beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
Nation or Kingdom it is an infallible sign of judgement falling upon it And is must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it cometh or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must befall men and places when they are under this carnal security First look to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall do well It proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sin should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they go on in a course of sinning against God Durst they add drunkenness to thirst one wickedness to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that he hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear prepared an Ark. He beleeved the word of God was faithful that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Ark for the safety of him and his house and therefore he feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Ark. So likewise Josiah when he read the book of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sins of the people his heart melted within him and why because he beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sins wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a discription of a beleever in Isa 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what is the reason why infidelity doth presently bring judgements upon men The cause is apparant infidelity it draweth men from God An unbeleeving heart departs from the living God And when a man departs from Gods presence God pursueth him with his judgments All the judgements of God are upon that place where Gods presence in his graces is not If I go faith David to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there if I go into the deep thou art there And how there Not only as an observer but as a punisher that is when men come to this point to flie from God Now unbeleef is a drawing of the soul from God to the creature therefore it provokes God for it sets up an Idol in the heart of man and Idolatry exceedingly provokes God and therefore he bringeth judgements upon it Beside that marke the threatning of the word against this Deut. 29. When a man heareth the words of this curse and blesseth himself and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart the Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the plagues that are written in this book shall be heaped on him When is that when is the time that the wrath of God shall smoak At that very time and instant when he flattereth himself with his vain conceits that he shall have peace though God threaten judgement then at that very instant the wrath of God shall fall upon such a man In this manner did God deal with the Israelites in Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and why so that they may see and not perceive that they may hear and not understand lest they should be converted and I should heal them How long shall this be saith the Prophet till the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate When God giveth over a people to be regardless in hearing the Word that they hear and do not hear ken they hear and do not regard they do not comforme and reform according to the doctrine delivered then God intendeth to sweep them away by judgement that they may be utterly left desolate as the Text saith You see then it must needs be a grievous fore-runner of a judgement upon a place or City or people or nation when they remain impenitent in their sins and yet cry peace Again secondly If you marke the concommitants what accompanies that carnal security in the heart of men and it will appear then that it must of necessity bring a judgement upon a Land and place What is that that accompanies it A disposition slighting of God himself When a man I say heareth the Word the judgements threatned heareth the Law warning him to take heed of wrath the Gospel alluring him to repent and yet all moveth him not but still he flattereth himself I say here is a disposition slighting God himself God in all his Attributes is slighted His power his wisdom his justice his truth is slighted yea his mercy and patience and long-suffering all are slighted when a man in the course of sin goeth on in carnal security Especially amongst the rest this is a slighting of Gods patience and long-suffering and forbearance of men Wherefore do men harden themselves against exhortation to repentance but because they presume upon the continuance of Gods long-suffering toward them Mark how the Lord takes notice of this The forbearance and long-suffering the goodness and mercy of God should lead thee to repentance and therefore God hath forbore thee all this while that he might bring thee to repentance But what if he do not Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart heapest up as a treasure to thy self wrath against the day if wrath What day is that The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if he should say Now you obscure Gods justice and righteousness from others and from your selves Well God therefore will take a time to declare his righteous judgement for that purpose God hath a day of wrath and thy daily going on in sin against the long-suffering and patience of God it doth but add wrath to that day Thus it is when God hath borne with a man his own self So it is likewise when God warneth a man by his patience toward others What hardneth men in security Do we not see God hath been merciful to many sinners why may he not be so to me too He gave them repentance after many sins committed why may he not do so to me Mark what Solomon faith Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer or an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in
's the reason of this but that man may come to this conclusion with himself that he may bring his own heart to a reckoning for his former carriage This is that the Apostle faith for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep some were taken with sickness upon others there was a consuming weakness and others were strucken with death what is the end that God propounds in all this For this reason that we should judge our sevles for if we judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord but when we are judged wee are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned of the world As if he should say God now calleth you to a reckoning in this life to the end you may prevent that heavy and grievous one that comes after this life Againe when outward afflictions prevail not God hath spiritual afflictions to awaken men Thus David when he was in a deepe sleep of securitie God awakned him with a spiritual judgment see his speech in the 32 Psal When I kept close my sinnes my boues were consumed and I roared for the disquietnesse of my soul what followed God by this means brought him to confession I will confesse my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Thus God in this life calleth men to a reckoning sometimes by the preaching of the Word sometimes by judgments upon the outward man or by terrours upon the soule But if all this prevaile not to make a man reckon with himselfe in this life then God hath another reckoning after this life where every man must give an account and cannot avoid it and there he must abide the sentence of the Judg that would not prevent it before That there is such a Judgment to come it appeareth By the Equitie of it By the Necessitie of it In respect of God In respect of the Saints In respect of the wicked First I say in respect of God there is a necessitie of it That his Decree may be fulfilled and executed Hee hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse And his counsell shall stand and he will doe all his pleasure Secondly it is necessary that Gods honour may be vindicated Now things seeme to go in some confusion and disorder in the world good men the children of God are not alwayes best in the place of judgment I have seene saith Solomon an evil under the Sunne that in the place of judgment wickednesse was there and in the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there this observation Solomon makes therefore I said God will bring to judgement every thing both good and evill for there is a time for every work and every purpose God hath a time to doe that great work that he hath now purposed What is that work that is to bring every work to judgement whether it be good or evill I say if we consider this it is necessary that there should come a judgment that shall set all right againe It is necessarie likewise in respect of the Saints The very tribulations of the Saints in 2 Thes 1.5 are called Indigma an evident demonstration or a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God There is a necessitie of it in respect of them in two regards First that there innocencie that is traduced here may be manifest They undergoe many disgraces and hard censures amongst men the world accounts them proud hypocrites singular foolish vaine-glorious and I know not what now saith Iob my witnesse is in heaven and saith Saint Paul I care not to be judged of you or of mans judgment he that judgeth me is the Lord. The Word in the Greek is mans day as if he should say Men have their day here but God hath a greater day after the Lord will judg in another manner and upon other grounds than men doe Secondly it is necessary also That their works may be rewarded When we speak of reward wee meane not the reward of merit wee meane the reward of grace called a reward because God is tied to it by his promise The servants of God though they serve him with all care they have not the fatt of the earth as sometimes the Ishmaels of the world have they doe not abound with outward things as many others doe nay sometimes they are in the worst condition and that makes Gods wayes the more despised as if God were not able to maintaine his servants in the world in his wayes and worke God therefore hath a time when his servants shall have full measure heaped up pressed down shaken together and running over When God shall make up his jewels as he saith in Malac. 3. then shall yee discerne between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Marke yee shall discerne God will make it appeare to the whole world in the day when he makes up his jewels that not withstanding his servants are dispised and lie here under divers pressures yet that they are a people whom he delights in and accounteth as his treasures Thirdly it is necessarie in respect of the wicked too that is First that Gods righteousnesse may fully be manifested Secondly that their unrighteousnesse may fully bee punished First I say that Gods righteousnesse may fully bee manifested therefore the day of Judgment in Rom. 2.5 is called a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God As if he should say As God will manifest his wrath against the vessels of wrath so he will make it appear to the world that he proceedeth in a right manner and by a right rule in judging For wee must know that howsoever God cannot bee unjust and how soever that the ungodly men in this life contend with their owne consciences such is the hardnesse of their hearts and abundance of corruption that they would faine justifie themselves amongst men and againe howsoever it bee true that the soule when it is departed out of the body is under Gods particular judgment by an intelectuall elevation of it that it may receive the sentence of the Judge by an illumination and by such a spiritual and contemplative discourse and observation and understanding of Gods actions as that by reflection upon it selfe it may know it selfe to be accursed or acpuitted and accordingly is entred into the possession either of happinesse or miserie Yet all this is secret in the world till the day of Gods tribunall come wherein secret things shall be made manifest and things that have beene done in darknesse shall appeare before men and Angels Secondly Gods justice must be cleared and fully manifested so the wicked and unrighteous must be fully punished They are not fully punished when they are under the sense of Gods wrath in this life or when the soule is judged at death there must be yet a
