath already done Though it be not already destroyed yet it is already subdued It is not only subdued but disarmed and not only so but captivated and triumphed over He subdued it when he died in suffering death he overcame Death he beat him in his own ground at his own weapons in his own hold he disarmed him When he rose again then he spoyled him of his power and took his weapons away and triumphed over him in the open field When he ascended into heaven then he carried those spoils with him in token of conquest as Sampson took the Gates of Gaza on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill Christ by Death took the sting of Death away by his Resurrection he took the strength of Death away by his Ascension he took away the hope of Death for ever conquering or prevailing more finally at the last Judgement he will take away the name and Being of Death so that it shall never be more remembred but mortality shall be swallowed up of life I Christ hath done this for himself perhaps but what is this to us Nay Christ hath done it not only for his own victory but he hath given us victory he is not only a conqueror but he hath made us conquerors thanks be unto God that hath given us victory In a word Christ hath and will do by Death as he doth by our sins he hath subdued them already at the last he will utterly destroy them sin and Death both of them are already subdued at last they shall be abolished and destroyed that they
avenge our blood on those that dwell upon the earth All the Saints departed their souls cry to God to finish these dayes of sin and hasten the coming of Christ And besides this this further benesit we have that we are all members of the same body there is a gathering under one Head as the Apostle calleth it under Christ they are the superiour members we the inferiour all joyned under one common Head Lastly the Saints on earth have interest one in another by vertue of this communion they have interest in the prayers in the gifts in the wealth one of another sofar as necessity and love requireth Fifthly and lastly as in earthly Cities and Corporations there is trading and traff quing buying and selling c. So here this heavenly conversation consisteth in a kind of heavenly traffique as the word importeth We either are all or should be all heavenly merchants even here upon earth The kingdome of heaven is compared to a treasure hid in a field which when a man findeth he hideth it and for joy departeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field It is compared to a Pearl which when a man descrieth the excellency of it he giveth all that he hath to possess that Pearl There is a heavenly thing that is worth all that we can give and it must be bought too It is our Saviours counsel come buy of me yea come buy wine and milk without money without price It must be bought but bought without money there is nothing that is subject to corruption that can buy heavenly things Buy of me eye-salve that you may see and gold that you may be made rich and garments that your nakedness may not appear This must be bought but what must we give for it Christ tels us he saith that he himself is the Pearl the treasure and that which we must give for him is no more but this Let a man deny himself and take up his cross and then follow him He must deny his worldly pleasures his carnal affections the love of his lusts he must renounce his sins If thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee What is that that a man should dismember himself No such matter What then To do that which a man accounteth as harsh a peece of work as to pluck out his eye or cut off his hand that is to mortifie his carnal affections to part with his sweetest lusts which a man holdeth as dear and sets as high a rate upon as on his right hand or his right eye there should he no sin so precious no gain so sweet no pleasure so delightful but a man should be willing to let it for Christ there should be no worldly thing whasoever that a man should so set his heart upon but if persecution for the Gospel should come he should be contented to leave it for Christ and in the mean space to let his affections hang loose to it that whensoever Christ shall call him to part with his estate with his contentments with himself he may let all fall for his sake and the Gospels This is the heavenly traffique of a Christian I might here lay down some tryals by which men may be able to judg of themselves in this particular whether their conversation be in heaven I will instance but in some generals because I hasten to that I principally intend See how thy affections stand such as is a mans mind such is the man such as is a mans affection such is his conversation a heavenly affection argueth a heavenly conver sation a heavenly conversation presupposeth a heavenly affection for it is impossible for any man to walk in a heavenly course but he that is of a heavenly mind It sheweth the errour of those men that think that that pitch of holiness and careful walking with God in newness of life is too strict a point to be pressed what say they will you have us to be Saints are we not men shall we not have infirmities still Yes that thou wilt when thou hast done what thou canst But here is the thing What is the bent of thy heart what is the strength of thy mind what is the endeavour of thy whole man which way are thy affections carried What dost thou mourn for most what dost thou rejoyce in most what dost thou hope for most According to thy affections so will thy labour and endeavour be A heavenly heart sorroweth most for sin a heavenly affection rejoyceth most in Christ Many say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us thou hast given me more joy of heart then they had when their corn and wine and oyle abounded A heavenly affection hopeth most for heaven and that not so much that thereby he way be released from worldly troubles as that he may be possessed of those heavenly joyes that are to be had in the presence of God and in a perfect communion with him that he may be freed from sin and fully brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And this is that which stirreth him up with all industry and endeavour and carrieth him along mainly and chiefly to seek after not the wealth and honour and pleasure of the world but how he may get into the Covenant of grace and an interest in Christ how he may attain evidences of heaven and testimonies of the love of God He speakes of heaven as the worldly man speaks of the world A worldly man speaks of the world and the world heareth him faith Christ every table ringeth of his worldly talke every company soundeth of his worldly affections in every meeting he sheweth his worldly disposition So a heavenly-minded man is alwayes talking of heavenly things alwayes labouring to draw heavenly uses out of earthly things let crosses come he can draw comforts from thence he makes them means to take off his heart from the world to set it more toward heaven as Noahs Arke the more the waters increased the neerer it was raised to heaven so a heavenly man the more worldly crosses come the higher his soul riseth toward heaven the worldly man sinketh under afflictions but he is lifted up neerer to Christ This is a heavenly conversation But I will not stand on this The second thing which I told you was observable from the first part of the Text was this That in this very life the children of God are stated in a heavenly condition Our conversation is now in heaven faith the Apostle When a man is brought by repentance and faith unto Christ he is brought into a heavenly state actually possessed of heaven And that in two respects In respect of right and title In respect of possession First in respect of right and title and that also first in respect of
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
the Gospel and you shall prove your selves to have begun to have kept Christ saying if you be thankful for his making of it known unto and for writing of it in your hearts This is the first Vse Next I beseech you let me take boldness to reprove I fear a great number of you of a sin whereof I will make it appear you are guilty Men there are that make large promises to themselves that they shall never be damned they shall not go to Hell they hope Death shall not have power to dragg them from this world to the place of darkness Thou hopest so Come render a reason of thy hope To hope without a ground is to deceive ones self with extream folly As for example there are a number of prisoners in New-gate or in some other Prison should they hope for some man of great wealth to pay their debts and save them from hanging should they not be arrant fools to hope except they could shew some ground for their hope and some evidence for their expecting of such a kindness Thou that hopest thou shall never see Death come answer God in thy conscience dost thou keep the saying of Christ or no Where is the knowledge of the Doctrine of the Gospel Dost thou beleeve that which concerns thee touching thy misery and so apply that to thy self to make thee a penitent sinner Dost thou beleeve the Doctrin concerning the Remedy and so apply that to thy self to make thee perfect thy repentance by being not only grieved for sin but taking boldness to confesse it and ask pardon and by framing thy self in thankfulness to amendment of life and new obedience Dost thou I say know this Doctrine and so know it as to practise it Hope and spare not the more thou hopest the better thy hope is the stronger and surer it is the more thou glorifiest God and the more it shall comfort thee But oh unhappy man if thou findest not in thy self the care and power in some measure to do these things cursed be thy hopes because they be disgracefull to Almighty God tending to make him a lyar and an unjust person and because they are dangerours to thy own soul tending to rock thee asleep in the cradle of security Cursed be those unsound and sandy-built hopes of most men that never yet applied themselves to confesse and lament their sins that never applied themselves to crave pardon and to resolve upon amendment that never studied to throw themselves into the Armes of Gods mercy in Christ for pardon that never intended to mortifie the deads of the body and to subdue the flesh with the lusts thereof and yet they hope they shall not be damned thou maist as well hope that the Divel shall come out of Hell into Heaven as thou to go out of earth into Heaven If thy hope be not grounded upon the workings of these graces because thou findest thy self penitent because thou findest thy self careful to strive to rest wholly upon Christ for salvation because thou findest thy self industrious in the study of newness of life except I say thy hope be thus grounded it is the vainest thing in the world and it will never do the good at the last hour Brethren give me leave to tell you that there are two Gospels in the world the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Belzebub as I may call it the Gospel of the Divel that comes from Hell and tendeth to bring men thither Christs Gospel is Repent and beleeve and obey and be saved The Divels gospelis say you beleeve make your selves imagine that you have faith and then never care for repentance and obedience and you shall be saved Christs Gospel is summed up thus by the Prophets Return to him and live But the Divils goeth thus Assure thy self thou shalt live though thou care not for repentance Oh let not the Divel beguile you with that false and counterfeit Gospel of his whosoever leaneth to it shall find it like the Authour of it a Lyar and when he hath trusted to it that confidence and hope of his shall be as the Spiders web the Beesome of destruction shall sweep it and him down to the depth of Hell Death shall have dominion over him and carry him from this present world to the region of darkness into eternal torment he shall see Death in the grimness and terribleness of it he shall feel it in all the extremity that the wrath of God can inflict upon the children of disobedience Thirdly I have to command and require you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you apply your selves to a thing tending so much to the honour of him and to the commodity and comfort of your own souls I have shewed you that Jesus Christ hath revealed a way how you should escape the danger of Death eternal and the hurt of Death natural I beseech you now fall a doing one while as you have been busied in hearing To what purpose is it that you flock to hear Sermons and throng to receive the Word except you lay it up in your hearts and apply your selves to practise If thou hast not begun before now begin if thou hast begun before now resolve to proceed with more life and courage Either begin or persist in the practise of the Doctrine of the Gospel If thou hast not repented I require thee in the name of the living God to make this hour the first beginning of thy repentance and apply thy self to lay the foundation of that work before thou lay thy head to sleep Go and call to mind thy sins and make thy cheeks wet at least thy heart heavy for the multitude of thy great offences down on thy knees in thy Closet make thy confession of them to God sigh for them mourn for them labour to weep for them afflict thy soul with great sorrow and remorse then cry for pardon and remission as the thiese begs at the bar for mercy so do thou for the forgiveness of thy sins through Christ Jesus and put upon thy self a firm resolution and stedfast purpose to go on no more in the wayes of wickedness to practise grosse sins no more nor no more to allow any sin that thou knowest to be a sin though it be never so small Doe thus my brethren and then you may and will it will follow almost of it self rest on Christ for salvation He that so seeth his own sins as unfeignedly to lament for them and to judge himself before God if he apprehend the truth of the Doctrine of the Gospel he cannot for his life but come on amain and throw himself down before Christ to imbrace and receive and entertain him and lie in his Bosome And that man cannot for his life when he seeth the sweetness of the grace of God in Christ but resolve to obey him and determin to walk in the wayes of holiness and take pains and use industry for the
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
mad merrimemt he is a mad man that rejoyceth in that for which except he betake himself to serious and bitter mourning he cannot be saved Thirdly the inordinateness of the joy of young men may appear in this because they rejoyce excessively in lawful things for any joy when it is inordinate and excessive it is carnal It is lawful to rejoyce in recreations a whetting is no letting as the Proverb goeth But for a man to let out himself to the hinderance of the service of God to the disturbance of his duty to men it is unlawful It is lawfull to delight in the blessings and comforts of God that he affordeth us we read of the Joy of harvest in Isa 9. But for a man to delight in the gifts of God more then in the giver it is unlawfull Now if young men examine themselves they shall find their hearts mount not up to God in their joy and jollity and that they are excessive in the joy of the creature but altogether cold without joy of the Creatour Fourthly the carnalness of the Joy of young men may well appear in this because they terminate and conclude not their joy in God This followeth on the former for it is impossible that what beginneth not in God should end in God Now when Joy beginneth in sin it cannot end in God but in the Divel Secondly let young men take notice of themselves how they walk after their own hearts The heart that saies Come put away pensive thoughts trouble not your self about the day of reckoning and Judgement enjoy the time present what need this strictness of conversation zeal is but rashness there is no need of it take thy sill of pleasures thou hast goods laid up for many years Thus they Judge and thus they walk after their carnal heart This heart is as no heart as we read of Ephraim in Hosea 7. He was a silly dove that had no heart Certainly the heart that doth not guide men in the right way and direct men to the fear of God it is no heart For as the eye that will not lead us in the right way that performs not its office is no eye so the heart that leadeth not men to God and to goodness it is like the heart of Ephraim it is as no heart Again in the third place Let young men take notice of themselves how they walk after the sight of their eyes That is they stand gazing on things temporal and neglect things eternal they see a beauty and lustre in these outward things and perceive no glory and brightness in Christ Jesus and in his precious Ordinances Beloved if we follow our own heart and our own eyes it will be thus We should rather labour with Job to make a covenant with our eyes Oh how few young men are there that make a bargaine and agreement with their eyes that they Oh how few young men are shall not be as open Casements to let sin into the soul there that like Jeremy have their eyes as fountains of water to weep day