their might to plead the cause of Truth and Holiness and finish that great work their Lord hath set them You also that are the People of God should double your diligence You are not ignorant how your faithful Pastors liv'd and labour'd how they walked and wrought what indefatigable pains they took for God and for you and with their own hearts though you do not know half yet let that which you do know be a spur to you Up Christians up shake off a supine sluggish temper Work out your salvation with fear and trembling give all diligence to make your calling and election sure Hasten oh hasten to the Kingdom of God lose no time slip no opportunity neglect no part of your duty fill up your days relations and places and so run as that you may obtain you are compassed about with a great Cloud of witnesses lay aside therefore every weight that presseth down and the sinâ— that doth so easily beset you gird up the loins of your mind call forth all your strength buckle in good earnest to your business and on on in that holy pleasant race that is set before you 5. Remember them so as to be encouraged by them and take heart You live in a world that lyeth in wickedness it is grievously polluted almost all places are so dirty that we can scarce tread clean surely these are the dregs of time you are invironed with enemies and dangers And speak seriously Do you not sometimes feel inward fears and faintings Well encourage your selves in the Lord your God And take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an ensample of suffering afflictions and of patience You have seen what great things God hath done by them and for them you have seen that God hath carried them through all their difficulties so that they have overcome at the last Satan that roaring Lyon hath pursued them and come with open mouth yet could not devour them he hath got some of them and winnowed them as wheat yet their faith did not fail Lusts and corruptions within their own bosoms have made frequent assaults and furious batteries upon them yet they could not prevail These holy souls through Christ strengthning them have trodden down sins strength sometimes they have gone halting but always came off conquering The World again hath one while fawned like a strumpet and another while raged like a fury yet could not gain them by fair means nor foul Though the Archers have shot sore at them their bow hath abode in strength and the arms of their hands have been made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Iacob The waves have lifted up their voice and dashed against them yet have they stood like Rocks unshaken some of them have had an hard passage and met with many a violent storm yet at last they have got in a Calm unto their desired Heaven and being landed in the other world â—re now feasting in the new Hierusalem which is above at the Court of the King of Glory It is true they died and so must we so must the strongest and the highest it is appointed for all men once to dye yet these dye but once they did not dye before the time they did not dye before their work was done they did not dye before they were fit to dye no nor before they were willing to dye they were ripe fruit and so dropt into the bosom of Abraham In a word they dyed to live and now they live to dye no more Be you therefore of good cheer O ye holy Ones that God who did so much for them can do as much for you his arm is not shortned nor his ear heavy nor his love less be you strong in him and in the power of his might 6. Lastly So remember them as to think of theirs who are left behind It is more than probable that some of their Wives and Children are in a low condition and want conveniencies if not necessaries Be you liberal to them give them a supply out of your abundance pare off some of your superfluities for their relief you shall not suffer nor be losers by it I dare ingage to you there is one in Heaven will take care of that There be others who though not reduc'd to such straits as to need the help of your purses yet being now in a disconsolate condition they do need your company and comforts Poor hearts their houses are left unto them desolate they are Turtles alone and mourn sore like Doves give a knock at their doorâ— now and then when you can turn into those Widows houses and speak comfortably to them the very sight of their Husbands friends cannot but be cordial to them though for a time it will open the wound and renew their sorrow yet it will revive and chear them too Thus much for the first part of your duty Remember your deceased Pastors Yet before I pass on to the second let me subjoyn to what hath been said two things by way of Caution 1. While you remember them be not unmindful of God and do not forget to trust in God though they are dead yet God still lives yea he lives for evermore whosoever dyes God cannot dye he necessarily is and is necessarâ—ly what he is As he is eternally so eternally immutable not having the least shadow of turning And this ever-living God hath the residue of the spirit and can pour it out upon whom he will and furnish whom he pleaseth with Ministerial Gifts and Graces and he never ceaseth to look