further degree for all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therefore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the grave no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in Punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seem to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie bp the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Judgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 44. revived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queene of heaven and so will wee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men goe on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live So that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Judgment therefore their must be a judgment then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sin This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as he did that one might goe and tell his bretheren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would he have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the souls of his brethren that he would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sence of his own guilt he knew what evill example he had given and what a counseller he had been to his brethren and if they should go on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall be joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that their should be a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Judge but he saith come give an account of thy Stewardship I answer There are four things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of Judgment with his Stewards that it shall be like the proeedings of a Master with his servants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall be a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the total ye have done evil in the general none will deal thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deal with all his Stewards when he bringeth them to a reckoning he will reckon on particulars for all things that he hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Job speaks that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men do that raise themselves by usury and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injury of others with-holding the goods from the owners thereof from the poor for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his Stewards for their sakes therefore mark how Saint James expresseth it Go to now yee rich men weepe and houle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if he should say you have been hoarding up your treasures you had rather be laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not laid out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gola and the moth hath eaten into your garments ye have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Ye ask and have not faith S. James because ye ask amiss to spend it on your lusts so ye lay out amiss ye spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparel for excesse at their tables for vain buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in what soever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as he that hath got his wealth unjustly and he that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so he that layeth it out in a confused sinful profuse way shall be called to give a reckoning for that And not only for matter of a estate but besides for matter of place and authority Moses knew this well enough and therefore when he was to go out of the world he first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have been a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come clear me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life-time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before he died that he might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must be with you ye must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Mark the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce faith he in the dayes of thy youth as if he should say Doe if thou wilt do if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgment Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deal of strength but hast thou been the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it fot Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word faith Christ that men shall speak they shall give an account of at the day of judgment If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that cometh out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy
tongue And so for every member and for every sense I cannot stand upon particulars Thou must give an account likewise for the gifts of thy mind how thou hast imployed thy wisdome and learning and experience c. For all thy passions he that is angry with his brother unadvisedly is in danger of judgment For all the disposition and inclinations of thy heart for out of the heart cometh thefts and murthers and adulteries In a word whatsoever ability thou hast whereby thou mightest have been benificial and serviceable to the Church and Common-wealth thou must give an account of it in particular unto God he will call thee to a reckoning of every parcel by it selfe The Master in the Gospel that gave the talents to his servants he called them to an account for every talent he gave them so there must be a particular enumeration to God of all those severall abilities wherewith he hath fitted thee for his service how thou hast behaved thy selfe in matter of health strength and time in thy senses in the members of thy body how with thy mind how with the dispositions of thy soule how in all the gifts and endowments he hath intrusted thee with for the service of the Church and Common-wealth Secondly it is called a reckoning because in this reckoning God will go by a method keep an order such an order as men doe in reckoning with their accountants every thing hath his due place God will proceed to give every one in the day of judgment his due place and ye shall find then many sinnes that ye have accounted the lightest of all will be the most heaviest and grievous at that day I will set thy sinnes in order before thee saith God in Psal 50. He had reckoned them up confusedly here these things thou hast done but I will set them in order before thee God will observe such an order as every thing shall have its due place its due head In the first place shall be that Apostacie whereof all Adams posterity are guilty This David saw and therefore when he judged himselfe he judged himselfe as one born in sinne I was borne in sinne and in sinne hath my mother conceived me In the next place shall bee that concupiscence that depravation of nature from whence all actual sinnes proceed This Saint Paul knew and therefore he bewaileth it as the original and root of all other actual sinnes Rom. 7. God will begin first with the sins of the heart because thence cometh all the outward actions of the whole man Then all the outward actions Hee will begin first with those against the first Table Atheisme Infidelity Prophanenesse contempt of God and his service neglect of his glory and the opportunites he hath given us And when the Law and the Gospel come together he will proceed more severely for the sinnes against the Gospel then the Law That is the reason that our Saviour telleth us that it shall be easier for Sodome and Gomorah then Capernaum at the day of Iudgment Why so Sodome and Gomorah had the Law but Capernaum had the Law and the Gospel too And faith the Apostle Heb. 10. If they that obeyed not Moses law died of how much sâ—…rer judgment shall they be guiltie of that disobey the Gospel of Christ the Law of faith Thus God will proceed And therefore when ye would exercise repentance follow Gods order mourn more for impenitency and infidelity then for other things Be more humbled for sinnes against the first Table for prophannesse for Atheisme and neglect of God then for sinnes against the second though these must be lamented and repented of too Againe be more in lamenting the inward sinful disposition of thy heart then thy outward sinful actions and forget not the original root of all which we brought with us into the world I say mark Gods method and his order that which he takes most notice of at the day of judgment lay that to thy thoughts and take greatest notice of it now It is a grievous thing for a man to be borne in sinne but to adde actual sinnes to that it is more grievous For a man to sinne in thought and in heart is grievous but to adde actual sinnes to those it is more grievous It is a grievous thing for a man to sin against righteousnesse to deale unjustly with men but to deale unrighteously with God in point of his worship is more grievous It is a grievous sinne for a man to disobey the law of God but to disobey the law of faith to delay repentance to deferre turning unto God is far more grievous Thus we should mark Gods order that he will observe when he bringeth us to a reckoning Thirdly It is called a reckoning because God will proceed with men at that day as Masters with their servants by writings by books In the tenth of Daniel the booke was opened and in the 20. Revel there is mention made of bookes that should be opened God will proceed with all his Stewards upon books that shall be opened The bookes are either the book of the law that shewes what wee should have done The words that I speak faith Chirst the same shall judge you at the last day And there is one that judgeth you even Moses that is read daily And then secondly there is the book of conscience that shewes what wee have done here God will put the memories of men to the taske as Abraham did Dives Son remember that thou in thy life-time hadest thy pleasure So remember that thou in thy life time haddest riches but how didst thou imploy them remember that thou hadest Authority and office and place in the Church of the Common-wealth but what service didest thou doe to God remember that thou haddest wisedome and learning and knowledg but what good had the Church or Common-wealth by it God I say will put every mans memory to the task what opportunities are lost carelesly nay what opportunities he avoyded wilfully when he might have done God better service yet lest he should be disadvantaged in his by-respects in the world he bauked them remember this The sins of Judah saith God are written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond they are graven upon the table of their hearts God hath the sins of men graven on the table of their hearts Little dost thou that art an old man think of a thousand things that God will bring against thee that were done in thy youth Job little thought till the day of his affliction when God made him possesse the sins of his youth that there was such aboundance of guilt against him as there was God will remember that that thou hast forgot God will proceed by bookes and this will clear Gods justice in his proceedings and make every thing appeare righteous in the sight of men and Angels because every mans conscience shall testifie against himselfe and
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