and night for the afflictions of the people of God Oh how few yonng men are there that with Moses have an eye to the recompence of reward that they may suffer affliction with the people of God rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Now I beseech you take a survey of your selves in these things These are the vices and sins and deformities of young men to be seen and lamented by all those that hope to dwell in Gods holy Hill The second use of this point is for exhortation to young men they should labour to be reformed in their affections and hearts And away away with this carnall joy we ought to cast it out of us Carnal Joy will you know what the event of it will be It will end in carnal sorrow and without repentance in hell it self Wo unto you faith our Saviour Christ that laugh now you shall weep and mourn The triumphing of the wicked saith Zophar in Job is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish as his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is be He shall fall away as a dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night But not to give you this only in Precept but also to shew you how to reform your selves in these vices that Solomon speciâ—…eth bo bear sway in young men let me lay you down these few directions First you must betake your selves to mourning for you sins as Saint James saith Be afflctied and weep and mourn let your laughter be turned into heaviuess If we be not reconciled to God if we have not assurance that we are interested in Christ there is no time for us to rejoyce we should rather betake our selves to bitter mourning for the wrath of God is due unto us and we know not how soon it may fall upon us In the second place Consider how vain all things are in which youthfull persons rejoyce If young men rejoyce in human wisdome and understanding this is a vain thing For first it is gotten with a great deal of trouble and vexation of spirit so faith Solomon Eccles 1.13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith And verse 18. in much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledg increaseth sorrow God doth so punish the pride and boldness of the wit of men even from the fall of our first Parents Secondly this human wisdome it must needs be a vain thing for Eccles 1.15 that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred by human wisdome The meaning is this that the natural wisdome of man cannot supply the defects of nature which are innumerable much lesse can it furnish the soul with grace or salvation Thirdly it is but vexation of spirit Solomon though he had gotten wisdome and understanding and had experience more then all the Kings of Jerusalem that were before him yet faith he Behold this is vexation of spirit Again God will abolish this human wisdome 1 Cor. 1.19 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdome of this world Besides all your human wisdom it shall not go down to to the Grave it shall leave you when you die There is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest Eccles 9.10 This is the first thing in which young
in this out of these cases to have such a taste of God such a relish of the joyes of heaven such a longing after the presence of Christ as not to be ready but to be willing not to be prepared for the stroak of death but to be desirous of it to esteem of death as the funeral of sin the interring of vice the period of miseries the Charter of freedome the Pattent of exemption from evil of sin from evil of punishment the day of our birth the season of harvest the seal of our victory the heaven of our happiness our introduction into heaven our inauguration into a kingdome the Chariot of our triumph the day of our return to our proper house to our Parents to our best friends This is the affection which is required in us at which we ought to aim Let this house of clay be resolved into the principles of the same what wonder if that which is built be thrown down and that which is compounded be resolved and that which was borrowed of the Elements be repayed again and that which was taken from the earth be committed to the custody of the earth Nay let me triumph in the resolution of this peece of clay into the exilest atome and admire the counsel of God that this Carkass is crumbled into the smallest dust and sifted into the coursest bran even to dust and ashes were not this body resolved into dust who would beleeve his original to be from the earth what pride what elevation would follow what carking and caring for this earthly Tabernacle if now when we see it to be but a spawn of worms and the food of Emmits there is such immoderate excess what would there be if the body were exempted from putrifaction what desolations would follow in Cities in Towns how many would dwell in monuments with those whom they have honoured or affected in their lives if many now be so impotent that though the body be putrified they cannot forbear imbracing of it and to solace themselves make Pictures of their dead friends and dote upon these what would they not do if their bodies were immortal What neglect would there be of the soul the better part of a man who would know the vertue of it that it is not only salt to the body to keep it sweet but the life the beauty the comliness of the body Who would beleeve the consummation the period of the world if our bodies were immortal who would mind heavenly things who seek those things that are above what deifying of the body would follow what Idolatries what superstitions what Temples built what Alters erected what variety of Ceremonies instituted to the body All which God hath pluckt up by the roots by this putrifaction and incinneration of our bodies by this teaching us to contemn earthly things to have our cogitations on heaven to think upon this scale to ascend up to this Mount to aspire to this intention which that we may let me add fuel to the fire and oyle unto the flame the expression of this aflection to the intention of it earnest groaning to eager desiring In this we groan earnestly That is for this we sigh out not our breath but our spirits we groan out not fuliginous vapours but our very hearts we weep not tears but bloud for this we immolate the sufferings of our bodies and macerate them with watchings and fastings we roul them in dust and ashes we exercise them in all humiliation and repentance And this is to groan earnestly in my Text. This is the negotiation of the outward man whereby it treads for heaven this is the conversation of a piece of clay into a pile of frankincence this adds wings unto our Prayers this openeth the ears of God this dissipateth the clouds of his countenance this inclineth him to clemency towards us this maketh the Widdow continent and the Virgin unspotted this lifts up the voluntary Eunuch to the kingdome of heaven this perfects the grace that is in the soul this washeth away the stains and contaminations that are in the soul this is the beauty and comeliness of a Christian How lovely were the Ninivites how glorious was the King in sackcloth sitting in his throne of dust and ashes what were his Robes of Majesty and Royalty to these ornaments they might dazle the eyes of the body for a time these dazle the eyes of the mind even at this day after so many hundred years they might procure him honour with men these made him honoured by God himself Let corporal eyes look upon an abject and mean appearance of a King in these weeds yet do not spiritual eyes see through these garments Humility Patience submission fear of God and the like and are there any Jewels like unto these what are those garments which are the labour of a worm to these robes that are the works of Gods Spirit What is a chain of Pearl to a chain of warm and successive tears beaten out of the rocks of a broken and contrite heart they may adorn the body this adorns the soul and which is more binds the hands of God himself Let whose will admire the victories and triumphs of David over the enemies of Israel which are indeed worthy of admiration I admire him in his watchings and fastings and sackcloth by them he overcame flesh and bloud by these he overcame God by them he overcame men by these he made conquest of himself by them he enlarged the territories of Israel by these he enlarged the bounds of heaven by them he made Hadadezer fly by these he made the Angel put up his sword and God to reverse his sentence by them he did remove temporal evils by these he did procure everlasting good unto himself and others This is that humiliation which this sacred time requires not abstinence only from meats which pamper this carkess this is not the body of this fast but a vehement intention of religious duties above other times he that prayed twice a-day before let him now do it seven times he that fasted but once in the week let him now do it three times or ostner as his body will permit him though it be to the sickness of the body it is an happy sickness of the body which is the sanctity of the soul he that gave Almes a little let him now double or treble his liberality he that did delight before in recreations let him devote that time to prayer to humiliation do not our sins require this our own sins the sins of others if not our own miseries for which we bless God yet do not the miseries of other Nations the Churches of God require this Do we not now beat our breasts and hang down our heads and rend our hearts and punish our selves for our sins that God may not punish them Did not our sins call upon us for this duty yet is not the sight of God the presence of our Saviour the joyes of Heaven the
the Lord hath taken into his own teaching that they cannot abide the place of the Sun-shine the place where the Sun of the light of grace shines they remove themselves from it they absent themselves upon any occasion as if a man should set himself to run from the light of the Sun So likewise do we not see that men cannot abide the society of godly men of religious men fearing God that deal truly with them in exhortations and admonitions and loving rebukes c. They will none of this So do we not see how ready and willing natural men are to chase away if it were possible all the Lords Cocks and all his servants that they might not cry against their sins that they might not awaken them nor come neer them They are set so fast asleep that they cannot abide any servant of God And for the ministery of the Law which Jeremie calls as a Hammer to break the hard heart and to knock and rap the sleepy soul it is an intollerable thing they cannot endure this hammer they cannot abide these doggs that bark against their sins whereas dumb doggs that can neither bark nor bite those they can like well enough Somewhat they would have they are content with a formal fashion but these men that speak against their sins that discover their estate in sin these they cannot endure Now tell me if these men live not in a carnal sleep and are found in the Cell and Cave of darkness wherein they desire to sleep for ever To come from these in the second place let us consider that not only these natural men and worldlings are cast into a dead sleep but would not a man marvel that even Christians should sometimes be cast a sleep Would not a man wonder that the Disciples of Christ that were so neer to the side of their Master that were following their Masters exhortation in the former Precept that he taught them that were so neer temptation that the yoak was even upon their neks would not one think it a wonder that they should not watch one hour with Christ Therefore Brethren let us take notice of our security much more that are infinitly behind the Disciples in grace let us rate our selves for the heaviness and dulness of our hearts But because we are Baptized and hear Sermons c. we can make no man beleeve that he is asleep Therefore let us try and consider whether those that hear the Word and are Professors of the life of grace those that are already awakened be not in such a fearful slumber as may well be called asleep First of all therefore this is one mark of a man that is asleep he hears not he understands not the things that are spoken to him so it is a mark of a sleepy heart and conscience when a man hears not nor understands the word that he doth hear when he hears not that which is spoken It is one Judgement upon wicked men the Book of God is clasped to them such a man reads and hears and discerns not If the Book be open his heart is clasped fast he takes no good by it And this is not the least part of the misery upon the Saints that this book is not so open to them nor they do not so understand it nor discern that which is in it as they might We hear the word many of us many times and we seem to receive it but yet who is he that may not find in himself that the sleep and security of his mind and soul makes him not much to attend and regard it that he is not careful and industrious in the keeping and maintaining of that he hears and the framing himself according to it And so it comes to pass that it is with Gods word that we hear as it is with Physick when it is given to a man that is dead it works not or when he sleeps immediately upon it so when we hear the word of God and fall into a sleep upon it into the sleep and sluggishness of earthly cares the Word is unprofitable if works not that effect that else it would Again a man that sleeps you shall know it by this he doth not mind his ordinary business he neither troubles his head nor his hands with it his business sleeps with himself he doth nothing but sleep while he is asleep he can do nothing else So hereby we may know our selves to be in a marvellons sleep of sin when we give not our serious thoughts to God and to the practice of piety and godliness it is an argument of sleep and slumber in us The mind of man should intend the principal thing for which God hath put us in the world when we give not our thoughts to God and mind not the things of Gods Kingdom it is a sign we are asleep When we move not nor stir not our hands and our feet in the wayes of Gods Commandements as we should it proceeds from this sleepiness and drowsiness Whereas would we be wise for our selves and awake as we should We should neither be idle nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord. We should ever be doing somewhat that might glorifie God and further our own reckoning But this is a signe of a sleepy person in the main and principal things his heart is not upon them his hands and feet move not in the wayes of God he works not to the principal end for which he came into the world Thirdly you shall know a sleepy man by this he knows not of the passing of the time but so much time as he sleeps he wastes it is as the time of death to him for what is sleep but the shadow of death Even so it is with many of us that profess the teaching of Grace Alas how do we waste time insensibly and pass away the time some deck away the time some play away the time dayes and weeks and months together as if time were not made for some other business as if we had received time for such imployments as these for our recreations and sports and pleasures and not rather that we might further our Repentance and our Reckoning and help the servants of God and get Oyl in our Lamps and Faith in our Souls and patience against the time of trouble and get assurance of a blessed inheritance when we shall be turned out hence Time is given us for these ends and yet we silly men as we are devise pastimes to our selves as if our life did not pass away whereas Job saith it is as a Weavers shuttle Let us consider Brethren time will pass that we may improve it and not waste our time Fourthly and lastly to conclude this Point a man that is addicted immoderately to sleep you shall know it by this it destroyes natural heat and that being destroyed by immoderate sleep as by a sudden mighty shower this man grows pursie and fat and lazy he
