as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good or at least of our selves Death extinguisheth our Life and by this means overthrowing the very Foundations of our Enjoyments doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether Daille sur Coloss. 2. 13. Life is the most excellent Gift of God but Death is an Enemy to Nature and cannot be lov'd for it self 't is the fruit of Sin Rom. 5. 12. 'T is the wages thereof Rom. 6. 23. For if Adam had persever'd in his Innocent Condition he had enjoyed a Glorious Immortality without those pains and that Death which is now our Lot The Philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to Man and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle are so vain and empty that they onely serve to shew in the General how weak Man is seeing the greatest productions of the wisest Men are so mean and Childish Pascal pensees S. 30. Death is the matter of the Threat and therefore a punishment though Believers whose Faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it as a passage to Eternal Glory We give it indeed many soft names and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness and with less Fear but it ceases not to be an Enemy though we give it never so many fair Characters Men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it but its nearer approaches if attended with the due sense of Futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest Man to tremble it will strike a damp into his Spirits mingle Gall and Wormwood with his Wine and Bitterness with his sweetest Joys Death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable but rather more so as a certain Evil is more an Evil than that which is only probable and which may never happen but do we consider what it is for the Union that is between the body and the Soul to be dissolv'd what it is to see Corruption what it is to have this Body turn'd into a Carkass without Life and Motion what it is to have this Body which we have tended with so long a Care which we have maintain'd at so vast a Charge of Meat and Drink and Time to have this Body in which we have slept and liv'd at Ease laid into the cold Grave and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away it cannot but occasion very great Commotions when the day is come that the two Friends who have been so long acquainted and so dear to one another must part Death is an evil to be prayed against for as such it cannot be the Object of desire And the old saying of Augustin is not unworthy of our Observation That if there were no bitterness in Death the Constancy of Martyrs would not be so remarkable Therefore says the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. We would not be uncloathed but clothed upon It is promised as a favour to Ebedmelech that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey Jer. 39. 18. and Paul then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of Glory yet reckons it a Blessing for a good Man to be kept alive For he sayes of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him And we find the Holy Men of Old very earnest for their Lives Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. 4. 5. Psal. 39. 13. Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psal. 102. 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes And what doleful Expressions did Hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the Earth Reason 2. When a Man dyes 't is to him as an end of all the World He is no more considered as a Member of that Community to which he did once belong When his Eyes are once clos'd by Death he is no more to behold the Sun Moon and Stars which he now sees nor his Fields and Gardens his Shops and Houses his Estate and Lands As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more Job 14. 11 12. He quits for ever all those Earthly things on which he once set his Heart and when he is asleep in his Bed of dust he will not awake to pursue secular Affairs and Business which took up so much of his time and labour He must no more frequent his Exchange not read Books nor discourse with his Relations and Friends as he us'd to do among the Living here The first sound that he will he will hear will be the Voice of the Last Trumpet Arise ye dead and come to judgment The first sight that he will see will be the Mighty Judge in the Clouds and the Heavens and the Earth all in one flame All that little share of the World which he called his own will be undiscern'd and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the Great Day When a Man dyes 't is with him as an End of the World all the Affairs of Peace and War of Trade and Commerce and Gain and Riches all his projects and designs his large reaches his forecast his â—â—â—ughtfulness about News or about providing for his own Name or for posterity all these things are at an end with him for ever It would put a mighty Change upon the Face of things and the Circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the World would be at an end in four or five years or in so many Moneths and no man knows but it may be so as to him because before or at that time Death may cut him off and then he has no more to do with this Earth or with the Sons of Men. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7. 9 10. Reason 3. Because when we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd l After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Wo. So that we may say with Nieremberg how
longing Soul It is then upon the Mount and sees his smiling Face and would fain always see it it is loth to come down to the meaner Employments of this World and when the necessary Affairs of the present Life call it away it comes from the pleasant Work shining with brighter Grace and Holiness It is a thing of more Honour to You than a thousand honourable Titles that You keep up constantly the worshipping of God and reading the Scriptures in your Families Morning and Evening and indeed it is an Arrogance in those to call themselves Christians who neglect so sacred and so considerable a part of our holy Religion And your good Example in the due practice of these excellent Things will have a powerful Influence upon your Children and what you now do they will also do if they live to have Families and the sight of Religion in you will convey to them a greater Approbation and a more easy practice of it God has bless'd you with a numerous and an hopeful Offspring whose present and future Welfare I do with an undissembled Affection most heartily desire By their Seriousness their Ingenuity and their good Inclinations they give us cause to expect that though they are now as Olive-plants round about your Tables yet that they will hereafter refresh the Hearts of many more besides your own Families And that as it is expressed in Psal. 144. 12. Your Sons may be as Plants grown up in their Youth that your Daughters may be as Corner-Stones polished after the Similitude of a Palace I question not but the Prayers that you send up to Heaven for them will procure the Blessing of the Divine Providence which is the richest and the best Inheritance It is a Blessing of God that you have so many living Images of your selves in whom you see your own Life renewed And you are so happy as to have your Quivers full of them May they all live to be your Comfort and to maintain Religion in the World God has been pleas'd to give You several Instances of the Vanity of this World by the Deaths of several of your Relations some of which died in their most hopeful Youth and in the Flower of their Age whilst their Friends promised themselves a long Comfort and Delight in their Conversation who had they lived might have been of great use to their Country and to the Church of God And one Relation you lost by a way that was very afflicting to you but advantagious to him He died unseasonably as to us for we needed his Prayers and his good Example but his Death was seasonable as to himself for I do not doubt but he was prepared for it He died much beloved and greatly bewailed Those that knew him could not but esteem and value him for the Assableness and Civility of his Temper the Conscientiousness of his Dealings the Sincerity and Heartiness of his Expressions the good Order that he kept in his Family and for that Uprightness and unaffected Religion that appeared to all that observed his Conversation I may without any shew of Flattery say he was one of those good Men for whom many would have died could they have exchanged their meaner Lives for his more serviceable Life He died by a may somewhat terrible to Flesh and Blood