Death Every sin vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sin but in the event that sin proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sin in the event proveth the sting of death but that sin that liveth in us or rather that sin that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sin that putteth a sting into death That very sin that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sin will make death terrible Secondly Sin may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soul When a man setteth upon the root of Sin and the way of Sin and falleth a crucifying the body of Sin and the members of it I say howsoever there be divers motions and stirrings of Sin in the soul yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue pass over them if they come not within the judgment to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walk but fall within the improbation of the judgment to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sins these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sin remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sin is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sin he hath committed if the Sin be in the book of God uncrossed be a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall hear anon then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthiness of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinful motions those depraving qualities in thy soul that thou likest and practifest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hand of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in sin and will go on in Sin do so But know this when thou comest to the full strength of thy Sin let it be what it will when Death cometh it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sin the very power of thy sin armeth Death against thy soul No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will go on in Sin So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to work in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feels his sin there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily sixeth his sting in the soul and makes the sinner feel the smart of his sin There be three times wherein Sin can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that bears himselfe up alost in his own eyes in scrone and contempt of the ministry of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrows into his very soul and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne form the wrath that boyleth in his soul And it is one thing to deal with the Minister and another to deal with God When God strikes his Arrows of vengeance into the soul of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his own children for sin David cries out he roared for the disquietness of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long faith he If there be such deep disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sin in a Cain a Judas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore think not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sin stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death cometh and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sins unrouched howsoever he behaved himself in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breaks his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a Person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sins when it cometh to a Belshazar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidst all those sweet morsels his sins which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sin only but then at the time of death sin is a poyson indeed Lastly Sin can sting not only before and at but after death Bothat the day of Judgment and after At the day of judgement Is not the concience of a sinner think you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountains to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our one cause think of it it will be our case as It is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgement And after the Judgement when the sentence go you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worm for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happiness for a sinner if he might only hear the sentence if this worm might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sin is called the sting of death because then Sin stingeth more eminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in
it is for good use as well to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I go on to tell ye what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dim light of Nature The scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it cometh and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it tellech us the remedy against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can do little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It telleth us how that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to be but takes asunder awhile the soul from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to be though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappiness and destruction there is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle room so Death either leadeth them down to the place of unhappiness or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessedness This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plain in The rich man dieth and his soul is carried to Hell the poor man when he died his soul was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soul out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happiness or more misery then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuity and continuance of it self that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortal to continue for ever and should not have died but sin came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sin and of all misery that by little and little draweth to death I say sin the first sin of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equal mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of works and the disanulling of it that sin let in Death at a great Gap and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soon and that he that is the Lord of all creatures should be inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unriddleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that he might and should have lived for ever but Sin coming and coming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortal and when sin entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poor and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equal that death should follow sin for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himself for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continuance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himself Ye see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plain It is appointed for all men once to die and after death cometh judgment Narure never dreamed of judgment after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a judgment after Death Judgment what is that Judgment ye know is a calling of a man before Authority a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether he be a sinner an evil-doer and if he find him so to passe sentence according to his evil deeds When God hath took the soul from the body he takes the soul first and after both soul and body and presents them before his own Tribunal and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience looks deep into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancy to his last breath and findeth out the things that he hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Indgment hath two degrees First assoon as a man dieth No sooner is the soul separated from this case as it were the body but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becometh the Gospel of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and bliss for the present more then tongue can express Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfnl man a wicked man a hyyocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquity nor live according to the Gospel of Christ and then he is delivered up to Satan to be hurried down to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickedness This particular judgment passeth upon every soul assoon as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universal Judgment when soul and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath been is or shall be every man shall appear in their own persons their whole lives shall be laid open all secret things shall be made known for God faith the Apostle shall judg the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never do The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedy against the ill of death It is a pittiful thing to hear of mortality and sickness if there were not a good Potion or Phisick prescribed to ascape the ill of it To hear tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to hear of a remedy it is woful tydings and would wring tears from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not only tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what means we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can do Nay by what means we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficial to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in
and now will be finished in a time of Mortality certain And that there should be no part of correspondency wanting this latter part of the Verse is answerable to the former it is but the same again in other words In the former part there is mention of the righteous man here of the mercyful man they are both one In that he is said to perish here to be taken away they are both the same There No man is said to lay it to heart and here no man is said to consider it both the same So that look upon the whole both parts joyn together they walk on by pairs two and two as the living creatures into the Ark Male and Female The first pair sets forth to you the state and condition of a godly man he is righteous and merciful those are the male and female of Piety The second sets forth to you the state and condition of a dying man he perisheth and is taken away those are the Male and Female of death The third sets out the state and condition of a worldly man he layes it not to heart he never takes it into consideration those are the Male and Female of carnal security And that all the pairs should now be made up the former part was handled at the burial of a good old Man this latter now at the burial of an old and vertuous Gentlewoman those are the Male and Female of nature The former part that is a complaint that the Prophet made and so is the second and this second is set as a Commentary to the first this latter part is as Eve created as a help to Adam for every word in this latter helps to expound some word in the former The first word in the latter part tâ—… us of the merciful man that is the Exposition of the first word in the former part the righteous man Lest any man should make question who this righteous man was that the Prophet speaks of how we should know him and define him and find him find me a merciful man and he is truly a righteous man The second word in the latter part is taken away that hath reference to the second word in the former and it is a qualification of the harshness of the former there it is said The righteous man perisheth but lest any man should scandal at this word shall we think that he perisheth whose life is hid with Christ in God Shall the Scripture say that he perisheth whose name is in the bundle of life written in heaven To lay aside therefore the rigour of the word here is the Qualification he is taken away The third word of the latter hath reference to the third