therefore he cannot but with amazement and fear continually tremble before God and he desires if it were possible that there were no God at all that he might never be called to account for his doings But now the child of God a faithful Abraham that is in covenant with God he may in the middest of all evils lift up his head with joy and comfort even when wicked men are at their wits end and know not whether to turn themselves It is I say a point needful to urge in these times wherein we hear abroad of wars and rumors of wars and so many distractions and what they feel we have cause to fear but now it is seasonable at this time when we see the King of fears act his part before our eyes he that the Philosophers call the most terrible of all terribles that is Death that tends to the extirpation and abolition of nature in regard of our being here I say there cannor be a better argument treated of then somewhat that may fence us against the fear of this evil Now for the opening of this point First consider what fear is And then what fear a Christian should be freed from And then how it comes to pass that a Christian is exempted from all slavish and inordinate fear And then come to make some Use of it to the present occasion First that we may know the point the better let us consider what fear is in general And fear beloved is such An affection or passion of the soul that is stirred up with a through apprehension of some future evil that is very difficult to be resisted by the party or patient It is an affection or passion of the soul for it makes a real transmutation in the man It is such an affection as is stirred up with the apprehension of evil for evil is properly the object of fear we do not primarily fear any thing that is good axcept the loss of it and it is ill to lose any good thing Again it is evil future for if the evil be present we grieve and not fear And it is such an evil as is difficult and hard to resist an overcome with patience for if it be a small evil that is easily conquered you contemn it you fear it not You see then what fear is in general Is all fear prohibited Not the fear of God c. Fear is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kinds of fear First natural fear and that is called natural either in regard of the material or efficient cause When the party that doth fear is phlegmatick or melancholly and so is naturally inclined to fear this may be called a natural sear Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the fear of death it is natural to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this natural fear is an affection that Almighty God concreated with the soul it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evil but according as it is determined by circumstances Again there is a carnal evil fear namely when a man fears the evil of punishment more then the evil of sin a corporal evil more then a spiritual a temporal more then an eternal He is afraid of losing something he enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnal fear as I shall explain it to you more anon and this so far as it is carnal is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile fear and this is such a fear as looks at the punishment only and not at the sin when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never fears sin that is the cause of it And so withal when this fear is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sin there is a love of sin a wishing that God would give him leave to sin and let loose the reins to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor Hell that he might sin were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor hell that he might sin freely And if he abstain from sin at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sin and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile fear though in it self it be not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that fears servily he doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as far as it goes It is good for the restraining of evil men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filial son-like fear that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatness and especially of the goodness of God whereby a man so hates punishment as he hates sin also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filial fear One degree we call innitial fear in this World And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the fear we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to do that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstain from evil out of the fear of punishment For answer briefly And thing almighty God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to do well or to deter us from evil we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we do so we do well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propounded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstain from the forbidden fruit partly out of fear of punishment If Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evil we may have an eye to the punishment that will be the consequent of the thing for Christ urgeth this to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill the body c. And to do things meerly without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stir us up to avoid evil and it is well if we can heartily and truly out of love to God do it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a fear meerly for punishment and still to retain the love of sin and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstain from sin
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
their profit he heareth them as one well said according to their profit though not according to their wills so he delt with Moses concerning his request of entring into the Land of Canaan Again the Lord is pleased to keep his people many times in a low condition and in mean estate to put them into bare commons and hard pastures while others are grazing in full meddows it is with respect to their profit to teach them the more to depend upon him to enable them the better to live by Faith Again for this purpose he takes from his servants dear blessings the Wife from the Husband the Children from the Parents as we see verified this day in this place concerning our friends here the mournful survivers and attendants upon this sad occasion but in these administrations he intendeth his peoples profit as we may see in the case of Job the Lord takes away all his children but saith the Apostle ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord he was no looser in the conclusion but God returned at length all into his bosome again nay double In a word for this very purpose it is even for their profit for alas it is not Gods own benefit he seeks after but his peoples in all his administrations that they live that they do that they suffer that they die their death is in order to their gain as the Apostle saith to me to live is Christ and to die is gain To make some application of this and so to proceed First let us here take occasion as many as are the called of God according to his purpose and implanted in this glorious relation of children to a father let us learn to advance his name and according to his name let his praise be in all the Congregations of the Saints Truly as Moses said once their Rock is not as our Rock So may we say other fathers are not as this Father our Father is set for the good and profit of his children The devil 〈◊〉 a father so our Saviour speaks you are of your father the devil he hath children and he studieth nothing so much as that they may live all their dayes in pleasure striving to lead his followers altogether in pleasant paths But alas he hath no aim at their profit it is their loss he seeks and therefore at last he makes them pay full dear for all their pleasure and content But now God he is a wise Father and in all his dispensations to his children though they seem for the present unpleasant he hath an aim at their profit Let this be for his praise Secondly let us labour to beleeve this that God in all his dealings and administrations towards us hath an eye to our profit How hard soever the condition be that he putteth us into if he take from us the desire of our eyes the delight of our hearts our liberties our estates our children yet be perswaded of this that God doth it for my good and benefit And thirdly labour to reap the fruit and benefit that God aimeth at and intendeth and would have us receive from all his administrations When we are called together to give attendance upon the preaching of the Word then think what am I come hither for is it not for my profit would God have me trifle out my time surely the Lord would never have singled out a day of seven for himself but that he might likewise make his people partaker of spiritual advantages and heavenly benefits and therefore I lose a day and never hear well except I hear to profit And thus what I say of this Ordinance I might likewise speak of the rest before named And so for this present occasion the Lord now you see is pleased to call us to the house of mourning Was it think ye the purpose of God that we should meet together here in a customary complemental manner to do things in a common garb only to eat together and drink together No the Lord calleth us to a house of mourning for our profit that we might consider the end of all men and that we that are living might lay the thing to heart And for you that are in present distress in regard of this particular affliction reckon upon this that God hath done this for your profit labour ye therefore to reap the fruit of it be not so much poring upon the affliction and altogether complaining of the bitterness of the cup but follow on after the profit and benefit that God intendeth you thereby And let every one labour to improve all administrations of God to this purpose that as he in them all intendeth our good so let us pursue after the benefit Secondly let it instruct us further concerning our duty even to walk worthy of such a God as namy of us as are in relation to him as children to a Father and servants to a Masler How should this first of all win us over to such a Father to such a Master and to make it our highest ambition to be the people of such a God the children of such a Father that is devoted to the profit and advantage of his children and servants This is the gracious goodness of God he takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants their profit is his pleasure Let us therefore walk worthy of such a Father of such a Master And seeing he intendeth our profit and that we cannot profit him let us labour to walk in all well-pleasing We cannot profit him let us labour to please him Lastly here is a word of instruction for Ministers we should in this case as those that are intrusted with the sacred ordinances of God labour to put on the mind of God so the Apostle we have saith he the mind of Christ We in the course of our Ministery as God aimeth at his peoples profit so should we not aim at our own praise and at our profiting by them but that we might profit their souls O blessed preaching when people profit by our preaching when they are by that increased in knowledg in love in faith in every grace Such a Preacher was Saint Paul I please all men saith he 1 Cor. 10. ult but how not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Oh labour to preach profitably that our people may thrive under our ministery This is that which God aimeth at and this is that which we should aim at too And thus I have done with the first and more general proposition arising from the words of the Text. I come now to the second and more particular thing that we are to consider hence and that is that As God graciously setteth himself to procure his peoples profit in all his administrations so this is that he aimeth at in all the afflictions and chastisements he exerciseth them withall It is no pleasure for him to be lashing and
heart and sorrow for sin If earnest and constant prayer unto God If lamenting of youthful miscarriages and the not answering of time and means and opportunities and religious education and that godly care that was exercised in order to his spiritnal welfare and building of him up in the knowledge of God and of Christ If I say the lamenting of the neglect of opportunities of this kind If so be the desire of the prayers of others for him and that out of a sense of his own disability to plead his own cause If so be a gracious communication of God unto him in wayes of comfort in the time of his sickness supporting him under divers pressures and many sore and grievous temptations that lay upon him If so be his setled resolution concerning his spiritual estate and the satisfying of others in many doubts and disquiets of spirit that rose within him If so be the due respect to the Lords day the desire of promoting the sanctifying of it both by himself and others with a continual grief proceeding from a sense of his own disability to answer to the occasion and duties of the day If there be any thing to be concluded of concerning Religion from such passages as these then brethren I have all these as so many materials put into my hand to build withall and so to reare up a testimony before you concerning this disceased And thus in brief have I testified of him and to you all he though dead now speaks but in a more special manner to you that are young men his death and that example we have in him of mortality is as a loud Sermon preached unto you concerning the care you ought to have to bethink your selves in your younger years of the things that concern your spiritual and eternal welfare and how much it concerns you now to give all dilligence to make your calling and election sure Your thoughts it may be are too much upon your patrimony and inheritances your houses and possessions your great estates and your matches that thereby you may as you use to say raise your fortunes too too apt you are to be taken up with these considerations and to pursue thoughts of this nature but you see by this example how God may come and prevent the accomplishment of all these and in that day in that very day all these thoughts will perish death may come marry you to the dust and call you not to your fathers mansions but to the common house appointed for all living where you must say to corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister this was his condition and so may yours be too Therefore you young men remember you your Creatour in the dayes of your youth and know you that God hath provided instructions and counsels in his Word that are directed to young men that they may know how to cleanse their way and to flie the lusts of youth and betimes to begin with God that so whether they live to old age or be cut off in youth they may be gathered to their Fathers in a good and a full age like a Shock of Corn and so receive the blessing of the promise SPIRITUAL HEARTS-EASE OR The VVay to Tranquility SERMON XXXI JOHN 14.1 2 3. 1 Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in God beleeve also in me 2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also IN the 33. verse of the former Chapter our Saviour Christ told his Disciples that he must now go away from them Little children yet a little while I am with you and you shall seek me and as I said to the Jews whether I go you cannot come so say I now to you This message of the departure of Christ from the earth of his being took from them did exceedingly sad their hearts and very much perplex and disquiet their spirits they knew what a comfort they had in the presence of Christ they knew what a faithful Teacher he was what a mighty Protector he had been how gracious and full of Heavenly comfort he had manifested himself to them at all times in his being with them and they could not now think of parting with him without much perplexity and disquiet and trouble of spirit Therefore the words that I have now read are the speech of our blessed Saviour to comfort them strengthening their hearts against those disquiets under which they were exercised In which words you may briefly observe these three things for time will not suffer me to stand much upon them First a duty whereunto they are exhorted Secondly the means whereby it may be performed Thirdly the lets that were to be removed that hindered them in the performance of the duty in the use of these means The duty that is to be performed is in the beginning of the first verse Let not your hearts be troubled The means whereby to perform it in the words following You beleeve in God beleeve also in me The lets and impediments of the performance of it in the use of these means are so many objections and doubts as are wisely prevented by the wisdome of God in the two verses following I shall take them as I come to them in order and but give a brief touch upon every one of them First the duty that is to be performed it is this to stablish comfort their hearts Let not your hearts be troubled The word that is here translated trouble it signifieth such a trouble as is in water when the mud is stirred up or when the waves and surges are raised by some tempest or storm It signifieth such a trouble as is in an Army when the Souldiers are disranked and routed when they are disordered and it shewes thus much that those distempers that are in the hearts of men in the affections of men do exceedingly hinder their judgments that they can see no more nor discern things no better then a man can do in a muddy water All the affections are as so many Souldiers in an Army disordered that keep not their due subordination to their leader and guide by reason that the understanding that should guide the will and affections is now made a servant to them And this distemper of spirit ariseth from the inordinacy of the affections the inordinate motion and agitation of them This is called trouble Let not your hearts be troubled Be not disturbed thus and disquieted and disordered So that no faculty of the soul can perform its own work So as that it is disabled to judge of things according to truth but that you are misled and deluded by mists and appearances It is with the mind in sorrow as it