after his interest and people Look you to it that you be true to him and he will be true to you He will have a Ministry in England as long as he hath a Church in England and may that be as long as the Sun and Moon endure Amen This great Lord of the Harvest will lose none of his Corn not an ear not a grain for want of Labourers to gather it in This gracious and loving Father of the Family sees good now and then to pinch some of his Children but he will starve none When Israel was in a Wilderness he was pleased to work Miracles rather than they should not be provided for therefore let your Faith live as long as God liveth in Heaven and you upon Earth And let me add this for your comfort Let never so many good men eminent men dye your life O Believers is secur'd and insured to you by the life of Christ. Hear his own words Iohn 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also 2. While you remember them do not forget your selves It is readily and joyfully acknowledged that God doth not stand in need of Ministers He that could make Heaven and Earth by the Word of his Power can accomplish all his pleasure without helps and instruments yet you do need them and it is his Will to employ them and continue them to the end of the world Magistracy and
of the burning lake They do not consider the pearl of price how orient it is how excellent and inestimable and therefore they do not sell all and buy it They do not consider the worth of their souls that they are immortal and their ransom precious and therefore they barter them away for a filthy lust and transient pleasure Men do not consider how sordid and odious a thing it is how ill-becoming them how hateful to God and how exceedingly it inflámes their reckoning and will one day add to their torments 〈◊〉 swill like a Swine to be filthy like a Goat to curse like a Devil and to swear like a Cutter to profane Sabbaths and 〈…〉 to hate the power of Godliness and 〈◊〉 â—hose that are peaceable in a Land Due and serious 〈…〉 my Brethren would correct all these things 〈◊〉 â—ould reform a thousand disorders and we should have another world And until this be the world will be the old world still we shall find it as bad as ever a wicked malicious and troublesome world Cain will kill Abel still And they that are born after the flesh will persecute them that are born after the spirit I shall not at all wonder to see men carry like Bedlams to see them raging-mad in sin so long as they live like fools without consideration Well my Friends if any will be vain and foolish still let them be so As for you reckon upon it as your wisdom and interest to do nothing rashly not to pass over things lightly not to run on headily look before you leap ponder your path try all things Consider those things which we deliver to you in the course of our Ministry and require of you in the Name of our God whether they be not most holy and just and good Consider those things we propound to you the great and gracious offers we make whether you can any where else better your selves and get a more gainful bargain see if we do not out-bid all the world and offer you such a match for your souls as is the chiefest of ten thousands altogether lovely without compare O ye fools be ye of an understanding heart We would not have you embrace our counsels and follow our directions blindfold We can say this We counsel you as we do our selves and we lay no other burden upon you than upon our selves and your souls are precious to us as our own and it sorely troubles us to think of your eternal miscarrying and our hearts would greatly rejoyce even ours if that danger were over and that we did but see you in that tender and mighty hand out of which none can pluck you yet we would not have you take all upon trust from us an implicit faith and a blind obedience do not please us No weigh things in right balances compare the service of Christ with the drudgery of a Devil and the service of sin peace of conscience with roaring in a Tavern the kisses of a Saviours lips with the caresses of a Minion the favour of Christ with the smiles of a Man a being filled with the spirit with a being drunk with wine in which is a brutifying excess Compare contrivances for God with plots for Rome and conspiracies against Princes an heavenly mind with earthly affections an interest in promises and an inheritance in Heaven with an ill-gotten estate in the world that hath a curse in it Compare I say these things together and consider and then chuse Let some men say what they will their tongues are their own only let them remember they must at last be accountable for their words as for us we would have you rational in your Religion rational in your believing and living use your reason in all things within its reach only to call that to determine in matters too high for it in points of faith that could never have been known by us but by Divine Revelation hath much more absurdity in it than to call a Countrey-clown from following tâ—e Plough to sit down at the Helm and determine in the Arcana Imperii mysteries and riddles of State Use all the reason you have only be not unreasonable in you reasonings and