of the former too No man considereth it If any man ask the reason how it comes to pass that people should be without natural affection that they take it not to heart that they are not grieved for Joseph that they are not striken with any sense of their own losses what should be the reason of it The reason is in this word they take it not into consideration They trouble not their heads therefore not their hearts with it That it may make an aggravation of that They were so far from taking of it to heart that they never propounded it to the examination and scanning of their judgment they consider it not So every word in the latter part is serviceable to the first I shewed concerning the first part who this Righteous man is how great the dignation of the Spirit of God is that he will stile holy men that are so imperfect in holiness yet because of their holy endeavours to walk in the wayes of God blamelesly the Spirit stiles them Righteous men Secondly I shewed how this Righteous man is said to perish and it what sense and how it is impossible they should perish and why the Holy Ghost chooseth this word which is more then death to set out to us the death of the Righteous man And then the last considered in particular how it is lawful to 〈◊〉 for the departure of those that are gone how that God alloweth that how that God blameth for the neglect of it Men are to lay it to heart to grieve How 〈◊〉 this griese is to extend These were the heads of those things that concerne the first part I now go on forward to the second And that is a complaint as the former was that the Prophet takes up over the people of the Jewes for their great stupidity in that they considered not any work of God toward them And it hath these two parts There is the complaint he takes up over the dead Merciful men are taken away from the evil to come And the other complaint he takes up over the living those that are living and survive them they care not though heaven and earth be mingled together though they lose all their props whereby the earth is supported they never consider it I begin with the first of these And that is The complaint that is taken up over the Righteous mans departure In that I consider two things First looke to the meaning of the words And then see what were the motives that made the Prophet take up this complaint and lamentation that whereas others wanted it the Prophet should supply it and should give testimony to their departure The righteous are taken away First for the meaning of the words It is a proposition and there are three parts of it The subject of the proposition Merciful men The Predicat Are taken away The Affix anexed to it from the evil to come Briefly look upon the meaning of all these and they will all afford us some instruction The First is the subject of this proposition It is said here and it varieth from the former Merciful men A man would wonder why he should alter the stile except it were because the Spirit of God delighteth to set out godly men according to the multitude of their titles the righteous and mercyful men Otherwise the same terme might have been kept in the latter part for they are both the same in effect He that is a merciful man is a Righteous man and he that is righteous will be merciful yet the Prophet varieth it righteous men perish and merciful men are taken away There is some special reason of the variation I conceive it is one of these three or all The first reason why he useth this word merciful men in the latter part is For the greater conviction of their stupidity They were such as were not affected with the condition or loss of righteous and holy men nay they were so stupid that they were not affected with the loss of mercyful men that is more If there were any sense of piety they should for Gods cause grieve at the loss of godly men but if their were any sense of their own good there should be grief for the loss of merciful men Generally
the gap that he may unwind his hands of this burthen of the prayers of his servants he removeth them by death he saith to them as he did to Moses let me alone that I may destroy them And then as it is with the Husbandman when the corn is gotten into his Barn he burneth up the stuble till the Wheat be gathered the Tares are not turned up God will not pour his plagues untill he have removed the impediments those that are merciful men when they are taken away he poureth down his judgements Therefore he takes them away that they may not see it nor suffer it that is the second Thirdly he takes them from the Evil of sinning that is a greater blessing and in two senses from that He takes them from it that they shall not see sin for that is a great Corrosive to a godly man It was one point of Davids grievance that he saw wicked men suffer I humbled my soul with fasting and I behaved my self as one that mourned for his Mother David humbled himself even for his enemies when they were afflictied that was one part of his sorrow But the chief part of his sorrow was to see them commit sin Mine eyes gush out with rivers of tears because men keep not thy law That was a great affliction Therefore that they may be eased of that evil God takes away merciful men that they shall not see sins committed they are offensive to chaste eyes He takes them to heaven that their ears may not be filled with hellish blasphemies and damnable oathes that overburthen the ground that ring their peals in every street as a man passeth by there is no hearing such things in heaven That is one thing he takes them away that their eyes may not be glutted with beholding extortions oppressions murthers contentions revilings and other sins in the world It is a great ease to a godly man to be took out of evil times when God leaveth him in times and places that are evil he shines as a light when God takes him away he hath the reward of his sorrow it cost him grief to see it therefore to reward him God takes him away that he may not see sin committed Fourthly God takes them away that they may mot sin themselves for heaven is a place as of no sorrow so of no sin though we be unsatiable of sin now then there is an end put to it It pleaseth God so to deal in his providence to order it that sin brought in Death and Death carrieth out sin that as a skilful Chimmick distilleth an Antidote out of poyson so doth God Death that was the reward of sin God setcheth the translation out of it to eternal happiness the Mother sin brought forth Death and Death the daughter carrieth out sin That is it that is the great comfort of a man in death as now I shall cease suffering so here is my comfort too I shll cease sinning though my purposes and endeavours be bent upon piety yet I am overtaken I could not tread so strait but I did often tread awry now there shall be a new plain path provided for my feet there is no sin in heaven That is a great point of wisdome that God destroyeth sin with the body and raiseth the body again without sin if the body should live alwayes how should sin end sin will not be rooted out as long as we are in the body while we carry about us this vaile of flesh we shall carry about us also another vaile of sin therefore faith Epiphanius God dealeth with us as a skilful houshoulder with his house Look as it is in building an old house if there grow a Fig-tree or Ivy out of the house that it spred the root through the chincks and partitions of the wall a man that cuts down the Fig-tree shall not profit for it is so fast rooted in the wall and in the chincks that either he must pull down the wall or else it will not die Therefore a wise man will pull down his house and root out the Fig-tree and then set up stones and there erect the house beautiful and so both are preserved he hath his end in both both the house is rebuilt and the Ivy consumed and rooted out So it is in case of sin there is the house we carry about us the building the temple of our body the house is man himself sin is the fig-tree it is such a fig-tree as insinuateth it self between every chink and partition in our nature there is somewhat corrupt in every faculty of the soul and it sheweth the fruit in every part of the body that is an instrument of sin it hath so wound it self in that the fig-tree cannot be destroyed cannot be pulled out except the house be dissolved there must be a pulling down of the Temple therefore God in wisdome by Death he takes the Temple the house in peeces and then the fig-tree may be pulled out and then he erects the wall of that house more glorious then before it was thrown down while the fig tree was in it while sin was in it it is raised up without it that is that the Apostle faith Corruption shall put on incorruption and mortality shall put on immortality the body that is sown a naturall body it shall be raised a spiritual it is sown in dishonour it shall be raised in glory God therefore takes them away from the evil of sin he dissolved the body that he may purifie it and cloath it with immortality that it may be a purer body then when it was first presented in nature at the first Creation We see hereby what those good things are that Death bringeth It bringeth immunity from the evil of suffering God takes away merciful men that they see not that they suffer not And it bringeth immunity from sin that they do not see it that they do not commit it The use is a Pillar of considence not to be afraid of Death who would fear that which makes for his perfection that is the means of his translation of happiness And in respect of others not to mourn for them that are took away out of this world as those that are without hope they are not took away but translated they are removed for their advantage for the better Elijah was removed from earth to heaven in a firie chariot shall Elisha weep because he enjoyeth him not No he is took from earth to heaven Joseph was sold into AEgypt but it was to be a Ruler God intended that it is the same reason God translates us out of the world to give us the end of our hope even the salvation of our souls Shall we mourn as men without hope God takes them out of a valley of tears shall we mourn unsatiably for those that are took out of the valley of tears Let us not bring their memory to the valley of tears they are past it God takes them from