is with the eye in tears that cannot see a thing clearly so the mind cannot judge of things distinctly when the soul is disturbed Let not your hearts be troubled But that which our Saviour aims at here hath a particular respect to the affections of fear and grief when these are in the excess the mind is troubled when a man over-fears any thing or over-grieves any thing he is troubled and disquieted Let not your hearts be troubled that is grieve not for things more then they are to be grieved for and fear not things more then they are to be feared For all these will dis-joynt the soul as it were it will put the spirit to much pain and disquiet as a bone out of joynt Therefore by all means keep your hearts in a right state in that order that God hath set them Let not your hearts be troubled That that I will briefly note here shall be but thus much that Men are wondrous prone even the very best men to be disturbed in their passions and affeictions Our Saviour Christ speaks it here to his Disciples to those that he had taught before whom he had gone as an excellent example all his dayes yet these holy men these followers of Christ that had followed him through so many dangers and after so many teachings and instructings of them he had need to call upon them to stir them up to consider of their own estate that their hearts might not be troubled You may see the Malady in the Medicine Every prohibition in the word supposeth a corruption and an aptness in the natural heart and spirit of man to sin and transgress in that particular Therefore when Christ speaks to his Disciples and tells them they should not be troubled It shews that even the best men are subject to excess of passion and affection to be disturbed and troubled through immoderate fear or grief for that was the case of the Disciples Now briefly I will shew the grounds of it and come to the Application because I will hasten This trouble that is upon the spirits sometimes of the best men it ariseth Partly from Gods providence and hand upon them And partly from Satan And partly from themselves I will shew you the causes in these particalars and then apply it First it ariseth many times from the hand of God The Lord is said to be a Sun and a shield The Lord will be known to be a Sun and a shield to his people Now look as it is with the earth when the Sun withdraweth his light it is all dark and cold and dead So it is with the hearts of the best men when God withdraws the light of his countenance from the soul it is as the earth at midnight And as it is with Souldiers in the battel if their shields be taken from them they are exposed to every dart and danger every thing may annoy them and wound them So it is in the state of the soul if God withdraw himself from it and do not now support it as before and do not fence and strengthen it as at other times the fiery darts of Satan will pierce deep into the soul and the spirit will not be able to uphold it self against these assaults Now God withdraws himself sometimes from his servants and that in special wisdome In respect either of the time past present to come Sometimes God doth it in respect of the time past and so he doth it by way of correction First to correct his children for their former wantonness they have abused the expressions of love and now as a Father takes away the light from his child when he sees he makes no better use of it then to play with it So God sometime takes away the light of his countenance that is he casts clouds before himself he doth not manifest himself in that loving favour when his servants neglect that reverence and fear that he expects from them in the midst of his mercies Secondly this he doth sometimes as a correction of their negligence when God hath called on them from time to time and they have neglected calling on God he hath called upon them for duty and for the leaving of such particular evils and they have neglected it Now God withdraws himself to make them know what it is to do so And because they will not know what it is to hear his voyce when he calls he will make them feel it by his not hearing their voyce when they pray Sometimes he calls to them as he did to the Church in the Canticles Open to me my sister my Spouse my love c. The Church is negligent and careless I have put off my cloaths how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now he withdraws himself from the soul and what is the the end of it The keepers strike her and the watch-men take away her vail and now she is left to trouble and perplexity because Christ had absented himself whom she would not entertain when he offered himself Thus God doth to correct that that is past And farther God doth it sometimes to correct that carnal considence and security whereunto men are wondrous prone when they go on in a clear way with much comfort with wind and tide I said in my prosperity saith David I shall never be moved thou Lord hast made my mountain so strong but what followeth upon it saith he Lord thou hidest thy face and I was troubled now trouble came upon him trouble of Spirit because he rested too much in that outward mountain in that outward condition whereunto God had exalted him and he placed his hope too much on this and thought it should be alwaies thus now God turns his hand and then David is troubled and that is the first particular in the first cause But secondly God hath a further aim and that is for the time present and that is First to inform all his servants where there strength lies where all their good lies it lies not in themselves it lies not in any creature And therefore God will have them seek it in him and that they may do it he draws them to it by sence they shall be deprived of comfort in respect sometime of outward conveniences and in respect sometime of the light of his countenance shining upon their souls How do we know that the Moon shines on the earth by a borrowed light but because we see it is not alwayes alike in its light we see sometimes it hath a full light and sometimes it is enlightned but by the half and sometimes by some little part where we see this disproportion that it is not alwaies alike we know by this that the light of the Moon is borrowed from somewhat else from the Sun Now how do we know that the heart of man is fed and relieved and supported with comfort from without it self
with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spiritual quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwaies alike but sometime they have abundance of joy that they seem to be as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefs that they seem to be cast down to the deep as it is said of the Marriners in Psal 107. what is the reason of this but that no flesh should glory in it self that every man might know that whatsoever he hath to make his life comfortable and pleasing to him it is from God that dispenseth it to men in that proportion as seemeth good to his own wisdome God will have us know that all the happiness of our spirits is in their union with the chief of spirits with himself and that when they are but a little separated from him when he doth but a little withdraw himself from them they are as a thing that is dead how shall we know that the branches have sap from the root that it is that that makes them flourish and grow but by this If you do but cut them off from the root they whither presently So it is with the spirit with the heart of man if God do but a little withdraw himself let sin but make a separation between God and man now a man is like a withered branch he hath nothing now to revive him because he is divided from the root At the least it is with him as it is with a tree in Winter though the sap remains in the root so though he remain in union with the root yet the moisture is gotten into the root it self and doth not now infuse it self into the branches I confess the servant of God that is once united to Christ shall never be separated the union it is now and alwaies shall be but nevertheless the sap and comfort of the Spirit it may remain in the head our life may be hid in Christ and may not appear in us at all And we are then in that estate as if we were branches cut off whereby it may appear that whatsoever life and comfort and strength of heart we had it was from Christ and by the influence and work of his Spirit And then for the time to come God doth it to prevent some distempers that might grow on the hearts of his servants if they should alwaies be in a like state of spiritual joy God doth it to prevent pride Paul was apt to be lift up with those revelations therefore a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him And so it may be to prevent carnal confidence in the creature a man would begin to ascribe somewhat to himself to his present condition if it were alwaies thus with him you know what the Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.10 We received in our selves the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raised the dead look to what end Paul received the sentence of death to that end Gods faithful servants sometimes receive the very sence of death as it were and the sence of the destitution and want of all spiritual comforts for the present Why That they might not trust in themselves or in those habits of grace and comforts they have or in any creature whatsoever The work of Gods spirit in the regenerate soul it is but a creature a work of God and God will not have men trust in any such thing in what then In him that raiseth from the dead God will bring them to such a state that they shall seem as dead men as destitute of all spiritual comforts they have that they might trust in him that is able to raise them out of such a state as that that look as he is able to give life to the dead body so he is able to give comfort to the distressed soul that is at that time in the shaddow of death Secondly it comes sometimes from Satan and that is thus Satan wonderfully sets himself against the seed of the woman especially against the promised seed Christ he will alway be at his heel Gen. 3.16 and in his opposition against Christ he sets against the very glory of Christ among men and that is his kingdom he would not have Christ exalt his kingdom over men Now the kingdom of Christ consists as the Apostle speaks not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If he cannot keep a Christian a true beleever from unrighteousness he will labour to interrupt his peace if he cannot keep him from the habit of peace peace in the grounds of it yet he will keep him from the exercise and effects of that peace from joy he will hinder that as much as he can that he may not have the sence of his blessedness he knows that spiritual joy strengthens a man to all spiritual duties and his endeavour is to weaken all the servants of Christ in all their services and therefore he doth at least labour against that with all his might that if they will needs go on yet nevertheless to propound and occasion as many things that may be troublesome to them and disquiet their hearts as he can And there are two principal wayes that I may but touch them whereby Satan wondrously prevails in this particular The one is by stealing out of their hearts those precious promises those comforts whereby the Word of God revives the soul You have forgotten saith the Apostle the consolations of God And the devil meets in man with two advantages to help him in the effecting of this First he turns the thoughts upon new objects and herein he doth diametrically and directly set himself against God in the way of his special providence that very thing that God in wonderfull wisdom hath wrought in the heart for the ease and comfort of man Satan makes it an occasion of trouble and that is this the variety of mans thoughts what is the reason that God hath framed the mind of man to change his thoughts continually and to have innumerable thoughts Certainly for the very ease of the Spirit of man for the very ease of the soul of man For if the mind should keep intent upon any one thought long it would so work upon that that it would weary it self out in working as we see men by excess of grief in particular cases grow to be phrensie and destracted and the like Now this aptness of the mind to run to variety of thoughts that God hath made for the ease of man Satan turns it as a help to hurt him A man shall run on into a world of business of temptations and distractions that shall draw him from the thought of those things that he hath heard for the relieving of his Spirit wherein God spake comfort to his heart that he may the better fasten those
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
Secondly by newness of life Thirdly by thy continual progress in both First by thy forsaking of sin whether hast thou left those sins thou formerly livedst in As in the Resurrection of the body as soon as the soul is united to the body presently the man leaves the Grave he leaves the society of the dead and comes forth as Lazarus as soon as he was quickned and his soul returned to his body presently he came forth Vers 44. He that was dead came forth out of his grave Examine therefore whether thou be come forth of the grave of sin whether hast thou left the society of sinners of prophane persons and whether hast thou left the grave of thy sin Is there not some lust some sin that still holds thee captive in this Grave to which thou willingly and wittingly obeyest If thou live in any one known sin if thou be ruled by any one lust whatsoever it be be it swearing or drunkenness or uncleanness or covetousness or lying or open and publike prophaning of the Sabbath I say if thou live in the practice of any of these or the like known sins this is a plain case thou art still in the noysome grave of thy sins thou art not risen out of the grave of thy sins and therefore thou art not quickned by the Spirit of Christ and if thou art not quickned then thou art not a member of Christ thou art not a true Christian Again Secondly thou maist know it by the newness of thy life whether dost thou feel a spiritual life wrought in thee and whether doth it appear outwardly Dost thou feel a spiritual life wrought inwardly that spiritual life that Christ restores to the Soul is universally spread through the whole Soul As when the Soul of a man quickens the body it quickens the whole body every member of it so here the Spirit of Grace quickens the whole Soul Therefore examine whether dost thou find spiritual life wrought in thy whole Soul or no whether dost thou find this change wrought in thy understanding and judgement whether hast thou a new judgement and thoughts and opinion of God and of the wayes of God a new opinion of Christ a new opinion of the Members of Christ Whether dost thou find this change in thy heart and affections whether hast thou new desires new affections spiritual inclinations whether are the studies and desires of thy soul set upon heavenly things If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Collos 3.1 Whether are thy affections and meditations heavenly and spiritual Dost thou feel this change inwardly in thy Soul Again doth this spiritual life appear outwardly also by thy speeches and actions Doth it appear outwardly in thy speeches is there a change there canst thou now speak to men in the language of Canaan and to God in the voice of his Spirit crying Abba Father Again is there a change in thy outward actions hast thou left the society of sinners and dost thou converse with living Christians Dost thou love those that excel in vertue and dost thou manifest the graces of the Spirit in the conscionable performance of all the duties of thy general and particular calling As soon as Lazarus was quickened presently as he left the Grave so he conversed with living men and walked in his Calling so examine if thou have left the society of the dead and converse with living Christians and delight in them and whether thou walk on conscionably in the place that God hath set thee in making the Word of Christ the rule of all thy actions If it be thus with thee if thou feel this spiritual life wrought in thy soul and it appear outwardly in all thy speeches and actions this is a good sign thou partakest of the first Resurrection to the life of Grace In the third place thou maist know this also by thy progress in both these First by the progress of thy Mortification Is sin daily more and more mortified in thee Dost thou daily get ground of thy corruptions Is sin in thee like the house of Saul as that waxed weaker and weaker so doth corruption in thee daily Is sin in thee like an old man as it is in every member of Christ and therefore it is stiled the old man an old man grows weaker and weaker till at the last he dyes so it is with sin in every Christian examine if sin be such an old man in you that it grows weaker daily Again thou maist know it by thy progress in thy vivification Dost thou grow in grace daily Is grace in thee as the house of David as that grew stronger and stronger so doth grace in thee Is grace like a young man as it is in every member of Christ and therefore it is stiled the New man because it is as a young and lusty man that daily grows stronger till he come to his full strength doth grace in thee grow stronger daily and dost thou go forward in thy Christian course It is the duty of a Christian to walk on daily in his Christian course Rom. 6.4 we must walk on in newness of life If thou find this progress in thy mortification and vivification it is a good signe indeed that thou hast attained to the first Resurrection of the Soul to a spiritual life Therefore let me intreat you to set upon this work of examination of your own hearts diligently and faithfully Let not the multitudes of worldly business let not the allurement of vain objects and vain company let not the appetite and desire of base pleasures drive these thoughts out of your heads but examine your own hearts whether you partake of the first Resurrection or no. Deceive not thy own soul for though Conscience may now sleep thou maist think thou art in a good estate yet let me tell thee the time will come when thy Conscience will awake that if thou continue to wallow in any one sin if there be no change in thee in thy life in thy heart if instead of growing better thou grow worse and be hardened more and more in sinful courses thy Conscience will tell thee to thy face thou art a dead man thou hast no part in Christ for Christ is the Resurrection the Fountaine of spiritual life thou hast not yet attained the first Resurrection to the life of grace and therefore if thou go on in this course thou shalt not attaine to the second Resurrection to the life of glory So much for that Vse The third and the last Use of the point is for exhortation and direction If now upon examination thou find that thou hast not yet attained to this spiritual Resurrection then let me counsel thee to give no rest to thy soul till thou hast attained it for remember that this is the first step to heaven and if thou set not the first step to heaven surely thou shalt never come thither As the Resurrection of Christ was the