but which by Faith he overcame His Zeal for the Liberties of this City and which he shewed whilst he was in an honour able Station rendred him obnoxious to those Persons then in Authority who gave liberty to their Revenge to fall upon those who knew not how to flatter or commend or promote their Arbitrary Designs It was a thing below him to use such sneaking and such unchristian Arts for Honour or for Safety There is nothing can satisfy his Friends for the loss of so excellent a Citizen so good a Man and so sincere a Friend but the consideraon of that Providence which tho it be mysterious and severe for the present yet will hereafter appear to have been very wise and very good to all those that love God Tho the Loss his Friends sustained by his removal from them be great yet it cannot but be a Satisfaction to them to consider that he was happy in his Death He is gone to that God that as he said himself knew his Innocence and to a Place where there are no false Accusations and where he and his holy Friends shall never part again This and much more than what I have said is due to the Memory of so great and so good a Man whom it is impossible for a true Lover of his Country ever to forget My Zeal to the remembrance of those Persons which I have mentioned and whom I honoured and esteemed together with the Respect that I ought to express to them has drawn me to a much greater Length than what I at first intended and tho when I consider the multitude of your Affairs both publick and domestick I am afraid I have too much presum'd upon your Time in this Dedication yet the Experience that I have often had of your Candour makes me to believe that you will forgive even so criminal a Presumption God has given you plentiful Estates and which is as great a Mercy Hearts to use them You have often been Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame There are many hundreds whom your Charities have refresh'd the Blessing of those that were ready to perish has often come upon you And you have made the Hearts of the Desolate to sing for Joy And it is no small support of your Prosperities to have many praying for you to God and who are the more earnest as having been greatly obliged by you I do now thank you for all the many Kindnesses that I have received from you both in my former Health and in my late sore Affliction I thank you for Visiting me in my low Estate tho the greatness of my Pain and the anguish of my Thoughts allowed me not to take such notice of so great an Honour as otherwise I should have done I have often said when I was greatly afflicted That I should neither see you nor any others of my Friends till the great Day and till the Heavens were no more And God alone by his Soveraign Goodness hath brought me from the lowest Pit It was to manifest my Thankfulness to my great Deliverer that I preached the following Sermons in a Place where were many of my Friends many that had prayed for me many that had continued their Kindnesses to me when I could no way be serviceable to them and to whom I can make no other Requital than by praying for them and endeavouring to live to the Glory of that God for whose sake both you and they so kindly remembred me In these Discourses you will find a Relation of some part of my Affliction It is impossible to relate the whole of it for my Sorrows were beyond expression I have not here
DISCOURSES OF Sickness and Recovery SERMON II. PSAL. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Reason 4. DEliverance from the Grave is a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledged because by that means a man has a longer time in which to prepare for another World And this is more a Mercy because it must go with us for ever according to what we have done in these bodies whether good or evil This Life is our onely state of Tryal and so shall it fare with us hereafter as we now behave our selves There is no knowledge nor invention in the Grave whither we are going None of those things can be performed there which to perform now is our most seasonable and necessary Duty If a man were to have a Tryal for his Estate or Life he would take it for a favour to have leisure given him wherein to make ready for it and to put his Affairs into the best posture that he could it ought to be reckoned a much greater kindness to have notice and time afforded us wherein to prepare for the Last determination of the State of our Souls which is vastly more weighty and Considerable It is a Mercy to have Sickness or some tollerable Affliction sent to summon us before the Arrival of the King of Terrours and to bid us put our Houses and our Minds in Order lest by sensual Enjoyments or the pleasing Enjoyments of the Flesh that Day come upon us unawares and left we be in a slumber when the Voice shall say Behold the Bridegroom eomes go ye out to meet him There is no question at all but that 't is very Lawful with submission to pray against Sudden Death for though it be a Mercy to those whose Grace is eminently strong and who are alwayes ready to dye without Lingring Pains and a Complication of acute and violent Diseases which make Death much more a Death than it would be without them yet to the most the danger of Surprisal is so very great and of being hurried to the Bar and judg'd to an Eternal Condition before we have done what we ought to do in time that we may esteem it none of the least Mercies of God that he does by some shaking blowes warn us before he give the last stroak and cut us down It is not onely the practise of an Holy Life and an Habitual Readiness which Believers have by Faith and the renewing Operations of the Spirit by the uprightness of their Carriage and the Constancy of their Prayers but a more particular preparation that they need 'T is necessary for them not onely to have Oyl in their Lamps but their Lamps burning not onely the Graces of the Spirit but those Graces in the fullest brightness and strength to which they can attain in this Mortal State The best can never be so much prepar'd for Death but they may be more so They never have proceeded so far in their Mortification but they are sensible that they have still more sins to mortifie they have never so much warmed their Hearts with the love of God but that they may still glow with a purer and an hotter Flame It is very desireable to the best to have their Faith more strong their submission more calm and their hope more lively 'T is very desireable to have more Acquaintance and Familiarity with God before they appear at his Tribunal to receive their final Sentence They know well that it is a great Work impartially seriously and constantly to search their own Hearts and to judge themselves aright that they may not be judged of the Lord. As also to discharge all the duties that they owe to God to themselves to their Neighbours and their Countrey and they cannot but be very thankful that they are allow'd more time to do it in That they may purifie their Consciences raise their Affections and review their Lives with exactness and Care when they are shortly to be lookt into by an Omniscient and unerring Eye They know it is a Mercy to be able to loosen their Hearts from the World which they are too much apt to love and in a weanedness from what is sensible to dye before they dye The most Religious have the clearest Apprehension that to appear before Christ is no sleight or Common thing that they must be such in whom he may take delight and be as a Bride adorned for her Husband They know that the Celebration of the Lords Supper and the hearing of the Word and Fast-dayes and extraordinary Seasons of Prayer are such duties as require the preparations of Humbling Sorrows lively Desires awful Reverence Meekness and Self-denial because God will be sanctisied of all that draw nigh unto him They dare scarcely go to the Lords Table without Fear and Trembling much less dare they go to the Lord himself without a most solemn Preparation What Care do men use if they are but about to Transplant themselves into some Foreign Countrey what Inquiries do they make about it What laying in of all necessary Stores that they may not be destitute of suitable accommodations when they come to the new place where they design to fix And 't is not to be wondred at that such as are to be removed into another World are very solicitous about it and very thankful that their season and their day of Grace is lengthned out Whoever Considers the many duties which the Scripture requires of those that believe what obligations they are under to their Saviour what to their Fellow-Christians and to those who are yet strangers to the Faith How many Omissions and Commissions they are guilty of and what need there is of running watching and striving with all their might that they may not loose Heaven and Glory whoso thinks of this must account it a Mercy that they have opportunity wherein to do what is so great and so indispensable And as the Apostle speaking of the new Heavens and new Earth inferrs What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. So in this Case we may say what manner of persons ought they to be who must quickly go into Eternity How should they labour to increase with all the increase of God to have suitable Promises laid up in their Hearts from which in the sorest Distresses they may fetch Relief What need have they of manifold Expersences and of the Compleat Armour of Righteousness which may enable them to wrestle with and to subdue the various and unknown difficulties and Tentations of a dying Hour to have their Evidences for Salvation clear and unquestionable to know that they are in a state of Grace and that they have finished the work of their Generation Indeed the Careless part of Men think that the