evil to good to the best good the good of immortaity and eternity the good of the enjoying of God of that that eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard It is true that when we see any impenitent man die any man die in his sins there is just cause of mourning That was the course that David observed he lost two sons Absolom a wicked sonne he mourned for him he lost the child that was begotten in adultery for the life of which he prayed he mourned not for the childs departure and Saint Ambrose giveth the reason well he had a good hope and assurance that the child was translated to a better estate he doubted of Absolom he died in his sins therefore he mourned for him for his death not for the childs So when we see any die in his fins there is cause then of tears and of excessive tears then David crieth Absolom oh my son my son But if there be good evidences of a Saint translated to glory shall we mourn as men without hope As Saint Jerome speaks to Paula mourning for her daughter Art thou angry Paula because I have made thy child mine He bringeth in God speaking thus dost thou envy me my own possession my own Creature It is true for the state of an impenitent man he hath his good things here and his evill to come after there is cause of mourning for that he is translated from good to ill his heaven is in this world his heaven is in his treasure in his riches in his chests and upon his table and as he enjoyed a heaven here so he must not look for it after there is a place of another condition his heaven is here his hell after But the penitent and contrite his ill is here and his good after his hell is in this world in suffering and in mortifying the flesh in wrastling with sin in incountring with tentations here is his hell and his torments but after cometh his heaven and his bliss so he is translated from bad to good he is took away from the evil to come So here is the meaning of all I have shewed first the meaning of the three phrases The second thing I propound is this What the Prophet bemoaneth and makes lamentation for and these merciful men for if they be took away from evil present and evil to come evil corporal and spiritual sufferings extraordinary plague and famine sufferings ordinary sickness and tentation â—… if it be so that no sin shall fall upon them to destruction no tentation fall on them to destroy them here much less afterward if they be took from all these evils how cometh the Prophet to make lamentation that merciful men are taken away from the evil to come for he speaks it mourningly It is one sufficient reason he mourneth over them because others did not But there are two reasons that are more special There is the loss of the godly man for the present when he is taken away that is a thing to be lamented And the danger of the world in respect of the loss of a godly man First the loss of a godly man that is a great punishment that God sendeth on a place there is a great loss to those that survive The loss of their example they shine as lights there is a Taper a Candle taken away Ye rejoyced to walk in his light faith Christ to the Iewes concerning John there was a light not only of Johns Doctrine but of his example whereby those that heard him walked There is the light of grace set up in the life of the Saints of God they are as a Taper to guide us in the paths of mercy and piety that they tread in Job was set up a light of patience Abraham of faith Cornetius of Charity and so every grace that the Saints are eminent in they are set up as so many lights When the light is gone is there not a great loss to have a candle put out Though they enjoy their light we lose it the benefit of their example and society their advice and counsel Oh the experience of the Saints bring a great deal of good to their acquaintance I am in this affliction I remember that you were in the same case how did you carry your self It is a great matter to build upon the experiences of the Saints of God We lose many benefits by losing of a Saint He is not only beneficial in his example but in his prayers He is one of the Advocates of the world that pleads with God that stands in the gap Abraham was a strong Advocate for Sodome and so was Moses for Israel and so was Aaron and so other Saints in their time The Saints while they live in the world there is a great deal of power in their prayers to with-hold judgements and is there then no loss when they are taken away When a Saint is removed a Pillar is removed a Pillar of the house and of the Earth and must there not be danger when the Pillar is gone They are the Corner stones when a corner stone falleth there is a great deal of trash and rubbish falleth with it There is a great deale of discomfort upon the fall of a Saint When God removeth godly and merciful men there is a loss every way to the Church to the State The Church loseth a member the State a Pillar godly men lose an example wicked men lose an advocate poor men lose a Patron all men lose a comfort That is the fitst thing the Prophet bemoaneth in the loss of righteous men First it went to his heart that the world should be left empty of piety and all those vertuous examples that God should cut off those precious plants those that are looking-glasses for us to see our selves in and that pitch of perfection we should breath after and aime at That is the first thing But that is not all for their was impendant danger when they were gone It is a prognosticating of some evil to befal a place when God takes them away If Noah enter into the Ark the world may expect a deluge If Lot be out of Sodome let it look for a showr of fire and brimstone God himself expresseth himself by the Angel that he could do nothing as long as Los was in Sodome he had a commission not to rain fire and brimstone while Lot was there while Lots person and prayers were there assoon as Lot was gone there cometh a cloud of Judgment and in that a showre So the Saints when they are translated into the Ark when they are took from the earth as Noah was Noah was to ascend from the earth to the Ark when Lot is gone to the City God provided for him the City of refuge then we may expect one Judgment or other for they are means to hinder and keep them from being poured out That is the second thing in the loss of righteous men They are took
in all causes and over all persons but over all causes too even Kings are subject to his regiment He bindeth Kings in chaines and Nobles in fetters of Iron Psal 149. The Kings of the earth saith Saint John and the rich and the great men and the great Captains and the mighty men they shall all hide themselves in the caves and rocks and mountains Revel 15. crying to the mountains and rocks to cover them from the face of the Judg and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of desolation is come Nay God is not only over all the Kings of the earth but he is Potentate of heaven and hell too He hath a commanding power over all the Angels fear the Divels tremble when they come to stand before God In a word as Saint Paul saith all power is of God then of necessity followeth that God himself in his power is most absolute That is the second thing belonging to the office of a Judg as he must have knowledg to discerne so he must have power to execute Thirdly there must be Justice in the execution therefore the Grecians were wont to place justice between Libra and Leo to signifie indifferency in weighing causes and strictness in executing the sentence So the Egyptians signified as much by their Hierogliphical purtraicture of an Angel without hands wincking or without eyes such a one a Judg should be he should have no hands to receive bribes nor no eyes to respect persons the person of a Judg must not take the person of a friend A man must not personate a friend in justice but as Levi he must know neither father nor mother nor brother Justice amongst us is purtraicted holding a Ballance in one hand and a sword in another the Ballance sheweth the upright weighing of causes and the Sword sheweth the strictness of the execution of the sentence And if this Execution be wanting both the other are to no purpose It is to no purpose to know and to have power if their be not Justice But God is a true and just Judg Howsoever it be amongst the Judges of the earth yet unworthy is he of the place of a Judg and fitter to stand at the Barr then to sit on the Bench that suffereth himself to miscarry by friendship or love or bribes or sutes or favour or envie when either of these prevail they tie the tongues of men to plead for wrong causes Shall a Traytour presume on the Kings favour and Mordecai be out of the Kings grace But there shall be no such thing here God is the Judg of all the earth and shall not he do right Gen. 18. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 8.3 When thou standest before the Judgment seat of God thou shalt neither be elevated with vain hopes nor dejected and cast down by sinister and wrong fears but assure thy self such as thy cause is such shall thy sentence be as Saint Bernard well a pure heart shall prevail more with God then a smooth word good consciences shall speed better then full purses for he is an upright and just Judg with whom no fair words nor friends shall prevail So I have done with the first thing The Judg. Secondly something of the Judgment and therein two things First that it shall be Secondly in what manner it shall be First that it shall be The text is plain God shall bring to Judgment There might many Texts besides this be alledged consonant and agreeable to this but it is superfluous Besides Texts of Scripture we have Types also to prefigure it and reasons also to prove and confirm it Two Types of the last Judgment our Saviour himself propoundeth Luk 17. One was the destruction upon Sodome the other the destruction that God brought upon the old world Look as Christ saith how it was with them of Sodome in the dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded and look how it was with the men of the old world in the dayes of Noah eating and drinking and sporting and marrying until the very day that Noah entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all So it shall be at the last day when the Son of man shall come The Apostle Saint Peter speaking of the latter of these telleth us of mockers in those times that scoffed when they heard of the Judgment there hath been talk a great while of such things promised but when will it come Where is the promise of his coming There are scoffers in these dayes but such if there be any cannot but speak against their own consciences and knowledg they cannot be ignorant both of the Judgments that have been and shall be or if they be they are wilfully ignorant That God did once wash away the sins of the world with a Flood of water and that the time is coming that God will purge the sins of the world with a flood of fire the Rainbow in the clouds as it is a Monument of the one so it is a fore-runner of the other The two principal colours of the Rainbow are blew and red the blew and waterish colour of the Rainbow is an evidence of that Judgment that is past when God washed the sins of the world away by Water the fiery colour is a prediction of a Judgment that is to come when God shall purge the world by a Flood of fire But besides these Types there are divers reasons that may be given to assure us that we have reason to expect this day Those five Attributes of God afford five reasons to confirm it His Power his Wisdome his Truth his Justice his Mercy First his Power God will have it be thus for the manifestation of his Power A work of great power it will be indeed All must be brought before Gods judgment seate every one as the Text saith after It may seem strange peradventure incredible to here that all the men and women that ever lived in the world that so many multitudes and millions of thousands of all kindreds and nations should all be summoned to appear before one Judgement seat But as Saint Austin faith Consider who is the doer and then thou wilt not doubt It is true indeed with men such a thing as this is impossible but with God all things are possible Could God at the first draw all things out of nothing and cannot God as well bring together all again when they are turned to nothing Could he make that body of thine out of the dust of the earth and cannot he raise that body when it is turned to dust Could he unite that body to the soul in the time of the Creation and cannot he unite it at the time of the Resurrection Certainly there is nothing impossible too hard to the great and terrible voyce of God as Saint Chrysostome saith to that voyce of God that cleaveth the