believe it we are not afraid of having things brought to a tryal the cause of Godliness is too good to be cast when it hath its hearing before a prudent impartial and righteous Judg. Consider then and that not only once but often so the Original word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considering again and again frequently repeat this act think of it now and think of it anon to day and to morrow every day The things of God the matters of Religion the product and issue of an holy life do deserve greatest seriousness and most frequent thoughts there is nothing in the world so considerable in it self as these things are and therefore nothing in the world is so worthy of your consideration Besides the merit of the things the dulness of the hearts calls for it Ahlas I we are not easily wrought upon our minds are blockish our wills stubborn our hearts obdurate our judgments do not readily assent to truth nor our wills close with goodness We are as the Disciples were slow of heart to believe and submit and embrace the things of God There must be precept upon precept and line upon line and there had need be consideration upon consideration and prayer upon prayer and all this is little enough nay all this and more than this would be too little were not God pleased to bare his Omnipotent Arm and to make it a day of power upon the obdurate and refractory sinner Slight thoughts and transient glances will make no impression will kill no sin nor kindle any holy heat it is the fixed eye that doth affect the heart as the Burning-glass must be for some time held with a steddy hand in the beams of the Sun before it will fire combustible matter Be much then in the work let not vain thoughts lodg but let holy thoughts abide and dwell within you So much for the Act. I now come to the Object What is it that we are to consider What truly you need never be at a loss for matter of consideration most choice and excellent matter viz. God himself and the operations of his hands in Creation-work and acts of Providence specially that admirable Master-piece sinners Redemption and Salvation Consider your selves your hearts and ways and latter end together with that infinite Ocean of Eternity into which you must lanch and those two places Heaven and Hell into which all Intellectual and Rational beings shall be gathered Consider the Sermons you hear and search the Scriptures daily bring all that is said in the Pulpit to the Law and to the testimony and see whether those things be so or not In Prayer consider in what a presence you are and with what a glorious Majesty you have to do what great Mercies and Blessings you have to seek
Ministry are two standing Ordinances and will be necessary so long as there are men on Earth and men to be sitted for Heaven Therefore my Brethren sit not down in this your Orphan-condition What I have told you is unquestionably your duty but not the whole of it Keep together Though the Shepherd be smitten let not the Sheep be scattered Look out for a good supply that your loss may be made up again and your Pastors place filled No loss is irrepairable but the loss of God and your souls Be wise before you fix consult together and ask advice of them who are both faithful and able to give it act with due deliberation yet defer not too long Above all go to God who holdeth the Stars in his right hand and then look out for a man Orthodox in judgment and holy in life who may not go about to raze but wisely to build upon the foundation which by my Reverend Brother hath been already laid And my prayer is That God would set a man over your Congregation even a man after his own heart And so I come to the second Duty incumbent upon you which you have in these words Whose faith follow Holy imitation doth most highly become all that profess themselves Christians Be careful in your chusing a Pattern and then curious in your imitation You must not follow lying vanities then you forsake your own mercies you must not follow vain fashions that is not suitable to the gravity and seriousness of your Religion You must not follow a multitude to do â—vil unless you have a mind to be damned with a multitude and think Hell is a desirable place because most go thither The most beaten road is not always the best you must not follow the world instead of being conformed you ought to be crucified to it You have far better Copies set you far more noble and excellent Patterns before you God be ye followers of God as dear children Christ he hath left you an ensample that ye should tread in his steps The Saints who while here walked in their integrity and now they are above sit in Robes of Glory Be ye followers of them that through faith and patience have inherited the promises And among them those that have held forth the word of life and shined as lights in the world Be wise now in making these your choice and follow them as close as you can live up to Scripture-rules and holy Presidents And truly my Brethren since God and Christ Godliness and Heaven are as good full out as good as ever they were I can see no just reason why Professors should decline and decay why our gold should become dim