in his power to help them and a Word of his Mouth can heal them when other Physitians are of no value We can then by what we felt our selves tell them something of the Evil effects and bitterness of Sin Though what we feel in some Cases is far more then what we can express We can after our Sickness excite all our Acquaintance to Fear and to love God to fear him who can in a few dayes bring them very low and to love him who can quickly raise the lowest up again A Man has much more to do on Earth than to secure his own Salvation The World the Church the Nation to which he belongs do all claim a part in him The Converted and the Unconverted his Relations and Friends the good and the bad do all need and require his help and it is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged that God renewes our strength and opportunity that we may do some service for him before we dye There are many Duties to be performed here which cannot be done in another World Psal. 88. 11. His loving kindness cannot be declared in the Grave nor his Faithfulness in destruction Psal. 6. 5. In death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 115. 17. The dead praise not the Lord neither any that go down into silence Now it is a blessed and a glorious priviledge to praise him here on Earth for though he be praised among the glorify'd it is without any propogation of praise to the name of God for that is the Priviledge of the Saints on Earth where they make known his name to those that knew it not before or make it more known to those that knew it As also to advance the Kingdom of Christ in the World to which the dead contribute nothing at all and to give good Examples by the sincerity and inoffensiveness of their Carriage for in heaven there is no need of good Examples There is no Evil Person to be reduced and all there are possest of their Happiness Vid. Hook 's Priviledge of the Saints on Earth beyond those in Heaven in regard of many duties pag. 12. Here it is that we may feed the Hungry cloath the Naked visit the Sick lodge the poor that have no dwelling place Here it is by our Sympathy that we may weep with those that weep and in some respect imitate the kind Incarnation of our Saviour by putting on the Wants and Miseries of others But in Heaven there is no Miserable person to relieve no opportunity to shew our Mercy and Compassion to the afflicted and yet this Grace is one of the fairest Lineaments of the new Creature and which causes in us a near resemblance of our Heavenly Father Here we may pray for the Sick the Tempted and the Persecuted but there is an happy freedom from Sickness and Temptation While we live we may by Intercession and Prayers for our Friends do them good but in that World for ought we know such an Intercession ceases and we are sure there is neither Command Example or Promise in all the Scripture to encourage us to make our Application to the Saints departed for the Relief of our wants that Homage is alone due to Christ the Great and onely Mediatour whose Mediation is founded on the excellency of his Person and the Ransom that he gave to God 'T is here on Earth that the strong in Faith may assist the weak 't is here they may speak words of Comfort and Refreshment to the weary soul whereas above they all rest from their Labours 'T is here they must strengthen the weak hands and Confirm the feeble knees and say to them that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not Isa. 35. 3 4. 'T is here that the fathers to their children must make known his truth Isa. 38. 19. and endeavour that his name may be celebrated from Generation to Generation and that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord. Psal. 102 18. 'T is here that in the midst of sore Tryals we must exercise our Faith for there it will be turned into sight and full Assurance 'T is here that we must wait in hope for there the good which we expect will be possest 'T is here that we must love our Enemies and bless them that Curse us And this Faith and Hope and love are greatly serviceable to the Propagation of the Gospel 'T is here on Earth that we must acquire and use these Graces and exercise the Gifts which God hath given us for the common good For whether there be prophesies they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away 1. Cor. 13. 8. What a Mercy is it to have Life and time wherein to perform so many good Works for the advantage of our Neighbours What a Mercy is it for a Magistrate to live that he may shine with more brightness and fill his higher Orb with clearer Light That he may by his own good Example and by his discouraging of Prophaneness and Irreligion promote the Kingdom of Christ as well as contrive for the Honour of his own Dominions What a Mercy is it to a Minister that he may live to speak in the name of God to bring the glad tidings of Salvation and to be long employed in bringing home poor wandring sinners to Jesus Christ To unfold the Mysteries of the Gospel and the unsearchable riches of Grace and Mercy that are therein and to use the Talents that are given him for his Masters Glory How much more desireable is it to such an one to be speaking in the Pulpit than to be silent in the Grave and to have all his knowledge that he acquired with painful Labour and waking Thoughts to be as it were buried with him or at least not to be of any further use to the World What a Mercy is it to a Parent that he may Live to educate his his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that he may instruct and Antidote them against the Contagions of this World where Evil Examples are so numerous and good ones so very rare to give them warning of the dangers which he himself narrowly escap'd and to acquaint them betimes with the wayes of God and by his conduct and prudent advice and frequent Exhortations and constant prayers to recommend them frequently to the blessing of Providence and to fortifie them against the rashness and haste and folly of their Careless Age. 'T is easie indeed for those that are faithful in their several stations to desire Death as a Traveller desires the shadow of a Rock in a weary land and as a Labourer after a days hard labour is glad of the approaching Night that he may go to bed 'T is a piece of self-denial for very Holy Men to be content to Live and to stay on Earth when they have a well-grounded hope of Heaven To stay in