rocks that breaks the brazen gates asunder that looseneth the bands of death Therefore unless thou question the power of God no doubt but he is able and can bring all of us to judgement He will do it for the manifestation of his power Secondly as for the manifestation of his power so for the manifestation of his wisdome It is a point of wisdome when one hath made a thing to bring it to the intended end for which he made it Beloved this is Gods intended end in making of us therefore he brought us hither into the world not that we should have alwayes a Being here but that after a certaine time we should be dissolved and put into an everlasting condition therefore Saint Peter speaking of the salvation of Gods elect he calleth it the end of their faith not only the end they aspire but that end that God hath assigned and appointed them to If God should faile of his end we might call his wisdome into question it might give us occasion to say that he undertook that which he was not able to accomplish so that insteed of shewing himself wife he should shew himself weake Therefore except we should call his wisdome into question doubtless he will call us one day to an Account Thirdly for the manifestation of his truth nothing gaineth God more honour then that he is faithful and true in whatsoever he hath promised Now this day of Judgement is the day wherein God hath promised to recompence the faith of the godly and hath threatned to punish the wickedness of the wicked he hath appointed a day for it faith the Scripture Acts 17.31 What though it be a great while since the promise was made for all this we must not think that God is slack as men account slackness the slacknesse of men is when they keep not their promise according to appointment we must not think God is so slack he alwayes keepeth his day that he hath set he never faileth of his promise but when the time is come he keeps touch he breaks not his day As it is said Ezod 22.41 After the four hundred and thirty years were expired that God spake to Abraham the very same day all the children of Israel went out of Egypt How many promises and threatnings after do we read of wherein he never failed of the performance of what he spake the least tittle therefore saith Saint Gregory we have seen so many of Gods promises already verified that we may be confident that those that are to come shall also be accompilshed surely he will not fail in this but as certainly as he hath promised it shall come to pass So that unless we shall deny the truth of God who the Scripture saith cannot it is impossible that he should lie we must of necessity beleeve that for the manifestation of his Truth there will be a day of Judgement Fourthly as for the manifestation of his Truth so of his Justice and Mercy I will put them together It is the property of Justice to render punishment to those that have done evil and of Mercy to recompence those that have done well Now therefore for the manifestation of his Justice and Mercy this day must come It is true here many times wicked men speed better then Gods people A man may sin a hundred times and yet God porlong his dayes and the children of God on the other side are persecuted and neglected so that here he giveth not retribution to every one according to his works Whereas it standeth with equity and justice that well-doers should be rewarded and evil-doers should be punished the stream runneth contrary wicked men speed well and good men ill Naboth cannot have a poor Vineyard but one rich Ahab or other is ready to get it away They â—…at my people as bread and they eat the bread of Gods people they eate the inheritance of the fatherless and devour widdows houses so that here all is turned topsie-turvey as if the world were a thing cruciated tearing it self If this world should last alwayes where were Gods justice And therefore for the manifestation of Gods justice and mercy there must be a day of retribution when for that portion of sorrow that the godly have had here they shall have a portion of happiness and joy and when for that cup of pleasure that the wicked have drank here they shall have put into their hands a cup of trembling and wrath If Dives enjoy his good things here let him look for a day when he shall be denied a drop of water It Lazarus have had his ill things here let him look when the day shall come that he shall be rewarded Except we will divest and strip God of all his Attributes deny his power his wisdome his truth his justice and mercy we cannot but confess that certainly there is a day to come when God will bring us to judgement That is for the first That the day of Judgement shall come In the next place we are to consider as that it shall be so in what manner and how it shall be Briefly the manner of this Judgment is set forth to us in the Scripture in five particulars First the Summons Secondly the Appearance Thirdly the Separation Fourthly the Triall Fifthly the Sentence First the Summons All shall be summoned to come before Gods Judgement seat and this Summons of theirs shall be by the voyce of Christ himself The dead in the grave shall hear the voyce of the son of man and they shall come forth c. Job 5.28 This voyce in Scripture is called the Trump of the Angel He shall send his Angels and they shall gather the Elect together from the four winds Mat. 24.31 The Trump shall blow and the dead shall arise 1 Cor. 15. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangel with the Trump of GOD and the dead shall rise 1 Thes 4.16 At the giving of the Law there was the sound of a Trumpet so when God shall come to punish the breach of the Law the Angel shall blow the Trumpet Trumpets are commonly blown at a Battel or at a Feast at a Feast they sound joyfully when it is at a Battel they sound dreadfully both shall sound here at that day the sound of the Trumpet to the godly shall be as at a Feast but the sound of the Trumpet in the ears of the wicked shall be as a summons to battel If we will have the joyful sound of that voyce then we must welcome the voyce of Christ now God now speaks by men then by Angels Now the Trumpet of the Gospel soundeth then the Trumpet of Judgement shall sound we must learn o bedience to this and then we shall find a great deal of comfort in that there is a Surgite that we must hearken to now arise from sin Come unto me all yea that are weary and heavy laden
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore faith Jacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear by Christ This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infalible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to look for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ Without this there is little love to Christ The Church in Cant. 1.2 sheweth her love to Christ Draw me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming of Christ When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall here a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and Promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
there shall be a Judgement For let a man commit secret sins that none knoweth but God and he yet many times he feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proose that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supream Judge that will call all men to an account for their sins Thus you hear the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgment consisteth in these particulars First it shall be the last Judgment after which there shall be no other which declareth the terribleness of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turn to the Lord he will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeal from that Judg and judgment Again it shall be a General Judgment which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death He judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himself upon his enemies He judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a General Judgment of all 2. Cor. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ In the third Place It shall be a manifest Judgment Sometime the Lord Judgeth men secretly by raising up in them fears and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in theâ—… as water in their bowels and oyl in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall be a sudden Judgment Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deriding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall pass before the face of Christ when he shall judg the quick and the dead As asnare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird he giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sons of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist faith he shall come as a theef in the night A theef knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will be on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadful Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous Judgment Then God as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deeds He will not regard the face of any He will not be bribed by wealth or reward He will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deal impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternal Judgment So saith the Apostle Heb. 6.2 The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternal weale and happiness of the godly and the eternal wo and misery of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgment saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sin remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penalty of men yet not withstanding is is impossible for you to avoid the righteous Judgment of God If Sathan would have thee do any thing that the word of God and thy own conscience sheweth thee to be hateful and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgment This is the pollicy of our Adversary when he induceth us to evil he makes sin sweet and pleasant to us but it should be our wisdome to make sin bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Judgment for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divel and he will fly from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our own making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to list up this when Sathan would have thee sin say No no God will bring me to Judgment When the Divel solicited Eve and circumvented her she spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgment of God We may eat saith she of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least we die here she brought an argnment from the judgment of God but here was her weakness she presently let it fall It should be otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sin say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sin If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression he shall die in his sin If any man be a drunkerd or Epicure he shall die in his sin If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer he shall die in his sin If any man be a swearer God hath vowed he will not hold him guiltless he shall die in his sin If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godliness and obeying unrighteousness he shall die in his sin If any man continue in gross wickedness in any wickedness without repentance he shall die in his sin Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inslict on sinners for sin For the wages of sin is death and arm your selves with this when Satan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spiritual Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoil you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgment for our sins Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will do and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say God will judge you for your sins The Apostle Saint Paul he moveth the Atheniaus Acts 17.31 to repentance upon this very ground because God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousness And surely if this will not awaken us nothing will nothing can What do we mean beloved to suffer our sins to stand upon the score Where is our wisedome Our grace Are we able to stand before God when he is angry with us Why do we not take off our sins by godly sorrow If a Judge should say to a Malefactour except thou mourn for thy offence thou shalt die and be execnted Doe we not think he would mourn to save his life Behold God faith to you except you mourn for your