why the Saints of this Generation should fall miserably short of those that went before them why the present Christians should be so unlike the former both for Purity and Zeal as if they were not begotten of the same Father and did not suck the same breasts But so it is ah so it is our Nazarites were purer than snow whiter than milk whereas now the visage of many of them is blacker than a coal they can scarce be known in the streets and let this be for a lamentation Oh that you would do your endeavour to revive the old Godliness which is the best Godliness and to live over again the lives of the old Saints and in particular those of your Renowned Pastors Follow them in all that is good and within the compass of your sphere you must never go out of your places to follow your Pastors the Lord Jesus himself is to be imitated by you only in his imitable works That being premised I say with the Apostle Paul Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things you saw in them true honest just pure lovely and of good report whatsoever there was of virtue or of praise think on those things and follow them in those things In no other for they were but men imperfect men subject to like passions infirmities and failings and these you must not draw into an example nor use them as an argument why you should do so too as too many argue from Davids Adultery to their uncleanness for certain God never put such things upon record for an encouragement unto sin but for cautions to all you must not wander with them that wander nor fall because others have no follow them as they followed Christ and only so in all that is good in all that is well-pleasing to God and will be Ornamental to the Gospel But I shall confine my discourse to the Command in the Text Follow them in their faith And here I shall speak to these four particulars 1. Follow them in the Doctrine of Faith Be sound in your jâ—dgments and suffer not your heads to be fly-blown with Error Hold fast that which is good for otherwise you will lose your Crown The age in which we live is a learned age and it is a very inquisitive age and an hot disputing but with grief be it spoken it is an error-broaching and imbracing age there are too too many among us that act industriously toward the shaking of our foundation though the Virgin-daughter of Zion looks upon their attempts and laughs them to scorn for God himself the mighty God hath laid them and they shall not be destroyed But though our foundations are firm and lasting yet many of our professors are feeble and wavering yea some are removed to another Gospel They have rejected those great Points those main Truths which are the very vitals of Christian Religion and you may see them wallowing in the blood of their Apostacy Stick you to that faith which was delivered to you by your deceased Pastors who are now with God that is the faith which was once delivered to the Saints once for all The Doctrine which they held out to you is the Doctrine of the Church of England built upon the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Hold to that all that specially the Deity of Christ his satisfaction justification by him and faith in him not by works which we have done and the spiritual mystical Union that is between him and true Believers Keep these things as the Apple of your eye yea as you would your lives And though we or an Angel from Heaven should come and preach among you any Gospel contrary to or besides that which they have preached and you have received let him be accursed 2. Follow them in the Grace of Faith They were Believers be you so too look narrowly to it that it be the true Grace of God in which you stand Take not up my brethren with an empty name a verbal profession a company of bodily exercises and heartless duties Mind I beseech you the Power of Godliness and do not stop one hairs breadth on this side of it Painted Hypocrites are as odious to that God who requires and searches the heart as the openly profane his soul hates them that
Dragon but by the hand of death did I say he fell no no he rose higher and is now in the highest with the highest This Star is removed into another Orb His Mantle of flesh he dropt and left behind but his Spirit mounted and returned to God that gave it And Si verbis audacia detur give me leave to saâ— a great man is fall'n in London His work was done and his dear Master would not permit his stay after it but took him home and gave him his Crown Hear a little my Brethren of those precious sayings which fâ—owed from him abundantly that Night before a full surrender was made What he spake was taken by the Pen of a ready Writer Out of that large Garden I have pickt some few flowers which I thus make up and present unto you He had his light of comfort in that day of trouble though not a bright Sun-shine yet under the thickest Cloud he could see grace in his Heart and read his Evidence These words assure us of that Dear Iesus dost not thou know that I love thee though not with that activity which others do yet with truth of love Oh! thou knowest that I love thee and wilt not thou love me and manifest thy self to me Lord thou knowest