insisted on that which was the Trouble of my Trouble my spiritual Distress my Anxieties and my Fears which were vastly more afflicting to me than my bodily Pains which yet were both sharp and long I do purpose if these Discourses meet with Acceptance to publish some others hereafter that shall both contain an account of the Distresses of my Soul and also some Directions to those that are long afflicted and more especially to melancholy People to whose Case there is very little said by those that have long been so themselves Since I have been so long sick I cannot look upon any of my Fellow-Creatures but with great pity when I think how many thousand Pains and Troubles may be their Portion before they die I could not have thought there had been in the World so many and so great Miseries as those are which I my self have felt Tho at the same time I cannot but adore the Wisdom of God's Providence that conceals from the knowledg of Men those Evils to which they are obnoxious for if they foresaw them it were impossible for them to perform their present Duty they would cause such troublesom Agitations in their Spirits I have been somewhat particular as to my own Case in the following Sermons that I may warn all People to walk humbly and not to be secure when they see what strange Miseries God has wherewith to correct our Follies to desire them to prepare for long Sickness and Pain as also to excite those that are delivered from the Grave and so have received two Lives from God to be very thankful and to improve so comfortable and so great a Mercy That You may prosper in your Trades and go on with the same Vigour and Faithfulness to manage the Duties of your Publick Station that You have hitherto done That You may long live to promote the Welfare and Happiness of this City and by the careful discharging of your Talents may afterwards have Authority over ten Cities and exchange your Gowns for Robes of Glory That the Blessing of God may be upon You your Ladies your Children and your whole Families is and shall be the constant Prayer of Gentlemen Your very much obliged Servant TIMOTHY ROGERS London Sept. 22. 1690. Practical DISCOURSES OF Sickness and Recovery SERMON 1. PSAL. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness IT hath pleased that all-wise Providence that Governs orders and directs all things in this lower World after a very long and terrible Sickness and Calamity to give me an opportunity to appear in this Place at this time 'T is a place where I am well assur'd there have been many prayers put up for me during my sore and great Affliction And seeing the Most High God in whose power alone it was to relieve me has from his own Soveraign Goodness not cast off your prayers nor turn'd away his mercy from me I am now come to thank him in the midst of this Congregation for remembring so mean a Creature and so vile a sinner in his low Estate for his mercy endureth for ever As also to thank those of you here that had a sense of my sorrowful Condition for your kind Affection and for the Requests which with so much pity and Compassion you presented to the Throne of God in my behalf I judge it equal that in a place where there have been offer'd up so many sacrifices of hearty prayer there should be also offer'd up one common Sacrifice of as hearty Praise and that a great Cloud of Incense may go up from us towards Heaven with an united flame of Love and Joy For may you not say with me Who is so great a God as our God who does marvellous things without number who commands Salvation where there seems to be no sign but of approaching Misery and Ruin and who is so good a God as our God that does not contend for ever that Creates Light in the thickest Darkness and turns the shadow of death into the morning It is this Mighty and this Gracious God that I would praise my self and that I would now invite you to praise It is no less than his all-powerful Voice that has asswag'd those Flouds that overwhelm'd me after I have been like Jonas in the very belly of Hell swallowed up with amazement and fear he has made those Waves of Trouble which in a Continual Succession roul'd over my Head to set me now as on the dry Land It was without doubt a surprizing thing to Jonah after so sad a Case as is mentioned in Chap. 2. ver 3 4 5 6. wherein he thus speaks Thou hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the flouds compassed me about and thy billows and thy waves passed over me Then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again toward thy holy temple the waters compassed me about even to the soul the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapt about my head I went down to the bottoms of the mountains the earth with her bars was about me for ever c. I say after so sad a Case as this it was a surprizing thing to the poor man to see himself in this pleasant World again and to find that the same Creature that had swallowed him up should be the vessel that should Convey him to the shore As it is not easie to know after what manner he lived for those three days and three nights how he breath'd in the Sea and in the belly of the Whale and with what he was nourish't and maintain'd so his escape from a danger which had actually overtaken him was no less miraculous I am not in a less surprize than he may be suppos'd to be in nothing but that Almighty power to which nothing is impossible could save either him or me Methinks I begin to stand as on the firm Land and behold that stormy Sea and those rough Winds that blew so violently and fill'd me with so great a fear and which lasted more Months than his did Nights and Days And though I was no way like to that Holy Prophet unless it were in his Impatience and Anger yet I can say with him Jon 〈…〉 2. 9. I will sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving I will pay that that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord Though I have such a remaining pain as makes me not to know what a Total Ease is yet I own it as an effect of his Unsearchable Grace that I have now so much hope as to be able in some measure to pray to him and so much Ease as to be able to speak to you neither of which I could have done whilest his heavy hand prest me very sore Had it not been for
God but as Chaffe before the Wind but as Thorns and Briars before a Consuming Fire but by a reverential awe of him we may lay hold of his Strength and be at Peace Look up to his Heavens and that vastly extended Firmament that is above and then reflect and think how great is he that made all this Creation with a Word Look to his Law and consider how holy he is in his Precepts and Threatnings and then look to your selves and consider how Sinful and how Vile you are Look upon the strange punishments and miseries under which many of your Fellow-creatures groan and be not high-minded but fear because the God that afflicts them may perhaps very shortly do the same to you and let it fill you with the most awful thoughts when you consider how great is his power how severe his Justice and how unspotted is his Holiness How easie is it for him to bring you to the Grave if he do but withdraw sleep from your eyes so that you have no rest for three or four nights or for one Week Then there is a stop put to all your present projects and then all the Comfort of the World is gone For all Affairs depend upon Activity and Vigour and this will cease when sleep does no longer refresh your Spirits as it us'd to do All your apprehensions will change when you have lost this support of weak nature this onely prop of Comfortable Life God can make the strongest and most healthful persons quickly to feel Sickness and Diseases He can quickly turn a pleasant fruitful Land into barrenness and the most beautiful Habitations into Dust and Ashes We should greatly beware of provoking him of whose Mercy we stand in need and whose Wrath we cannot bear He can quickly change all our Joy into Mourning and our Day into Night and our Light into the shadow of Death When he frowns all the stateliness of Buildings all the Glory of Nations all the Pomp and Splendour of the World is gone How soon can he lay waste a flourishing Countrey with War or Plague or Famine he can quickly turn the house of Joy into an house of Mourning and deprive us of what is most pleasant in our Eyes and blast all our hopes You have seen that by letting loose an unruly Element of Fire he turn'd this City in two or three dayes into an heap of Ruins and by filling the Air with contagious Vapors sent many thousands in a very little time into the Grave and he can by letting loose any one Humour in your bodies make you a burden to your selves and to be weary of a World in which you can no longer live as you us'd to do Inf. 3. There is great Reason that under any Sickness or Distress that befalls us we should submit our selves to this God that brings even to death and back again If you be plagued all the day long and chasten'd every morning Psal. 73. 14. whilest others are in no trouble and if you feel your strength decay whilest theirs is firm let no murmuring thoughts fill your Minds because you are the Creatures of God and he may do with you what he will Keep a remembrance of his absolute Soveraignty alwayes imprinted on your Hearts Job 33. 12 13. God is greater than man why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Whatever he doth is therefore good and holy because he does it And when he chastens us very sore we should lay our Mouthes in the dust and bear with Patience his Indignation because we have sinned against him We must not yield our selves to our Miseries but to him that sends them and that you may submit in Great and Heavy Trials you must have recourse to the Promises of the Gospel the Mercy of God and the Righteousness of Christ the Merit of his Sufferings and the Efficacy of his Intercession and if you believe you will be established for without Faith in Christ there is no Hope and without Hope no Submission How can this be done if a man have no prospect of advantage by it either in this or the next World for no man can possibly submit to be for ever Miserable It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3. 