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
up all the sons of Adam shall be swallowed up it self into victory Till then we shall all go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our several rank and order take our last walk the way of all flesh and it is happy if we go it as Abraham did here in peace and a special blessing if we be gathered as he was to his Fathers in the Autumne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedy the former acted upon his Stage thou shalt go to thy Fathers the latter under the scaffold and be buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better than they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloom of their beauty and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happiness For this cause Joseph of Arimathes is supposed by many to have set his Sepulchre in his Garden as it were to sawce his sweetest pleasures with the sad thoughts of his Funeral and John surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Consecrated Patriark of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have several sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tomb-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlineary gloss yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle wherewith the Kings were annoynted should be compounded with Cinnamon and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mould as is digged out of Graves to put them in mind that very day in which they were made Gods upon earth that they should die like men In which regard we have great cause to Bless the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Marriage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too far set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learn from all the changes and chances of this mortal life not to sing a requiem to our souls here with the fool in the Gospel because we have wealth laid up for us for many years for if our riches take not their wings and fly away from us we shall be taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliff Death and then we must go But thou shalt go Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it self into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dream when the Sun was going down a heavy sleep fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt go in peace 2. An honourable burial and be buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sun was setting a deep sleep and dreadful darkness fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dream the misery and thraldome of his postetity in Egypt Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. years vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dryed up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a smoak of a fiery furnass vers 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safety and peace for himself and of deliverance of his posterity also out of their grievous servitude after a certain period of years allotted for the promise of the growth and ripeness of the Amorites sins For dreams in general the great Secretary of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreams of good men are better than the Dreams of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleep And doubtless as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantesies in the day beget better dreams in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sun shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsels and discloseth his secrets as well by dreams in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Joel I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soul by day and night though not for supernatural and prophetical revelations or not so frequent Dreams therefore as they are not with the Eastern people supertitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vain nocturnal phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter sends Dreams and Ariflotle dreamed not when he wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreams nor Artemidorus when he published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment of Dreams for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreams of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the window of the senses are shut the soul hath best leisure to look into her self and after sickness hath battered down the walls of the dark prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breaks in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte the soul looks out as it were neer death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreams or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh known the year to some the moneth to some the very day and hour when they shall go the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lecteum by the milky way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a natural death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dream he
are required at our hands we may be sure that we have spiritual life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soul shall dwell at ease 2. Good success in all we undertake what soever we do it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things work for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable pass out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor ever entred into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Arist otalum because we cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our dear Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that she could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit mag is merebatur becanse she deserved praise she desp ised it and because she despised it she the more deserved it Silent modesty in her was her crown in her life and modest silence of her was the charge at her death Her life was well known to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sickness might behold with sorrow a pittiful anatomy of frail mortality and yet with joy a perfect pattern of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though she were full of divine conceptions and she had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her she desired she might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her own words and when I prayed with her and for her she joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighs and tears then in words often she complained of her tuff heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long she thought it till she should come to appear before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father help me and she had her request for presently he helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her own prayers with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed and immediately her sweet Father released her of her pangs and received her to himself on his own day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch she entered into her rest and began to keep her everlasting Sabbath in heaven where she reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shebelieved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entred into those joyes which never entred fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till we with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whither the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought again from the dead the great shepheard through the blood of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOULES AMEN SERMON XLVI REVEL 22.20 Amen Even so come Lord Jesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to be conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and Book of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of John himself that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in verse 17. It is likewise confirmed by the promise of Blessing and Happiness pronounced upon them that shall do all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This Verse a part of which I have read to you is the Repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from verse 6. to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the Verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Jesus In the attestation of Christ he promiseth he will come to his Church he will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Jesus In this acclamation of the Church to which we must now come we are to consider First the person of the Speaker whose words they be Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Ye shall see whose words they be if ye look back but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall find that first it is said the Spirit saith Come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinity the holy Ghost because he is not subject to these passions to these desires but he resteth himself in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his own will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angel for they do with fear and horrour expect the same coming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his coming shall be the accomplishment of their misery and eternal infelicity But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Again secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride saith come That is the Church of God in general the Catholick Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spiritual contract with him She desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is already begun in the contract of it and not only every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in general the Bride saith come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse
of the Benediction If Esau lift up his voyce and wept because he was defeated of the blessing while Isaac lived Joseph might well have made a mourning had he been prevented of the Benediction by an unexpected or a distant death But Jacob blessed them and with his blessing gave order for his burial and with that blessing and that order dyed And as his death was no way prejudicial to the spiritual so was it not at all disadvantageous to the temporal condition of his Son He suffered loss of no enjoyments by his Fathers death Jacob had lived long by the favour and the care of Joseph his filial gratitude alone preserv'd his life but no such narrow thoughts abated the freeness of Joseph's forrow And he made a mourning for his Father If none of these considerations which work so powerfully on other persons did move this Mourner to express such sorrow what were the Motives then which caus'd so deep a sense what meditations wrought so powerfully on the heart of Joseph I answer they were but two Mortality and Paternity the one supposed the other expressed in the text Jacob was the Father of Joseph and that Father dead and therefore Joseph mourned for him Mortality is a proper object to invite our pity and privation of life alone sufficient to move compassion in the living Weep for the dead faith the Son of Sirach for he hath lost the light If for no other reason yet because a man is dead and by death deprived of those comforts which those that live enjoy they which survive may providently bewail their future privation in his present loss Thus every Grave-stone bespeaks or expects a tear as if all those eyes which had not yet lost their light were to pay the tribute of their waters to the dead Sea This Fountain Nature never made in vain nor to be alwayes sealed up that heart is rock which suffers it never to break forth and be it so yet if the rod of Moses strike an affliction sent from God shall force it Let us therefore be ready with our sorrowful expressions when we are invited by sad occasions especially when a Father who may command them calls for them as that Wise man did My Son let tears fall down over the dead And if paternal authority demands them at the death of others it is no filial duty which denies them to attend upon a Fathers Funeral Joseph a man of a gracious and a tender heart moved with common objects of compassion had a vulgar forrow arising from the consideration of mortality Joseph a Son full of high affection and of filial duty and respect was touched with a far more lively sense by the accession of paternity And he made a mourning for his Father he made a mourning for his Father which begat him for his Father which loved him for his Father which blessed him for his Father which had mourned for him for his Father which came down to die with him First he made a mourning for his Father who begat him had there been no other but that naked relation it had carryed with it a sufficient obligation There is so great an union between the Parent and the Child that it cannot break without a deep sensation He which hath any grateful apprehension of his own life received cannot chuse but sadly resent the loss of that life which gave it If the fear of the death of Croesus by a natural miracle could unty the tongue of his Son who never spake before that man must be miraculously unnatural the flood-gates of whose eyes are not open'd at his Fathers Funerals though he never wept before The gifts of grace do not obliterate but improve nature and it is a false perswasion of Adoption which teacheth us so far to become the sons of God as to forget that we are the sons of men Joseph a person high in the esteem of Pharaoh higher in the favour of God great in the power of Egypt greater in the power of the Spirit yet he forgets not his filial relation yet he cannot deny his natural obligation but as a pious Son he payes the last tribute of his duty to Jacob And he made a mourning for his Father who begat him Secondly he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Love when in an equal commandeth love and this is so just that fire doth not more naturally create a flame In this the similitude is so great that there is no difference in the nature of the love produced and that which did produce it But when it first beginneth in a superior person the proper effect which it createth in an inferior is not of a single nature but such a love as is mingled with duty and respect The love of God to man challengeth love from us but that of such a nature as cannot be demonstrated but by obedience and that of a Father to his Son is of the same condition though not in the same proportion The Father loveth first with care and tenderness with a proper and a single love the Son returns it with another colour mingled with duty blended with respect Now Jacob had many children and as an eminent example he lov'd them all but among the rest there was one clearer and warmer flame for be loved Joseph more then all his children the off-spring of Rachel the Son of his old age the Heir of his Vertues the Corrector of his Brethren the Beloved of God had a greater share in Jacobs affection then the rest of his issue He did not so much prefer his wives before his hand maids he did not so highly value Rachel before Leah as he did esteem Joseph before the off-spring of them all This was the paternal love of Jacob and this was answered with as high a filial respect in Joseph which after death could not otherwise be expressed then in tears And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Thirdly he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Blessing is the soveraign act of God and the power of benediction like the power of God He delegateth this power unto his Priests who stand between God and Man and bless the Sons of men in the name of God He derives the same upon our natural Parents that children honoring them may expect his blessing upon their desires and prayers And what greater favour could we ask of God then that those persons who have the most natural affection toward us should also have the greatest power to bless us Now when the time drew nigh that Israel must die when his body drew nearer to the Earth and his soul to Heaven when his desires were highest and his words of the greatest efficacy he called unto his Sons and blessed them every one according to his blessing he blessed them But as he loved Joseph more then all his Brethren so he blessed him above them all he made one Tribe of every