the prayers of Gods people that they would lift up their hearts and hands and voyces to the Lord to look upon her and release her of her misery and trouble either by life or death for she was content either way She had some touches also of Divine Scripture as occasion offered themselves As when the light was brought in she desired to have the light of Gods countenance to shine upon her And when her eye-strings were broke that the tears did distill down she desired the Lord God to put her tears into his bottle and many such Luminations there were that came from her Her surcharged spirits were so taken and strucken as a man might perceive at the first there was no way but one her self drawing her self within as though that in the outward man there were no room for the soul to dwell there or to have a fit and opportune habitation I must needs advertise you of one thing that this cnstome of praising and commending of the dead is very full of danger because a man may be a lyer and a flatter before he be aware when he never intended it But truly for ought that I could discerne this Sister of ours was one that was very well deserving of a quiet and moderate spirit intentive and careful to govern her house and children and no way exorbitant for any thing that I can hear It is true that all are not of one Model as the bodies of men and women are not of one height and colour so the souls and spirits are not all of one elevation neither but we esteem the children of God according to that they have received and not according to that that they have not received as the Apostle speaks I say therefore according to the grace she had received I verily beleeve she was faithful and true to it that she received not the grace of God in vain she sought by all means to nourish and cherish it from one degree to another and to proceed from grace to grace And therefore I conclude in the judgement of Charity that we have very strong hopes and great probabilities of her happy translation She was a Daughter of Sarah as Saint Peter speaks of Women that he would have them demean themselves as Daughters of Sarah and such a one she was in her habit and attire in the manner of her life and society and company and therefore I doubt not but she inheriteth with Sarah the place of blessed mansions that the Lord hath made infinite specious and wide and capable for all blessed souls that put their trust in him Now this let us make use of to our own souls In that she had not that largeness of time she supposed to have had but was surprised so soon and vehemently as she could not dispose of her self in that manner as we know by experience she would have done it should be a lesson to us to be ready for God to be acquainted with God We have had two Corses one after another one a man another a woman both taken suddenly in respect of the time though they had thought to have made an overture of themselves to the world and thought to have made all things fair and easie by the confession and expression of their faith to the world but they were not suffered to do it So all presume to have time to make the world know that they be humble and penitent and to make their confession but many put it off till it be too late Let us not be put off with vain presumptions the Lord giveth and the Lrod takes we know not how soon We were born we know not when we shall die we know not when The Lord prepare us all for it GODS ESTEEM OF THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS PREACHED At the Funeral of Mr. John Moulson of Hargrave at Bunbury in Cheshire By S. T. SERMON XX. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints THe Psalm was composed by David to be an acknowledgment of that favour and grace of God which himself had experience of at some time or other but when or what the particular occasion of it was we are uncertain Some refer it to that escape which he made when Saul and his Troops had compassed him about upon the discovery of the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23.26 27 28. Others because Jerusalem is mentioned in the Psalm and Jerusalem at that time of Saul was not built as they conclude well against the time of the penning of it so they find also another occasion his escape from Absolom and that great plot 2 Sam. 15.14 Others include also his spiritual Conflicts his combattings with Gods wrath and his dispairs because of his sins together with some sicknesses and strong diseases accompanied with griefs and anxieties of mind In all which he found God benevolous and merciful unto him in the sense of which he rejoyces and as it was in his duty gives thanks and praises unto God He saith in the fourteenth vers he would make publique business of it and would pay his vowes corum populo in the presence of all the people and good reason he had for God hath oft releeved him and taken much care to preserve his life as he is ever tender of the safety of all his people for Pretiosa in oculis Jehovae c. Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The words are a Simple universall affirmative proposition wherein 1. The subject or thing spoken of is The death of Gods Saints 2. That which is spoken of it is That it is precious in the sight of the Lord. Which proposition may be resolved into these three observations 1. That there be some that are Gods Saints 2. That Gods Saints do also Die 3. That the Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight 1. There be some that are Gods Saints Sanctorum ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the vulgar latine reads it Misericordium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Pagnin after S. Hierome Bonificorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Piscator Piorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Mollerus The Kings translators have rendred it in our last English His Saints though they have given themselves a liberty in other places to render the Hebrew that is here by our English Holy as Ps 16.10 hhasideka Thy Holy one and the Hebrew word that properly signifies holy by our English Saints as Psal 16.3 Kedoshim To the Saints The Saint in the Text is in Hebrew hhasid and hhasid is beneficus and but in a secundary sence Sanctus Yet whereas it is rendred by the Septuagint once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerandus venerable which our English translates The good man Mic. 7.2 and once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverend or as our English hath it Righteous Prov. 2.8 Yet in all others places it is translated by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctus Saint or Holy and it
comparing it to a City built with precious Stones having twelve gates and twelve foundations wherein there is no darkness they needing no candle nor the light of the Sun for Christ Jesus the Sun of Righteousness is the continual light thereof And that therein is no misery no cross no imperfection no want no calamity but continual joy and rejoycing Where their songs are Halelujah and their shields felicity in the continual enjoying of the presence of Almighty God the glorious Trinity Having I say thus described these joyes he doth in the words of my Text for the comfort of the godly Who have here no continuing City but are strangers and forreiners and pilgrims and travellers to another City and seek a Country And in this their travel they meet with many crosses and afflictions and miseries And likewise for the terrour of the wicked that make this world their kingdom and are the chief Lords and commanders of the same for the comfort of the one and the terrour of the other the Angel here in the person of Christ saith he will come and that shortly to be a speedy deliverer of the one and a just Judge against the other Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me c. In which words observe these particular branches First the word of preparation or attention in the first word Behold which is as it were a Trumpet that sounds before the coming of the great Judge bidding every one to fit and prepare himself to hold up his hand at the bar Behold Secondly the Person and that is the Judge himself speaking in the person of the Angel I Christ Jesus himself Thirdly his action I come Fourthly the speediness of his coming shortly Fiftly the end of his coming to Judgment and that is to reward every man according to his works Sixtly and lastly the quantity and the quality of the reward inclusively set down which is according to the quality of the works for if the works be good there shall be a great and good reward but if they be bad the reward shall be accordingly The small model of time will not suffer me to run over all these particulars therefore my meditations and your attention shall be in one doctrine from the words in general and that is this that Christ Jesus will hasten his coming to Judgement to reward the godly with everlasting and eternal felicities but the wicked and ungodly with endless woe and perpetual misery For the proof of which doctrine you may consider these four things First of all the certainty and celerity of Christs coming to Judgement Secondly the signs that prognosticate his coming Thirdly the Judgement it self Lastly the end For the certainty of Christ coming to judgement I perswade my self that there is none here among you so ignorant that he doth not know or so Atheistical that he doth not beleeve you know it is an Article of our belief that he ascended into heaven and there he sits at the right hand of his Father in glory and from thence he shall come at the end of the world to judge both the quick and the dead Therefore I may spare the labour and the time in any further proof of that Now concerning the speediness of his coming to judgement If so be the day of Judgement was at hand sixteen ages since as both Christ and his Apostles proclaimed if then even in Christs dayes the ends of the world were come as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10.11 If then was the last time as Saint John faith 1 John 2.18 If then the end of all things were at hand as Saint Peter saith 1 Pet. 4.7 can we think that now it is far off Nay so sure and so certain as God is God and his Word is truth and not one jott nor tittle thereof shall pass away he is neer at hand he will come shortly But before we proceed there lies two stumbling blocks in the way that we must remove wherewith many stumble concerning this point In the time of the Apostles there were two heresies confuted the one by Saint Peter the other by Saint Paul Saint Peter in 2 Pet. 3.3 he wills us to understand that in the last dayes there shall come scoffers men living after their own lusts saying Where is the promise of his coming You preach so much that Christ Jesus is coming to Judgement and to call every one of us to account for our wayes our words and actions but where is the promise of his coming for all things continue alike from the beginning of the Creation Miserable men that would be perswaded that the day of Judgment should never come because it was deferred but such jesting and mocking and scoffing at this great and terrible day heretosore used and indeed now practised in the whole progeny of unheleevers it may be an argument to us that it shall not be deferred for so saith Saint Paul 1 Thes 5.3 when they shall say peace peace and safety then destruction shall come on them as travel on a woman with child they shall not escape But Saint Peter answers these scoffers that asked Where is the promise of his coming he gives them two answers The one in vers 8. the other vers 9. In the eight vers he saith Christ defers notlong to come to judgement for saith he one day with the Lord is as a thousandyears c. alluding to Psal 90.4 A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday since they pass as a watch in the night As if he should say were it possible for a man to live a thousand years yet those thousand years in respect of God as soon as they are past they are as one day in respect of men nay they are but as a watch of the night that is but as three hours The old Jewes they divided the night into four Watches and appointed to each Watch three hours as may appear by comparing of these places of Scripture together Mat. 14.24 Num. 14.25 Luke 12.38 So then the words bear this exposition that a thousand years in respect of God are but as one day nay but as a Watch of the night that is but as three hours It doth plainly shew to us that Saint Peter meant not to speak distinctly of a thousand years but of a long time so that his meaning is innumerable years in respect of God are but as one day Saint Peter might as well have said 2000. or 3000. or 10000. thousand years in respect of God are but as one day Thus you have his first answer to those scoffers that said Where is the promise of his coming His second answer is in the ninth vers where the Apostle saith The Lord is not slack concerning his promise Where is the promise of his coming Why saith the Apostle The Lord is not slack as we account slackness For we account them slack that goe slowly about a work but God is