26. Inveigh not therefore against the Rod though it smart very much but look to the hand in which it is to that Wisdom that has the disposal of it and to those sins that have deserv'd it Look not upon your Evils as the product of Chance or Fortune but as the effect of an Holy Providence which though it is many times very severe yet is alwayes very just Adore this Providence with an humble Silence and Veneration You do not know which is better for you Health or Sickness Affliction or Deliverance he onely knows that knows all things and it will be very grateful to him if you give a chearful entertainment to his Order and Decree If he please who is your Gratious Creator and your Father he can therefore afflict you that he himself may be your Cordial and revive your fainting spirits from the very Grave but if not your Religion should teach you to approve of all the messages he sends you and by a quiet Resignation to put your Souls into his hands when he signifies by the Progress and Increase of your Distemper that your Race is finisht and that it is now your time to die And in order to this you must lay up a good store against that Evil day For you may be warned from the World with long Chronical Diseases that by their Acuteness and Violence may be as so many several Deaths complicated together And then when you have no hope of bodily ease any more then will be the great Tryal of your Faith Several Men will with great hardiness and resolution bear very great pains so long as there is the least hope of Life but to be patient and submissive in the deepest Sorrows and in the view of certain death this is what none can rightly attain to but those that Believe and not all those neither but such whose Faith is deeply rooted has for a long time flourisht and Conquer'd overwhelming doubts and so is of more than an ordinary growth This is that which rendred the Patience of our Blessed Redeemer so very remarkable that when he was lead to the slaughter where he knew he was to suffer violent and great pain from barbarous and cruel men yet even then he opened not his mouth and when he knew there was unspeakable bitterness in that Cup which he was going to drink yet notwithstanding all the Wormwood and the Gall that was in it and though his Innocent Nature did recoil a little yet he drank it off saying with an entire freedom of Choice and a full Acquiescence Father not my Will but thine be done And this was the fruit of a mighty trust
immortality to light and with that Saviour who is the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church who came from Heaven and is now gone thither and we may fully rest and Acquiesce in the discoveries that he has given us of that Countrey for he knew it very well was very faithful in the discharging of his office and does not impose upon us any thing that is either false or incredible by our Holy Prayers we are to maintain a Commerce with him and with that World and by our frequent going thither in our Meditations we may gain a clearer knowledge of it Though there are no bounds on which our thoughts can terminate but onely the Revelations which God has been pleas'd to make in his own Word What is above those Heavens and that Firmament that we see there 's none can tell us but God and our Saviour who are there For when Men have abstracted their Thoughts with as much industry as they can from All that is material and sensible when they have refin'd their Understandings to the greatest spirituality and pored never so long upon the state of separation they will still remain in the dark about it And he is the most happy Man who in the sincere performance of the Duties of Religion can resign his Soul to Christ in Death and trust him though he is to be removed to a strange and a new World For immediately after he is loos'd from the Body he will understand more in an instant then all the most Learned in this World have ever understood by the labour and diligence of many years Secondly That which renders the continuance of Time to us wherein to prepare for Death a great Mercy is because we are to dye but Once and upon the well or ill doing of it depends our future Happiness or Misery It is a great Mercy that we have time wherein to make ready for our last Combat for if we lose the Battle once we are overthrown for ever it must not be fought over again It is a Mercy that we have leisure to compleat our journey well for we must never travel over the same Road again There will be no second Edition wherein to Correct our former Errors when a period is once put to the last Line of Life Oh what Faith what Courage what Strength is necessary to Conquer the Fears of Death and Death it self If men fail in their Trades they may by the kindness of their Friends be set up again if they have suffer'd Losses by Shipwrack by Fire or by Plunder they may be repaired but a Soul once lost will remain so for ever 'T is a long long Eternity that succeeds our Time if we should live on Earth as many Hundred years as the most Aged live Months it would bear no proportion with that vast and endless duration Whoever compares the shortness of our present state with the continuance of that into which we enter when we are to dye cannot but esteem the being brought back from the Grave to be a great Mercy If you have been careless of hearing at one season you may hear the Word again at another if you have heretofore been cold in your Prayers you may now excite your Hearts and pray with more fervour but if you once dye ill you must never mend so concluding a Miscarriage All the Tears we shed cannot give Life to the Body from which the Soul is fled All the Anguish of Miserable Souls cannot procure for them another Tryal They that are once cut down must never be planted by the Rivers side any more There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground yet through the scent of Water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant But man dieth and wasteth away yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he Job 14. 7 8 9 10. Reason 5. Those who are brought up from the grave have cause to be thankful because by that means they have more opportunity to be serviceable to the Glory of God and to be useful in the World Meerly to live is not a thing very desireable considering how many Miserie 's there are in Life to what Evils and Inconveniences our Bodies are obnoxious and that the pains which they may suffer may be both very long and so secret that none can understand either what they are or how to remove them But it is a most desirable thing to Live when we can thereby obtain the Ends that are truly Great and Noble For First Hereby a man may do good to others He may teach the Ignorant reduce the wandring and by the sincerity of his Counsel by the zeal of his Prayers and the Lustre and Holiness of a good Example advance the power of Religion Our Lives are not our own they are Gods by a double title both of Creation and Redemption they are to be us'd for him who preserves or takes them away as he will Not onely Ministers but every private Christian is obliged by the Name he bears and by the Relation that he has to the holy Society of Believers and to the Kingdom of Christ whereof he is a Subject to enlarge it by all good ways that he can and every man is the more obliged to this when God has bestow'd a new Life upon him When we are near to the Gates of the Grave and look back and see with how little Zeal and Diligence we had spent our time and how little we had done for him who blest us all our dayes then we are enclined most earnestly to beseech him that he would grant us another Tryal and that then we would improve it much better than we did our former time and when he does grant us what we have askt then it should be our great indeavour not to frustrate and disappoint the designs of his Goodness and Mercy Then must we teach transgressors his way telling them how dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Then we may tell the Healthful what Sickness is what we have found it to be by our own Experience then we may tell them how it makes very uneasie and troublesome Companions of our now beloved Bodies How it deprive us of all our Pleasures and Recreations in the day and of our rest at night That all their Friendships Conversations and Merryments without true Religion are altogether vain and not onely so but they leave a sting of guilt behind when the sweetness that once allur'd is gone away We may warn them to provide for the dayes of darkness and for the many Miseries of Life that will sooner or latter overtake them When we are Recover'd we can tell the Diseased of the Goodness and the Power of God that they can never be so distressed but that it is still