Son and two of him his affection shew'd it self Rhetorical in his Benediction saying The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren Giving this Benediction Jacob dies receiving this Blessing Joseph survives who can render no other Retribution after his death but care of his Burial and tears at his Funeral And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Fourthly he made a mourning for his Father who had mourned for him The Parents cares and fears are equal and when any infelicity betides their children their griess are great and all these bear a proportion with their love Now the love of Jacob to Joseph was transcendent and being so it rais'd as high an hatred in the hearts of his Brethren by which he was in their intention and in his Fathers opinion dead And now the Funeral is Joseph's let us see how Jacob does appear He rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his Son many dayes Here is a real demonstration upon a supposed death and a serious mourning at a feigned Funeral Had his dearest Son been dead yet he might well take comfort in his numerous off-spring but he did not for all his Sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said for I will go down into the grave unto my Son mourning thus his Father wept for him Thus it pleaseth God to permit this happy deceit of envious Brethren this pious mistake of an affectionate Father not only for a great example of Paternal love but also to teach all Sons to measure their griefs at their Fathers death by a consideration of those sorrows which their Parents would have expressed had they dyed before them Howsoever Joseph was but just in this he made a mourning for his Father who had mourn'd for him Lastly he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him It was the old expression of Parents comfort that at their deaths they might have their children to close their eyes and it hath been equally the desire of children to be made happy by that occasion in shewing the last testimony of their duty at their Parents Death Now Jacob who upon the supposed death of Joseph had said I will go down into the Grave unto my Son upon the certain intelligence of his life and safety resolveth to go down and die with him For when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent and his spirit revived Israel said it is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die and when Joseph first presented himself unto him in the land of Egypt the first words he spake were these Now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Now he which said at first I will go and see him before I die and when he saw him said Now let me die resolved nothing in that journey but to die with Joseph And he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him For all these reasons Joseph mourned for his Father who begat him remembring his natural generation for his Father who loved him not forgetting his singular affection for his Father who had blessed him considering his double Benediction for his Father who had mourned for him meditating a pious retaliation for his Father who came down to die with him embracing the opportunity of a dutiful expression And thus I close up the first general part of the Text or the Solemnization of the Obsequies The Second general Part of the same presents us with the Continuation of the Solemnity Which ministers a double Consideration one as consisting of not many dayes the other as determining how many dayes And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes Immediately after Jacobs death in Egypt forty dayes were fulfilled for his embalming and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They which have no hope of a life to come may extend their griefs for the loss of this and equal the dayes of their mourning with the years of the life of man But so tedious a Funeral Solemnity is a tacite profession of Insidelity When Moses went up into the Mountain of Nebo and dyed there the children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty dayes The plains of Moab were nearer to the Land of promise then Egypt was and some light of the joyes of the life to come was discovered under the Law and therefore more then half of the Egyptian Solemnity was cut off by the Faith of the Israelites But this Patriarchal Funeral was made in Canaan the Land of promise the Type of Heaven it was appointed by Joseph a blessed Patriarch and a Type of Christ it continued some dayes to declare his natural affection but those not many to express his religious expectation Had it been extended longer it had demonstrated more of duty but less of faith he had shew'd himself more a Son but less a Patriarch But now he is become a great Example in mourning some dayes of filial duty in mourning few dayes of Divinity Which is our first Consideration The Second leads us to the determinate number of the dayes which are expresly Seven And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The Jews took special notice of this act of Joseph and in the land of Canaan observed the number of these dayes Seven dayes do men mourn for him that is dead faith the Son of Sirach and though it be not unto us a law yet it is a proper subject of our Observation It was afterward one of the laws of Moses He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven dayes And therefore well did Joseph teach the Israelites to mourn the same number of dayes that with their tears of natural affection they might mingle some thoughts of their natural pollution Again the number of Seven is the number of rest In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and he rested on the Seventh day from all his works which he had made Now Joseph knew that there remaineth a rest to the people of God he was fully assured that as the dayes of the years of his Fathers pilgrimage were evil so they ended in rest and happiness that as sure as his body was past all weariness and pain so his soul was placed above all possibility of grief or sorrow A Dove brought Noah word into the Ark that waters were on the face of the Earth and he stay'd seven dayes and then the Dove sent forth returned and loe in her mouth was an Olive leaf pluckt off so Noah
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
how to live and how to die while we live let us desire of God so to steer our course as that we may lead the lives of holy and devout Christians We desire to live and have we no desire to live well what 's this life without godliness what is it to live and to have our hearts all the dayes of our lives void of grace and piety Life without grace is like beauty in a woman without discretion Pro. 11.22 Non est vivere sed valere vita It is no life but a living death alwayes to live and to want health and strength which sweetens life and makes it comfortable So it is no life a Christian leads where there is a want of piety in the heart What is this to live unless we know how to live well and to make a right use of our time We must consider wherefore we live even to improve our time to the best advantage for the saving of our Souls otherwise we live like Beasts not like Men not like Christians These silly brutes live in time but know not the time in which they live so careless Christians run out their time but know not how to make use of their time they consume their time but they do not increase it Like Bankrupts that waste their stock but never seek to improve it We make a decoction of our time as water is boil'd away from a fourth part to a third and from a third to half so we waste and consume our time till we have no time left even till we come to the last minute of life why then while we have time let us pray to God to teach us to use it aright to give us grace to consider the time we spend that we may make the best improvment of it and as Esan did Jacob hold time by the heel and not suffer it to slip from us without giving a good account to God that we have imployed that time and space of life which is allotted us here for the advancement of Gods glory and the purchasing of our own Salvation We proceed to the third particular that we go to God by prayer to teach us the right use of our time in a right manner So teach us that is Teach us so efficaciously so powerfully so constantly as that we may attain to the true wisdome and knowledg of saving of our Souls We must pray to God to teach us effectually Psal 119.33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end We can know nothing of heaven unless the Spirit of God instruct us There is a great Light in us the Light of Nature and this light is enough to condemn us if we walk not according to this Light this Light of Knowledg imprinted by God in our hearts and by this Light all Heathens are condemn'd but this Light is not able to carry us half way to heaven The Light of Nature cannot save us but the light of Grace must bring us to the light of Glory Esther was fain to stand a loof off in the Court till the King reach'd forth his Golden Scepter to invite her nearer to him Nature only leads us to the outward Court of Heaven but Grace holds forth the Scepter to bring us into Heaven Nature like the faint heat of the Sun draws up the vapours but a little way it hath not strength enough to master our Corruptions but the heat and power of Gods grace is only able to dispel and vanquish them It is only the work of Gods Spirit to shew us the right way to Heaven and to guide us in that way All lies in the Grace of God and unless we are continually assisted and carryed on by his gracious Spirit we are never likely to come near the sight of Heaven We have indeed many helps and furtherances to carry us to heaven but none of these will avail us without God The word of God is constantly preach'd in our ears the Ministers of God are daily pressing us forward to heaven but what can the frail voice of man work upon the heart without the powerful influence of Gods holy Spirit We Ministers without God are but as Gehazi's staff laid upon the dead Child we are no wayes able to raise the Soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness unless God first breath upon it and infuse the life of Grace into the dead heart of the sinner Let this teach us not to rest in our selves or any outward means for the purchasing of the joyes of heaven but place our whole trust and confidence in the living God What 's all the Light of Reason but darkness it self to bring us to the Light Everlasting All humane wisdome is but a false Light which will lead us in the end to the pit of destruction It is a good caution the Apostle gives us Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit If we follow the false Light of Reason it will deceive us and misguide us in our way to Heaven Natural Reason haply may see the heavenly Canaan afar off and have some stragling thoughts of the happiness of another world but it shal never be able to get possession of heaven The horns of this Altar shall never save any man that flies unto them As the light is hid under a bushel so nature is clouded and darkned with many mists of errour and cannot reach the sight of heaven In the second place let us fly to God by prayer that he would teach us effectually and shew us the right way to heaven Before we hear the Word of God let us fall upon our knees and beg of God to make it profitable and useful to our Souls What makes the word of God so ineffectual how come we to gain so little comfort by the preaching of the Word Is it not because we do not pray to God to open our hearts and make it useful to us that we may attend to the word of Truth and obtain Salvation by it The people before the Law was published to them were cleansed and sanctified by Moses to receive it Exod. 19.14 So ought we to Sanctifie our hearts by prayer and desire of God to purge our Souls of the many pollutions of our sins that we may gain a blessing by the Word of God and return with joy and comfort from the house of God It is prayer that makes the word of God profitable to our Souls it is like the Salt which Elisha threw into the waters to heal them So does prayer make the word of God beneficial to us and causeth us to relish the sweetness and comfort of it The heart is like that Book sealed with seven Seals which no man can open but God himself Therefore let us pray to God to open our hearts that we may receive instruction from the Word of God There is no man can teach us
of heaven for the love of earth Let us labour for this main piece of wisdome even to provide for the eternal well-being of our Souls This is the only wisdome which will stand us in stead when we grow wise for a better life And that we may provide for the life to come let us learn this point of wisdome even to remember our latter end know how to die well Deut. 32.29 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This is the wisdome of a Christian to prepare himself for death to be ever in a readiness to die that when his change shall come he may have this to comfort him that whatsoever becomes of his body for the present he hath made good provision for his Soul He is the only wise Christian that provides for Eternity and minds this only above all other things how he may enjoy his God and live with him for evermore The Greeks have but one word to express a wise man and an happy man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both as if that were only to be accounted for true wisdome which leads to Eternal Bliss and happiness Herein is the wisdome of a Christian in labouring to attain true Blessedness even the sight and enjoyment of God for evermore Oh blessed is the man that is so wise as to provide for Eternity who dies with this comfort that though his body moulder into dust and ashes for a time yet his Soul shall rest in the arms of his Redeemer The second particular now follows and that is the subject of this wisdome where it is seated even in the heart and affection This in brief is our next Conclusion True wisdome is to be beloved and embrac'd Prov. 2.2 If thou incline thine ear unto wisdome and apply thine heart to understanding Wisdome is the Mother of us all Mat. 11.19 Wisdome is justified of her children and it is fit the Mother should be loved of her children The Urim was to be laid upon Aarons heart Exod. 2.8 30. to note that wisdome must be seated in the heart there she must lodg and be entertain'd the heart is only a fit Receptacle of wisdome and there she must live and abide The Queen of Sheba was so in love with the wisdome of Solomon as that she took a tedious journey to give that wise King a visit Mat. 12.42 And behold a greater than Solomon is here What is Solomon to Christ what is the wisdome of man to the wisdome of God It is but as a Cloud to the brightness of the Sun as the shadow to the substance and he that loves the wisdome of the World and forsakes the wisdome of God embraceth a shadow and forgoes the substance What can we love if our hearts be not enamoured with wisdome There is nothing amiable but wisdome and if we despise ber what is there of this worlds good whereon we many set our love and affection The learned men of old would only be called Philosophers Lovers of Wisdome not wise men as if this were the highest perfection of wisdome and no man was so wise as he whose heart was enflam'd with the love of wisdome It is not enough to know that which is good but we must be in love with that good which we do know Let us be in love with true wisdome and embrace her as our only delight and joy David bore an hearty affection to the commandments of God he made them his only delight and comfort Psal 119.24 Thy Testimonies are my delight and my counsellors Let us not so much affect the things of this life as to forgo all love of God and heaven Let us not be slaves to the world and despise the freedome which wisdome promiseth to them that love her Let us not say as the servant of his Master Exod. 21.5 I love my Master I will not go out free I love the world so well as that I am content to be a Slave for ever so I may have the wages which the world can give me