the bent of my heart was toward thy self thou knowest I laid up my treasure with thee and made choice of Heaven for mine Inheritance thou wilâ— not forget it nâ—w He had his experiences ready to produce as Cordials to himself and Arguments with his God will you hear them Oh dear Iesus a glimpse of the light of thy Countenance is worth an age of pains and prayers I have had formerly not only tasts but large draughts sometimes Ah my dear Father thou hast given me sweet encouragement in waiting upon thee and of late thou hast not wholly turned thy back Oh my dear Iesus didst thou not manifest thy self to me at the Sacrament when I was so very weak didst not thou give me some tasts that thou art gracious and that thou didst love me in particular and that thou wouldest never leave nor forsake me nor suffer me to depart from thee is this so long a time ago He had high thoughts of God when he was at the lowest he justified him and that in this very Lauguage O my Lord I will not complain of thee though I must complain to thee I complain of my self but not of thee I have deserved thou shouldest let me die in a Cloud and though I do I doubt not but I shall be happy He could with a composed Spirit take his leavâ— and shake hands with all His expressions were these Farewell the world the pleasures profits and honours of the world farewell sin I shall ever be with the Lord. Farewell my dear Wife farewell my dear Children farewell my Servants and farewell you my Spiritual Children whom he was at leisure thus to advise be careful in your choice of a Pastor choose one who in his Doctrine life and manners may adorn the Gospel I shall be glad to meet you all in Heaven This spake a calm within a sedate frame of Spirit He could welcome death observe how his words were dipt in oyl when its hands were to be imbrewed in his blood Oh noble Death welcome welcome Would you know how this came to pass these words tell you Death hath wounded my head death hath wounded my breast which was full of pimples but he hath not wounded my conscience blessed be God He could with importunity call for Death Hasten hasten oh hasten Death where is thy bow where thine arrows come come come I am yet in the body I am yet on earth but it is Heaven Heaven Heaven I would fain be at I seek death but 〈◊〉 find it How long O Lord holy and true He would scarce be reconciled to the means of rebuking his disease and prolonging his 〈…〉 was conscience of duty that put him upon use of them That learned and excellent Physitian who applied to him in his sickness and whose heart was set upon his recovery though he much question'd it told me he said to him why do you come to keep mâ— out of Heaven Hâ— could play with Death thus Praythee take possâ—ssion of my Body see whaâ— thou wilt get by it fatten thy Grave with thy Sacrifices He had high and admiring thoughts of Jesus Christ read them thus Oh dear Iesus what or who art thou Oh! that glorious Spirit that laid â—he foundations of the Earth and stretched out the Heavens like a Curtain Oh what an excellent person aâ—t thou oh what an excellent person art thou thou art all lovely in every part from the Crown of the head to the Soal of the foot thou art all love all excellent thy bounty is divine thy love is divine thy beauty is divine He was not satisfied with what he had of Christ. Observe how desires flam'd Dear Iesus dear sweet Iesus come unto me and manifest thy self unto me that others may see and know that thou lovest me Now if ever now now now if ever now if ever O dear Iesus I am going out of the body to be with thee to deal only with Spirits Oh that I might have the light of thy countenance the sense of thy loâ—e oh bome unto me I see but a little of thy beauty and excellency oh that I might see more and taste more and enjoy more that I may have more than ever I had and â—ast more than ever I did And he longed to be with Jesus was in a kind of holy impatience sick of love and desires to delight himself in clear vision and full fruition of him Witness these groans Dear Iesus come and take me away I have no business hear my work is done my glass is run my strength is gone and when my work is done why shall I stay behind Oh come come be as a Roe upon the Mountains of spices How long shall I wait and cry how long shall I be absent from thee And again O come and take me to thy self and give me possession of that happiness which is above the vision of thy self perfect likeness to thy self full fruition of thy self without any interruption or conclusioâ— And yet again O come deâ—r Lord Iesus how long before thou â—end thy Chariots O come thou down to me and take me up to thee Having â—ain some time silent and still a Friend desired him to give him his hand if the clouds were scattered whereupon he reached out his hand and said as those present understood him I am upheld in the Arms of a Mediator Thus died this precious Saint this eminent Minister thus he lived and thus he died Let him never be forgotten he shall not he cannot be forgotten And let us who survive be followers of him and others who serv'd and walked with Christ on earth and now sit and reign with Christ in glory FINIS