their Hands thrived very much The Tears and Prayers of their Hearers and their Friends that would have had them to flourish with perpetual Youth and that were very sorrowful to see Men that filled them with such great hopes taken away could not stay them here any longer nor would God have them to stay longer from their happiness It is indeed a Mercy to those that are good fit for Heaven to have an early Deliverance from such an evil World as this where there is so much Sorrow and Disorder and Temptations and Sins to be taken away from the Evil to come and from many sad Objects that such as live longer may be troubled to see to be fully assured that God is their God and Heaven their Home Jesus Christ did leave the World as one says and ascend to Glory about the 33 d or 34 th year of his Age to teach us in the prime of our Years to despise this World when we are best able to enjoy it and to reserve our full Vigour for Heaven and for his Love Yet though this be a way to promote a Man's own Happiness yet it must be received as a Mercy from God when any one lives not only to promote his own Salvation but the Good of others also Some will say What need we to pray for long Life what need we sollicite God to no purpose or tire him with our Prayers for we shall not live a day beyond our time nor die a moment sooner Do you not think your selves concern'd to eat and to drink and to procure to your selves other Gratifications of Life notwithstanding this And why should you not think your selves under an equal Obligation to use those other Means that are necessary to preserve Life as Prayer to God for his Blessing seeing Man lives not by Bread alone Mat. 4. 4. You find that Hezekiah by his Prayers to God obtained fifteen years more after he had received the first Summons of Death And Paul by the Prayer of the Corinthians was delivered after he had received the Sentence of Death 2 Cor. 1. 9 10 11. And whatsoever may be in the Decrees of God yet I am sure he may justly deny us what we will not take the pains to beg tho the longest Life that we can hope to live will be some hundreds of years shorter than the Lives of Men before the Flood for their long Lives are rather to be ascribed to some extraordinary Priviledg than to the ordinary Course of Nature The World was then to be replenished with Inhabitants which could not be so speedily done but by an extraordinary multiplication of Mankind neither could that be done but by the long Lives of Men. Again Arts and Sciences were then to be planted for the better effecting whereof it was requisite that the same Men should have the Experience and Observation of many Ages As also the Food wherewith they were nourished before the Flood may well be thought to be more medicinal and haply the Influence of the Heavens was at that time in that Climate where the Patriarchs lived more favourable and gracious Hakewell Apol. p. 38. If Deliverance from the Grave be a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledged then it is a very evil thing in haste and passion to wish for Death There are several People when any thing falls out that crosses their Inclinations or Designs will presently say I wish I were dead I wish I were in the Grave and out of such a troublesom World as this But do you know what it is to die it is to appear before the eternal God and to render an Account of all that you have thought or spoke or done it is to be judg'd to Heaven or Hell and that for ever I cannot forget here that sad Story that is mentioned by Bellarmine and quoted from him He speaks of a Man notoriously worldly-minded whom he went to visit on his Death-bed and when he did him duly to provide for another World answer'd him Sir I have much desired to speak with you but it is not for my self but in behalf of my Wife and Children for my self I am going to Hell neither is there any thing that I would desire in my own behalf And this he spake saith he with such Composedness as if he had been but going to the next Town or Village The Ignorance of this miserable Person suffer'd him to be in no Commotion nor Horror at all but what a doleful Change did he feel in his Thoughts and Apprehensions when he came to that real Hell and to those Flames of which he spake in so cold a manner People make very little of dying and those that are poor usually die with the least concern for they imagine that having suffer'd so many Miseries in this World they shall be very happy in the next Life is a very dear Enjoyment and it is a wonder any should desire in haste to be deprived of it but it is usually then when they are in very great and almost insupportable Pain or under the fear of Evils that seem to be greater than what they are able to bear Thus the Children of Israel being in great straits wish'd they had died in Egypt Exod. 16. 3. Thus the meekest of all other Men press'd by the Calamities that he had in view says Numb 11. 14 15. I am not able to bear all this People alone because it is too heavy for me and if thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favour in thy sight and let me not see my Wretchedness Thus Elijah 1 King 19. 4. and Job chap. 6. 8 9. and Jonah the Sun beat upon his Head and he fainted and he wished in himself to die and said It is better for me to die than to live chap. 4. 8. but by a Mercy of God not inferiour to his former Deliverance he was reserv'd to another Repentance and to more peaceable Days Thus even good Men have sinned through the pressure of some very great Affliction and Calamity In this they followed the Motions of their sensitive Nature and not those of Grace the tediousness of their Trouble and the weight of the Cross that they groaned under made them with too much eagerness and haste to pray for Death which is always reckoned to be the last Refuge of the Miserable But God is not used to grant these fretful and passionate Desires he will make them to know their own Folly and the Justice of his Soveraign Authority he will have them not only to serve him but to wait till he dismiss them from their Service and all their Haste shall not make their Sun decline till he see it is their time to die And it is indeed a piece of Arrogance unsuitable to the Condition of a Creature to desire it just at such a particular Season as if we knew the most convenient time to depart and were not in this as
I may but I have had no Rest at all then nor the next nor the next scarce any discernable Sleep I am sure none that was refreshing for above three quarters of a year together And if at any time I rested a little that little Rest was all the while disturb'd with terrible and amazing Dreams and when I awaked I always found my self in strange and unexpressible Pain in Anguish and Bitterness such as nothing in this World is able to represent even as to its lowest degrees And judg you into what Confusions and Disorders this alone would throw a Man if it were single My Disease and my Fears and sad Apprehensions came upon me as a Whirlwind like the rushing of many mighty Waters strange and horrible Pains and great Fears so that it was as an universal Storm from which there was no retreat I said with Hezekiah Isa. 38. 12 13. Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherd's Tent I have cut off like a Weaver my Life He will cut me off with pining Sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me I was continually full of restless Pain and amazing Thoughts I often said I am now cut off I am come to the End of my Journey I am going to the Grave there was but a Step but a Minute as it were between me and Death nay how often have I been by most terrible Convulsions in the very Jaws of Death They were to me as a Den of Lions and are as painful and as terrible as if a Man were actually torn to pieces And in all these not the least help nor prospect of Relief and these returning every day for many weeks or rather one continued Convulsion-fit and that always with a very quick and cutting Pain it never came upon me but as a Giant or an armed Man and whenever that was I thought my self in the very Moment of my Separation from the Body I thought my self very often just going to the Bar of God I was in Death often often as in the very Agonies and Pangs of Death but I could not die I seemed to have the strength of Brass it seemed to me as if I had been raised up by Almighty Power only that I might be capable to suffer Pains very strange and very terrible I sunk as in the deep Mire Psal. 69. 