I value not the joyes of the life to come so I may have the good things of this life for my portion Oh for shame shake off the love of these vanities and be in love with heaven esteem nothing amiable but what is reserv'd for thee in another world Let thy heart be set upon true wisdome and do not suffer the fooleries and vanities of this world to steal away thy heart from God Let wisdome be precious in thine eyes and do not seem to love her but love her in truth and in heart Let us not content our selves with a bare sight of heaven with an outward view and speculation of the glory of heaven but let us fasten our deepest thoughts and meditations upon it Let us not speak of heaven but let our hearts be ravished with the love of heaven Our tongues are but the Suburbs of wisdome but the heart is the City Let not wisdome remain without the gate in the mouth and outward profession of piety but let her be received into the City and entertain'd with joy and gladness into the heart and there rest and repose her self as in the bosome of her best beloved And now that I may not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tongue without a door that cannot be governed and kept within the compass of time I hasten to the third particular and that is the means were by we may attain this wisdome and that is by numbring of our dayes Our last observation is this the consideration and meditation of death makes us wise the remembrance of death makes us truly wise The wise man shows us who is wise and who is a fool Eccles 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth A wise mans heart is bent to sadness and the serious meditation of his end and makes choice of such mournful thoughts as will present death before his eyes the desires of a fool are carryed after unseasonable mirth and jollity and he minds nothing less then the sad remembrance of his death The thought of death casts a man into a melancholly fit therefore he cannot away with it What saies he Shall I think of that which torments and afflicts my Spirit and causeth sadness and pensiveness of mind The remembrance of death it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a daily death and the medication of our latter end is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual sorrow and vexation of the heart But let careless Christians imagine what they please that which is a grief to them will prove no little joy and comfort to those whose thoughts are taken up with the meditation of their latter end When the hour of death approacheth we shall account it the only wisdome to have fitted and disposed our hearts aright for the last day of our dissolution and departure out of
the best Ermine It is nothing to be born a Gentleman it is all in all to live and die a good Christian This was the sweet expression of this your honourable Neighbour feeling a want of Grace in his heart wherewith he desired to be satisfied Oh says he to me one drop of grace in the heart is more worth than all the wealth and honour in the world I shall not commend to you the goodness of his Nature the sweetness of his Disposition because he bewailed it as a Snare and an occasion of sin to him A mans good Nature leads him many times into sin and the loving temper of his spirit temps him and puts him forward to sin Where Grace does not command there a good disposition is soon marr'd and drawn aside This likewise was matter of grief to him that his frail Nature was soon wrought upon and carried aside to that which his own heart soon after told him was sinful and displeasing to God What need I tell you that he was an affable friendly and obliging Gentleman winning and gaining upon all that came near him He that look'd but upon his Face might have seen goodness and courtesie looking out of his Eyes And what 's all this when he did acknowledge with tears that this pleasantness of his countenance was suddenly clouded with a violent and over-ruling storm of passion which carried him beyond himself But it is strange to see what a command grace hath over the Soul which speaks to these unruly passions as Christ did to the boisterous billows of the Sea Peace be still Mar. 4.39 as easily as the Nurse charms the crying Infant in the Cradle As prevalent as these passions were in the time of his health they were so allayed by God in his sickness as that all his friends about him did rejoyce to see the patience and calmness of his Spirit all the while the hand of God was upon him And that I may give you a clear proof of the mortified Spirit and happy change which God wrought in his Soul When I took the boldness to mind him of a late difference between himself and the Reverend Pastor of this place he burst out with tears and laid this charge upon me That I would right him so far as to acquaint him that he did heartily desire him in particular to forgive him and all other good Christians that he had wrong'd in the heat of his passion either rich or poor Judge ye now what could I have spoken more for his honour than I have done in this discovery of his frailty and his happy conquest of it Therefore I thought good to make this publication of it to the world that ye may know ye never honour you selves more than when ye glorifie God by shaming of your selves when we are most vile in our own eyes we are most honourable in the repute of God and good men But all this that I have spoken is nothing to that which is yet behind Therefore go along with me a little further and I shall in brief relate unto you such comfortable passages as fell from him in the time of his sickness and then leave him to your Christian Charity to judge how well he acted the latter part of his life and with what earnestness of spirit he strove to gain the love and favour of God in Christ At my first coming to him I found him deeply toucht with a serious apprehension of the former errours of his life how far he had provoked a good God by the many sins which his Conscience then charged him with Then dâ—d he break forth into 〈◊〉 free and voluntary confession of all his sins and exprest with many tears his loathing and detestation of them I was glad to see those Limbecks of his eyes distilling and dropping down in such a plentiful manner to find his heart thus smitten and bruis ed with the remembrance of his sins and prest him to a greater measure of sorrow as knowing such clouds of grief would make way for the beams of joy and comfort to shine in his Soul The truth is I have not come near a man that hath reckoned up his fins wiâ—h greater abhorrency and detestation than he did I askt him whether if God should be pleased to grant him a further respite in this world he would become a new man and take off his heart from his former vanities He answered I would not for the gain of the whole world live such a life as I have done and I desire next to Gods glory to live for this very end that I might testifiâ— the truth of my repentance to the world I askt him whether his heart did witness the truth of all this Oh sayes he my heart is deceitful and treacherous but if I know my own heart all that I speak is in truth and sincerity I should be the most cursed Hypocrite alive if I should either dissemble with God or man at such a time as this Oh remember to deal faithfully with your own hearts if you speak otherwise than ye find it to be in your own breasts you turn Imposters to your selves and deludes your own Souls not us It is the integrity of the heart which God looks at if there be no rottenness there there is a good foundation of joy and comfort laid in the Soul 1 Job 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And now from the example of this good Knight let me press this one thing upon you That when ye find your hearts opprest with the weight of your sins ye would give them a speedy vent and seek to ease your hearts of so mighty a clog by a serious confession of them He that smothers sin in his breast will in the end be choaked with the noisome scent of it What is a man the better for hiding and locking up his sin in his bosome Let me advise you to open a vein in your own hearts and let out the corrupt blood that lies there The longer we hide sin in our bosoms the more it festers and what man will not do his best to get rid of a bruise before it rots and putrisies Confession is a soveraign Remedy to procure the pardon of our sins Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and for saketh his sins shall have mercy He is most likely to find mercy that is most ready to acknowledge that he deserves none We see what David gain'd by an humble confession of his sins He no sooner cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord then the Prophet return'd him a comfortable answer from the Lord The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die Quantum valent tres syllabae Peccavi How prevalent are three syllables pronounced by a penitent heart I have sinn'd to move the God of mercy to mercy And here I hope I shall seasonably cast in a word of advice to my Brethren of
your dayes to spend your time aright to Gods glory and in his service Count it your honour to honour God your only freedom to serve your Maker Be wise for Eternity desire of God to keep your hearts upright in his fear to give you fixed Spirits in tottering Times and in the end to guide you all the right way to Heaven and happiness to make you true Accountants for Heaven and to value the least minute of your time and in this I will joyn with you in Prayer both for my self and you in the words of my Text Lord so teach us c. Amen Amen THE JUST MANS FUNERAL SERMON LI. ECCLES 7. verse 15. All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness THe World is a volumne of Gods works which all good people ought studiously to peruse Three sorts of men are too blame herein First such as observe nothing at all seeing but neither marking nor minding the daily accidents that happen with * Gallio the secure deputy of Achaia They care for none of these things Secondly Such as observe nothing observable these may be said to weed the world If any passage happeneth which deserveth to be forgotten their jet memories only attracting straws and chaff unto them registreth and retaineth them sond fashions and foolish speeches is all that they charge on their account and only empty cyphers swell the vote-books of their discoveries Lastly such who make good observations but no applications With Mary they do not ponder things in their heart but only brew them in their heads and presently breath them out of their mouth having only a rational understanding thereof which renders them acceptable in company for their discourse but never suffering them to sink into their souls or make any effectual impression of their lives But Solomons observations were every way compleat he mark'd what happened wel he might who advantaged with matchless wealth might make matchless discoveries could afford to dig out important Truths with mattocks of Gold Silver what he mark'd was remarkable and what was remarkable he not only applied to the good of his private person but endeavouring it might be propagated to all posterity in the words of my text All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness In the handling of Solomons observation herein we will insist upon these four pâ—…rts to shew 1. That it is so 2. Why it is so 3. What abuses wicked men do make because it is so 4. What uses good men should make because it is so First that it is so believe Solomons eyes who professed that he saw it But here it will be demanded how came he to behold a righteous man with what rare and new eye-salve had he anointed his eyes to see that which his father David having a more holy though not so large a heart could never discern Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no flesh is righteous in thy sight It is answered though such an one whose righteousness is Gods justice-proof never was is nor shall be in this life Christ alone excepted being God and man yet in a Gospel or qualified sense he is accounted righteous who juxt a propositum juste vivendi is so intentionally desiring and endeavouring after righteousness with all the might of his Sonl Secondly who is so comparatively in reference to wicked men appearing righteous in regard of those who have no goodness at all in their hearts Thirdly righteous imputatively having the righteousness of God in Christ imputed unto him Lastly righteous inhesively having many heavenly graces and holy endowments sincere though not perfect or evangelically perfect pro hoc statu bestowed upon and remaining within him Such a righteous man as this Solomon saw perishing in his righteousness But in the second place it will be inquired How could Solomon patiently behold a righteous man perish in his righteousness and not rescue him out of the paws of oppression Could he see it and could he suffer it and be only an idle spectator at so sad a tragedy Did his hand sway the Scepter and was his head invested with the Crown contentedly to look on so sorrowful a sight Could he only as in the case of the harlots call for a sword to kill a child and not call for it to defend a righteous man He that is not with us faith our Saviour is against us If it hold in private persons much more in publick Officers They persecute who do not protect destroy who do not defend slay who do not save the righteous man who have power and place to do it It is answered in the first place Solomons observations were not all confined to his own country and kingdome though staying at home in his person his mind travelled into forraign parts in the neighbouring countries of Egypt Edom Syria Assyria c. might behold the perisning of the righteous and long flourishing of the wicked Secondly his expression I have seen relates not only to his ocular but experimental discoveries What Solomon got hy the help of History Study and perusal of Chronicles He that was skil'd in natural Philosophy from the Cedar to the Shrub was no doubt well versed in all civil occurrences from the Prince to the Peasant from Adam to the present age wherein he lived so much as by any extant records could be collected To set humane writers aside the Scripture alone afforded him plentiful presidents herein Open the Bible and we shall find almost in the first leaf just Abel perishing in his righteousness and wicked Cain prolonging his life in his iniquity To omit other instances Solomon by relation from his father might sadly remember how Abimelech the High Priest perished in his righteousness with all the Priests inhabitants of the city of Nob whilest Saul who condemned and Doeg who executed them flourished long in their iniquity So much for the proof that it is so Come we now to the reasons why it is so These reasons are of a double nature some fetcht from nature others from religion For the present we insist only upon the former reserving the rest till we shall encounter the Atheists in the sequel of our discourse First Because good men of all others are most envied and maligned having the fiercest adversaries to oppose them With the most in the world it is quarrel enough to hate a good man because he is a good man Saint Paul faith of himself I press towards the mark And the same is the endeavour of every good man Now as in a race the formost man who is nearest the mark is envied of all those which come after him who commonly use