2. I saw indeed sometimes the Light of Day but it was never refreshing nor comfortable to me for I was often saying with Job chap. 3. 23 24. Why is Light given to a Man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in For my Sighing cometh before I eat and my Roarings are poured out like Water I was not in Safety neither had I Rest neither was I quiet yet trouble came For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me I often said I shall never see the World till it be in Flames never see my Friends or Acquaintance nor they me till the Heavens be no more and till the vast Appearance of the great Day Thus my Feet stumbled on the dark Mountains and all was hideous Darkness Woe and Desolation with me Sometimes by the Greatness of my Trouble I was even stifled with Grief that I could not for a great while speak a Word and when I spoke it was in a mournful manner for many Months I could not breath without a mighty Pain and as soon as with Difficulty I had breath'd every Breath was turn'd into a Groan and every Groan was big with a very deep Sorrow I was weary with my Groaning Psal. 6. 6. All the Night made I my Bed to swim and watered my Couch with Tears Nay the Sadness and the stinging Particularities that I apprehended in my afflicted Case made me to weep even till I had no more power to weep Psal. 88. 3. My Soul was full of Troubles and my Life drew nigh to the Grave c. I saw the Grave as beneath me continually opening to swallow me up I often said in my self I shall no more see the Congregations or Assemblies of God's-People I shall never any more enter into his Court nor sing his Praise I shall no more speak in his Name nor experience his loving-kindness in the Land of the Living any more These were some of my Thoughts and this was my inexcusable Infirmity and my Unbelief Those that are in Health will scarcely perhaps credit what I say they will think I am a melancholy Man and aggravate my Trouble and set it out more than needs or than it was and that in the whole there was a great deal more of Fancy than of Reality but I pray God they may never taste one drop of that bitter Cup whereof I was made to drink for if they should they 'l find it whatever Names they now give it to be then full of real Miseries As I have spoke nothing but what I fully believe to be true so I have spoke the more of it that it may be of some use to others that though Trouble and Distresses fall upon them which are very strange and very perplexing or such as rarely happen that they would hope even in the Depths for they may see by me that nothing is too hard for God There are few that having been so near to Death revive again few that have been near it so long together and fewer that after they have recovered are willing to speak of what they then saw and felt but methinks it is not unnecessary to shew to what woful Miseries we are obnoxious in this World and how many ways God has wherewith to correct and punish the Sins of Men. Most People are unwilling to speak of such things as these because others are unwilling to hear such doleful Relations they invent some other Discourse to put it off but their hearing of it is better than to feel it and this may help them to avoid manifold Mischiefs before it be too late You think it may be that I have spoke a great deal and your Attention may be wearied but I'lassure 't is many hundred times below what I felt Great Griefs as well as mighty Joys exceed all our Words and Bitterness is not to be described Never was any I believe nearer to Death not to die never was any compass'd with a greater Danger never any had less hope of an Escape than I and yet the Mercy of a God that is Omnipotent has relieved me And as 't is commonly said that Musick sounds best upon the Water so by setting our Sorrows and our Mercies together our Praise may be more harmonious You may in this behold the Severity and the Goodness of God his Severity in continuing on me so many smart Strokes for so long a space and his Goodness
humble us for our former Sins and direct us what to do for the time to come that our Speech our Conversation may be more profitable than it has been 1 Cor. 15. 58. Eccl. 9. 10. Fourthly Let us live so that our Examples may do good whilst we live and when we are dead For every Man that has the Spirit of Christianity i. e. a generous and a publick Spirit will not only be concerned for himself but for others and not only for the present but for the future Generation And as in this luxurious and most wicked Age of ours there is like to be transmitted to Posterity a great number of very bad Examples so it should be the Care and Endeavour of every good Man to prevent their mischievous influence by doing what in him lies to mend the World We live indeed in a time wherein the most part of People can talk very well but never was there any time in which there was less Practice It is a most easie thing to discourse well but none but a true Believer can live as he ought to do according to the Gospel which requires an universal and a shining Holiness Our Actions and Examples will have a more powerful efficacy than our Words and whilst the one does but touch the Ear the other will penetrate into the very Souls of those that observe us and render themselves Masters of their Approbation even almost whether they will or not We are obliged to have a great regard to the Salvation of our Neighbours and there is no course more likely to succeed than this They will easily follow us when we take them by the hand and advise them to go in no other way but in that where we go our selves When we are fervent in our Prayers it will shame their Coldness when we are serious in our attending on the Word the sight of our seriousness will make them more attentive and our Heat of Affection may kindle some Sparks of Love to God in their colder Hearts and the necessity of a good Example seems to be greater in Cities than in other places for as one observes Du-bose Serm. p. 495. It is certain that great Towns are ordinarily great Theaters of Vices as the Multitude is more numerous so wicked Examples are more frequent Sin hardens it self by the number and authorizes it self by the quantity of Accomplices And as the Fire burns more by a great heap of wood or coals put together so the Ardour of Sin warms and inflames it self by a great Throng of Persons that communicate to one another their criminal Affections Besides in vast and populous Cities they have more Liberty to sin because it is less observed and taken notice of as a Serpent conceals it self among a multitude of Bushes Whereas in little Villages the least faults are soon minded many times in greater places very great Enormities are not discern'd and it concerns us also whom God has raised from the Grave to be more exact in our Course for People will look with a more curious Eye upon us that are recovered to see what we do when they will not it may be look so much to the hand that heal'd us As the People câ—me more to see Lazarus that was risen than Jesus that reviv'd him from the Grave much people of the Jews came not for Jesus sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Joh. 12. 9. Wicked men are punish'd in Hell for all the Evil they have done 〈◊〉 the World and for all that they have been the cause of it is a new addition to their torments to think how many are going to the same miserable place whose damnation will lye at their door As 't is commonly said that Dives requested of Abraham that some messenger might be sent to warn his Brethren lest they came to the same place not from any Love to their Souls for there is no such Charity in Hell but from a fear that if they came to the same torment his own misery would be the greater for having been in a great measure the cause of theirs by his bad Example And on the contrary 't is a great pleasure to those in Heaven to think that they have been any way instrumental to the Glory of their great Lord and that the Seeds that by good Instructions and holy Example they threw upon the World flourish into Fruit when they are dead Thus they blossom in the dust and their Actions as 't is fabulously reported of some of the Bodies of the Popish Saints send forth a sweet perfume after Death to all the places round about The Saints of God do good indeed to the World when they are gone not by Intercession as Mediators for us but by the good Works which they performed here below and tho their Works follow them to increase their reward yet the remembrance of them stays behind It is hardly to be imagined how far the power of a good Example does diffuse its self when the person that gave it is removed from the World It does encourage others to Religion and to a perseverance in it seeing it has no new difficulties but only those which others have conquered who are now at rest with God Therefore are we commanded to be followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises Heb. 6. 