up and down disconsolate with soft paces sad looks and sorrowful hearts all their children they are ready to call and christen Ichobods the glory is departed from Israel being affected like the Citizens of Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib their hearts are like the trees of the wood moved with the wind But let such droopers know that herein they offend God and wrong themselves and let them gird up their loyns and tie up their spirits at the serious consideration that God in due time will raise them out of the dust maintain his own cause and confound his enemies The third sort of people are the Arguers or Disputers who being of a middle temper neither haughty nor stomackful neither low nor dejected and withal being good men embrace a middle course neither to fret nor dispute but calmly to reason out the matter with God himself Of this later sort was the Prophet Jeremiah who thus addresseth himself unto the Lord Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously The good man could not conceive Gods proceedings and although he kept to the conclusion Righteous are thou O Lord yet his heart was hot within him and he would fain be exchanging an argument with God that all was not right according to his humane capacity Job also was one of these Arguers in the agony of his passion Oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbour But let flesh and blood take heed of entring the lists by way of challenge with God himself If the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Silicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen were not able to resist the wisdome and the spirit by which he spake much less can frail flesh hope to make good a bad cause by way of opposition against God the best and wisest answerer Remember the Apostles question Where is the disputer But if we should be so bold in humility to examine Gods proceedings let us take heed lest whilest we dispute with God Satan insensibly prompts us such reasons as are seemingly unanswerable in our apprehensions so that instead of being too hard for God which is impossible men become too hard for themselves raising such spirits which they cannot quell and starting such doubts which they cannot satisfie Wherefore let not our ignorance be counted Gods injustice let not the dimness of our eyes be esteemed the durtiness of his actions being all purity and cleanness in themselves Let us if beaten from our out-works make a safe retreat to this impregnable castle Jeremiah his conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord c. Come we now to the good Uses that the godly ought to make of a righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And first when he finds such a one in a swoun he ought with all speed to bring him a cordial and with the good Samaritane to pour Oil and Wine into his wounds endeavouring his recovery to his utmost power whilest there is any hope thereof I must confess it is only Gods prerogative according to the greatness of his power to preserve those that are appointed to die However it is also the boundant duty of all pious people in their several distances and degrees to improve their utmost for the preservation of dying innocency from the cruelty of such as would murder it But if it be impossible to save it from death so that it doth expire notwithstanding all their care to the contrary they must then turn lamenters at the funerals thereof And if the iniquity of the times will not safely afford them to be open they must be close Mourners at so sorrowful an accident O let the most cunning Chyrurgeons not begrutch their skill to unbowel the richest Merchants not think much of their choisest spices to embalm the most exquisite Joyner make the coffin most reverend Divine the Funeral Sermon the most accurate Marbler erect the Monument and most renowned Poet invent the Epitaph to be inscribed on the tomb of Perishing Righteousness Whilest all others well-wishers to goodness in their several places contribute to their sorrow at the solemn Obsequies thereof yea as in the case of Josiah his death let their be an Anniversary of Mourning kept in remembrance thereof However let them not mourn like men without hope but let them behave themselves at the interment of his righteousness as confident of the resurrection thereof which God in his due time shall raise out of the ashes It is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown in disgrace it shall be raised in glory Lastly the temporal perishing of the righteous man in this world minds us of the necessity of the day of Judgment and ought to edge and quicken our prayers that God would shortly accomplish the number of his elect consummate this miserable world put a period to the dark night of his proceedings that so that day that welcome day may begin to dawn which is tearmed by the Apostle The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Five things there are besides many others in the primitive part of Gods justice which are very hard for men to conceive First How the sin of Adam to which we did never personally consent can justly be imputed to us his posterity Secondly How infants who never committed actual sin are subject to death and which is more to damnation it self Thirdly How God can actually harden the hearts of some as he did Pharaohs and yet not be in the least degree accessary to sin and the author thereof Fourthly How the Americans can justly be condemned to whom the sound of the Gospel was never trumpetted forth and they by their invincible ignorance uncapable of Gods will in his word Lastly How God as it in the Text can suffer righteous men to perish in their righteousness and wicked men to flowrish in their iniquity In all these a thin vail may seem to hang before them so that we have not a full and free view of the reasons of Gods proceedings herein yet so as that under and thorow this vail we discover enough in modesty and sobriety to satisfie our selves though perchange unable to utter what in part we apprehend we cannot effectually remove all the scruples which the pious nor all the cavils which the profane man brings against us But at the day of judgment at the revelation of the righteous judgment of God this vail shall be turned back or rather totally taken away so that all shall plainly and perspicuously perceive the justice of Gods dealing in the cases aforesaid Not that then or there any new essential addition or accession shall accrue to Gods justice to mend or make up any former desault or defect therein
we found it let it not be said that we willingly let the fair Fabrick of Faith and good life to run to ruine in our so that the next Age may justly sue us for Dilapidations When our Saviour said unto his Disciples Mat. 26.21 Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him Lord is it I yea Judas himself lagging at last with his Is it I Lord and was returned with Thou saist it Thus at the last day of judgment shall all generations be arraigned before God But to confine our Application only to those three within the last sixscore years if God should say unto them One of you have betrayed my truth how would it put them all upon their particular purgation Is it I Lord saith the first generation in the reign of King Edward the sixt surely they shall be acquitted who in the Marian dayes sealed the truth with their blood Is it I Lord saith the second generation lasting all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the middle of King James That also will be cleared as publickly preserving the purity of true Doctrine in the thirty nine Articles What a shame shall it be if when our age shall ask with Iudas Is it I we shall be returned thou hust said it Yours is the Age that hath betrayed my Truth to Errour Unity to Faction Piety to Prophaness sad when such a Fact shall be so clear that it cannot be denied and yet so foul that it cannot be defended However this my too just fear may consist with hope of better things of you and such as accompany salvation I must conclude with you Reverend Fathers whom my loyalty cannot pass by without doing my due homage to the Crown of your Age especially if it be found in the way of truth Give me leave to tell you belong to that generation which is passed out of this world not only the Van or Front and also the main body and battel of your Army are marched to their graves and their souls I hope to heaven whilst Divine Providence for reasons best known to himself hath reserved you to bring up as I may say the very rear of the rear of your generation O do not mistake this Reprieve for a Pardon and here give me leave to use a plain but expressive Similitude Have you never seen a wanton child run a firebrand against the Hearth or back of the Chymney and so on a suddain make a skie of sparks of which sparks some instantly expire others continue a pretty time and then go out others last a little longer whilest one or two as having a greater stock of soot to feed them hold out a good while but at last are extinguisht Man is born to labour as sparks do fly upward some presently go out wasted from the womb to the winding-sheet others live to ripe men others to be old men some whose temper and temperance are more signal then in others to be counted wonderous old but all at last die and fall to the earth We read Rev. 10.2 of an Angel who had his right foot on the Sea and his left on the earth This may seem a strange stride save that it abateth the wonder because Angels when pleased to assume bodies may extend themselves to a vast though finite proportion But you though meer men and weak men must stride a greater distance having your left foot already in the Grave endeavour to have your right foot in Heaven and waving all love of this world set your minds and meditations alone on God and godliness In a word whatever our Age be rising shining or setting Men Brethren or Fathers let us endeavour with David in my Text according to the will of God to serve our own Generation Come we now to the sad occasion of our present meeting to perform the last Christian Office to our Deceased Brother well known to many of you and to none better then to my self A child is like a man in the similitude of parts though not of degrees and in some measure he did sincerely with David serve his Generation He was a dutiful Son unto his aged Mother as she cannot but confess and will I hope as occasion is offered remember and reward it to his wife and children A loving Brother a kind Husband and I doubt not but his widdow will discharge her mutual affection to him in his relations Bathsheha thus describeth a good wife Pro. 31.12 She will do her Husband good and not evil all the dayes of her life It is not said all the dayes of his life but of her life What if he should chance to die and she to survive him yea after to marry again as God forbid any should be debarred marrying in the Lord especially for their own and childrens advantage yet still she would do good unto him all the dayes of her life To him that is to his memory mentioning with respect to him that is to his children and friends careful over the one and curteous over the other He was a tender Father and faithful Friend witness the many volunteer mourners an unusual proportion for a person of his quality who at their own charge have habited themselves that the outward sadness of their cloaths might express the inward sorrow of their hearts He was an excellent Master having bred many good workmen in his Vocation and I hope they will prove good husbands too Let me add he was an excellent subject for according to that which his conscience with many others conceived to be loyalty he lost much of and hazarded all his estate Lastly and chiefly he was a good Saint having more piety then he shewed and as daily he consumed in his body he was strengthened in his soul in Faith through Christ whereof he gave many testimonies before towards and at his death What shall I speak of his parts of Nature so far above his education and profession that he might have past for a Scholar amongst Scholars for his wit and pleasant expressions But God now hath made him his free-man and paid him his wages for so well serving his Generation THE CROVVNE OF RIGHTEOUSNES OR The glorious Reward of FIDELITY In the Discharge of our DUTY SERMON LIII 2 TIM 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me only but unto them also who love his Appearing I Shall not detain you by any impertinent Preface sith the shortness of time for this Service together with the indulgence of this so Learned an Auditory anticipates an Apology and gives hope of much Candor under so manifold Imprâ—…parations And so I address my self to the serious business of my Text The scope whereof amounts to
effectually but God alone no man can shew us the right way to heaven but God Therefore let us pray So teach us c. We now come to the end wherefore Moses begs of God to teach us to number our dayes That we may apply c. In which we meet with three particulars 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it consists and it is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The Subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the meditation of Death 1. Of the kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it chiefly consists that is in having an eye to heaven in looking after the eternal welfare of our Souls Our next Conclusion is this It is the only true wisdome of a Christian to provide for his Soul Then are we wise indeed when we are wise unto Salvation when we know how to provide for Eternity True wisdome consists not in gathering riches but in living in the fear of God and ordering our steps so as that we may make sure of heaven another day It is our obedience to Gods Commandments which cries us up for wise Christians in the repute of God and man Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdome and your understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people What is it for a man to be wise for the world and a fool for heaven what 's the wealth and honour of the world to the happiness of the Soul what 's a man the better for being rich and honourable in this world if in the end his Soul be lost Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul What the people said of David 2 Sam. 18.3 Thou art worth ten thousand of us the like I say of the Soul It is more worth than a thousand worlds and the Salvation of thy Soul is more to thee than the gaining of many worlds What the man pleaded to Joab for not slaying of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.12 Though I should receive a thousand shekles of Silver in my hand yet would I not put forth my hand against the Kings Son The like maist thou reason within thy own breast Though I might purchase the riches of a thousand worlds yet would I not seek the destruction of my Soul whatsoever thou dost still have an eye to thy Soul that that perish not in another world what if all other things go amiss with thee in this life â—…f thy Soul be in safety It is wisdome I confess to provide for the world for the body but the main wisdome is to provide for the Soul Be careful of the outward man but be sure thou dost not neglect the inward man Provide for both the body and Soul but let thy chief care be for the Soul which is thy better part It was the Symbol of Rodolphus the second Emperour of Rome who gave an Eagle with a double Head with the one he lookt upwards to the Sun and with the other downwards upon the Earth with this Motto Utrumque I have an eye to both Thus it is Lawful for a Christian to look downwards to the Earth and provide for the body but he must have one eye chiefly sixt upon the Soul and in the first place provide for it we must look directly to heaven obliquely upon the earth fix our eyes upon the one cast a glance upon the other It becomes a Christian to consider what may become of him hereafter and whither he is going Consider thy beginning from whence thou camest and consider thy end what will befal thee hereafter He cannot be a wiser man faith the Healthen wo does not know either from whence he came or whither he must go Sure enough he cannot be a wise Christian that knows not what will become of his Soul It is by way of just Reproof of such as are wise for the world but meer fools for heaven The wisdome of the flesh is meer folly in the sight of God Some men would be reputed wise in the world and yet know not which way to take for the gaining of heaven Such a man passeth in the world for a crafty subtile worldling that knows how to mannage his affairs with the best advantage to himself and yet he knows not a step of the way to heaven It is a Maxime amongst the Jesuites Uti scientia to live by their shifts so do many in the world who have only a little wit to carry them out in secular affairs and their brains serve them to gather a little wealth and muck but they are meer Idiots in all that concerns heaven and salvation and the purchasing of the true riches of the Soul And yet see the fondness of these men that though they know not which way to take to get heaven yet they make themselves sure of it as if Salvation and eternal life were within their reach and power to command it when they please Papyrius Massonus writes of the Jesuites that count themselves so wise ut se putant soelo vel ipsi quandoque imperaturos as that they think they shall one day have the command of heaven it self The like presumption is in many Christians at this day that they believe heaven is at their command and they shall easily obtain it though they do nothing for it Oh shake off this folly make what provision thou wilt for other things thou art but a fool if thou dost neglect thy Soul As provident as the rich man was in the Gospel God gave him the title of a Fool and Cajetan gives the reason of it because he did not provide for himself in such things as were needful for the Salvation of his Soul He is a fool that prefers and Apple before a piece of Gold who keeps those things that are to be cast away and neglects such things as are to be preserved who heeds not his house where he must abide for ever and beautifies that place where he is to lodg but for a night Such an one is he that forgets his Soul and is careful for all other things Give me leave to speak the truth and not alwayes to drop oyl into your ears and speak unto you smooth things Where shall we find the man that desires to save his soul that would willingly part with this world to gain a better We daily hear the word of God we talk much of Religion we boast of our interest in heaven but when the matter comes to decision when we are put to our choice whether Heaven or Earth whether we will forego the profits of this world for the love of heaven this is the fiery Chariot which divides between Elijah and Elisha which parts us and God and makes us to cast away our hope