6. We are to follow their Faith considering the end of their Conversation Heb. 13. 7. Those of us that have been so happy as to have had a Religious Education tho we are depriv'd of our Parents yet we full well remember their serious pathetical Exhortations how they did earnestly intreat us to fear God and keep his Commandments We can remember how they set some portion of their time apart every day for Reading the Word and secret Prayer and the other Duties of Religion and when we are gone if we have been truly sincere others cannot but remember our Example Your Children and Servants will greatly mind what you do that are the Master of the Family and you either very much promote or hinder their Salvation for which you must be answerable to God in the approaching day of Judgment Is it not a Credit to your Reputation when your Servant and Apprentice shall thus remember your Example and say Oh how Conscientious was my Master in his Buying and Selling how afraid was he of imposing upon others or of cheating them with many good words whilst he had deceitful intentions in his heart How afraid was he lest the business of his Trade should Justle out Religion or the Shop be an hindrance to the Duties of his Closet or of Family Prayer How careful was he to set aside some of his Gains for the Charitable Relieving of the Poor As to you that are Parents your Children will certainly mind more what you do than what you say If you Sanctifie the Sabbath and are serious in your Service to God you may
himself who in the night that he was betrayed was providing a Feast of Comfort for his poor Followers Fourthly T is very delightful to God when his Servants after the receipt of Mercies joyn their praises together If we had no experiences of his Goodness to us yet so excellent are the Perfections of his Nature that we ought even then to praise him much more when he is so kind to us who have deserved nothing He is pleased with with that homage which we give him by our Prayers and our hearing of the Word and when two or three are gathered together he is there It will also please him to see our Hearts and our Mouths full of Thanks for to this very purpose he gives his Blessings to us and it is grateful to him to see that they are not lost upon us As it is pleasant to an Husband-man to see a seasonable Harvest and that his Labour and Pains have not been in vain When there is a Consort of Musick there is the greatest Harmony and when a whole Assembly of sincere Christians joyn their Voices and their Hearts together with what a delightful sound do they go up before the Throne of God For as one observes the blessing and acceptance that Religion receives from the Divine Majesty is much greater for the publickness of it even in this sense two are better than one for they have a good reward for their labour In this sense their complicated services are more forcible their threefold Cord is not easily broken Not that God is prevailed upon to any change in himself or his Government by the services of his Creatures though in a multitude but he is pleased to found the occasions and opportunities of his most bountiful recompences in the drawing near of their greater numbers For as when God was pleased to communicate himself more freely he did it to a multitude of Creatures so he delights in receiving back the glory of having thus communicated himself from a multitude also and as there is more of himself in more of his Creatures whether of several sorts or of the same so there is more of his blessing in their approaches to him Whole Duty of Nations p. 9. What does the Great God obtain by all his Acts of Bounty to his Creatures but a Revenue of praise what other end does he design in all his Mercies therefore we should be most willing to pay him this easie Tribute Oh how pleasant is it to come into the house of God with the voice of joy and praise and with a multitude that keep holy day Psal. 42. 4. Private prayer does not honour him so much as publick this therefore as the now mentioned person expresses it it was the Policy of Nineveh's natural Religion to unite their Force in Humiliation Fasting and Prayer and to take advantage of joyning the mute desires of the Beasts that have a voice in the Ears of God Abraham's Servant made the Camels kneel down while he prayed to God And it was as he further observes Davids Art to gather up all the Praises even of the lowest of the Creatures that could so meanly give them and inspiring them with his own Reason made them as it were to follow his Harp and to unite in his own Halleluiahs Thus he served himself of them that making by them a greater Present of glory to God he might receive the greater Blessing from him We ought to be as eloquent in the numbring of our Mercies as we are in the compution of our Sorrows and our Praises ought to be as loud or rather louder than our Groans And yet alass how rare a thing is this mutual praise And it may be as a sign of it that so many desire Funeral Sermons to be preached for their departed Friends and few desire any Sermons for their own Recovery from Sickness and Death or for their Friends upon the like occasions 'T is strange that we should be more ready to mourn than to rejoyce and that our Sorrows should be more passionate and fluent than our joys that we are more enclined to bewail our Losses than to be glad for our Mercies especially when one has the advantage of pleasure on its side which the other has not we always meet and mingle our Tears together when our Friends are to be laid into the Grave and we should as solemnly meet when any of our Friends have been nigh unto Death and have escaped it that for so great a Mercy we may return to God our Common Praise Fifthly This mutual praising of God is a resemblance of Heaven In doing this we are beginning that blessed Work which we hope to be employed in for ever We poor Sinners here below are then something like to those Holy Souls that are above Will it not be a great part of Heaven to admire and adore and praise God for all his Deliverances granted to us to his Church and our fellow Saints There will be a common Joy and an Union of Praises for all his Mercies from the beginning to the conclusion of the World And then all the Myriads of his Elect being safely gathered into his own Kingdom shall keep a Thanksgiving-day and that Day shall be for ever It is to that pleasant and chearful Country that we at length hope to go Let us use our selves now to the Language of the Place and learn betimes to Sing the Songs of Sion Let us raise our Voices as high as ever we can in the Praises of our God and then knowing how unsuitable our highest Elevations are to his Excellent and Glorious Majesty let us long to joyn with Glorified Spirits in their louder and sweeter Hymns and being sensible of our own Weakness we may call to the blessed Angels to all Beings that are in Heaven or on the Earth in the Air or in the Seas to help us to praise the Lord. As we have the Example of David in sevèral Psalms and in the 103. 20 21 22. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word Bless ye the Lord all ye his Hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his Works in all places of his Dominions bless the Lord O my Soul The Conclusion of the Whole AND now to finish what I design to say from these Words Having been delivered from a long and severe Sickness I would most earnestly beg of you all to help me to praise the Lord for his great Goodness and Mercy to me Long I was upon the very brink of the Grave and nothing in this World could ease my Pain or mitigate my Sorrows God himself hath wrought Salvation for me And 't is for your sakes as well as mine own that you may see an instance of his mighty Power and Goodness who as he hath delivered me can also deliver you when you come to Straits and Difficulties I heartily wish that seeing my
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