not so to be accounted slack but saith the Apostle He is patient toward us and would have none perish but come to repentance Then the slackness of Christs coming is his patience because he would give us time to repent and have us prepared before he come O! then beloved let us not make a mock as others do of this patience but while we have time let us take time that when he comes we may be worthy of him Thus you have the first heresie confuted The second was quite contrary to this set abroach by certain false teachers who taught the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was so neer that it should happen in their age Where by the way you may take notice of the exceeding great subtilty of the Divel that labours by all means possible to bring men to one of these extreams Either that the day of Judgement shall never come or it shall come in such a limited time and age And indeed it is ranked among the opinions of some that held that the day of Judgement should be just 6000 years after the Creation 2000. before the Law 2000. under the Law and 2000. under the Gospel But Saint Paul answers these false teachers among the Thessalonians and all of the like opinion therefore to arm them against their assaults he bids them for a certainty beleeve it 2 Thessal 2. that the day of judgement was not at hand And he gives the reason vers 3. For saith he that day shall not come except there he a departing first and that man of sin the son of perdititon be revealed But how is it that the Apostle tells the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was not at hand seeing it is plain in the places before recited that the end of the world was at hand and that now was the last times and Heb. 9.26 Christ appeared in the end of the world It was in the end of the world that Christ appeared to sacrifice himself for our sins how is it then that he tells the Thessalonians here that the day of the Lord is not at hand Master Calvin saith the answer is easie for saith he in respect of God it was at hand but as for us we must be continually waiting for it But Master Beza and Rollock give another Exposition which I take to be more natural to the place for say they in all those places where it seems to be avouched that the day of the Lord is at band they understand the word in the Original to signifie generally a time drawing neer As to say the day of judgement may be this day as well as to morrow and to morrow as well as this day and many dayes hence as well as now But in that place where he saith it is not at hand they understand the word precisely to be meant of a precise time so the Apostle speaks truly the day of judgement is not at hand so as that any man can say it shall be this hour or this day or this month or this year or this age This is no more but the doctrine of Christ Of that day and hour no man knoweth no not the Angels in heaven no not Christ himself as man but the Father only So you see it is plain and evident that the day of Judgement is at hand but in what precise limits of time or age it shall happen it is uncertain Our Saviour Christ tells his Apostles Act. 1.7 It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father hath put into his own hands It is not for you to know these times Then beloved why should we have an ear to hear where God hath not a tongue to speak Let it suffice us to know that it is at hand which if we make good use of it will make us wary and watchful and Vigilant over all our wayes that we say not with the evil servant Our Master defers his coming let us eat and drink and beat our fellow servants but betake our selves to the good servants duty to watch Watch we therefore we know not the day and hour when the Son of man cometh But when he cometh and finds us doing well dealing faithfully and living holily happy nay thrice happy shall we be we shall be sure to partake of the blessing of those upon mount Gerrazim we need not fear the curse of those upon Mount Ebal We need not be afraid of the Thundering and lightning on Sinai nor the fire and tempest nor smoak of the furnace nor of the sound of the Trumpet for all our joy shall be in Sion But when he comes if he find us living wickedly dealing unfaithfully cursed nay thrice cursed we be we are sure to partake of mourning for joy of ashes for beauty of a rent for a girdle whatsoever becomes of our garments assuredly our hearts shall be rent in sunder Watch we therefore we know not the day and hour when the Son of man will come In the second place that the children of God may be armed and prepared for his coming he hath set down in his Word certain signs which being effected and come to pass they may easily judge that then the day of redemption draweth nigh Now these signs are of three sorts Some are in respect of us a long time before he comes to judgement A second sort are imediately before his coming The third in his coming The signs that prognosticate his coming long before are these First of all the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world which is set down by Christ Mat. 24.14 The Gospel of the kingdome shall be preached to the whole world for a testimony to all Nations then shall the end be Which words of our Saviour Christ we are not so to understand as that the Gospel should be preached to the whole world at any one time for that never was nor I think never will be but if we so understand it that the Gospel shall be preached to all Nations successively and at several times then if we consider the times since the Apostles we shall find that the sound of the Gospel hath gone out to all the Nations of the world as it was spoken by the Prophet so that this first sign is already past the end cannot be far The second sign is the revealing of Antichrift saith the Apostle 2. Thessal 2.3 That day shall not come except there be a departing and that man of sin the son of perdition which is Antichrist be revealed Concerning this sign in the year of our Lord 602. after Christ S. Gregory seemeth to avouch that whosoever taketh the name of universal Bishop and Pastor of the Church that was Antichrist Five years after Boniface succeeding him by Phocas the Emperour had the title of Universal Bishop of the Church and ever since all their successours have taken that name so that it is evident that at Rome hath been and now
is the Antichrist so that the second sign being fulfilled the end cannot be far The third is the general departure of the most from the Faith There hath been a general departure in former times when Arrius spread his heresies almost all the whole world became an Arian and for the space of 500 years together from the time of Boniface the world was so infected with Popish heresies that the faith of Christ could scarsely be discerned they were as a handful of wheat to a great deal of chaff so that this sign it is already fulfilled in part but there shall alway be a falling away and a departing from the faith till Christ come to judgement The fourth sign stands in exceeding great corruption in the manners of men And the Apostle makes this a sign of Christs last coming to judgement 2 Tim. 3. This know that in the last dayes perrillous times shall come men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce dispisers of those that are good traitours heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God The Apostle makes this a sign and mark that shall be in the last dayes Beloved if ever this were fulfilled in these dayes of ours for there is a general corruption in the manners of men It is very hard to find those that in all truth and sincerity labour to discharge a good conscience towards God and men And Christ hath said himself that when he comes to judgement he shall scarse find faith on earth such a general corruption there shall be in the manners of men so that this fourth sign being already past the end cannot be far The fifth sign is exceeding great persecution and affliction of the Church and the Saints of God This hath been fulfilled in former times You know there were ten fearful persecutions in the Primitive Church And so it is fulfilled even in these dayes of ours for the Whore of Babylon that spotted beast she laboureth to make her self drunk with the bloud of Gods Saints There are but few years nay months or weeks wherein some of the bloud of Gods Saints is not sacrificed to appease the wrath of the Persecutors Then if in these dayes this sign be fulfilled the end cannot be far The sixt is a general security so that men will not be moved neither with the preaching of the word of God nor yet with judgements from heaven they have such exceeding dulness and deadness of heart that neither of these will move them For the former you know God hath sent many judgements amongst us we have had fire and famin and pestilence and invasion of forrein enemies inundation of waters thunder and lightning from heaven but all these will not work upon our hearts The Lord he hath scourged us oft but yet we set light by his corrections we harden our hearts against all his judgements our hearts will not be softned and mollified what effect hath all these wrought where is our humiliation our repentance and reformation And for the preaching of the word of God alas that can get no entrance at all mens hearts are so crusty and so hardned that the seed of Gods word it lies uncovered it takes no root at all in the heart it works no reformation at all so that if ever this sign were fulfilled it is in these dayes It shall be saith Christ speaking of the general security that shall be when he comes to judgement as in the dayes of Noah and of Lot they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage till the fire came from heaven and burned them and the water over-flowled the world so that this sixt sign being past the end cannot be far The seventh and last sign of Christs coming to judgement is the calling of the Jewes which the Apostle Rom. 11.25 calls the fulfilling of the Gentiles When God hath the number of his Elect among the Gentiles then the Jewes shall be called again but of the time and the manner and number the word of God doth not reveal it so that it is likely this sign is yet to come all the rest are fulfiled and therefore the end cannot be far The second sort of signs are such as are immediately before Christs coming to Judgement and that is the darkness of the Sun Moon and Stars The Sun shall be darkned the Moon shall lose her light the Stâ—…rs shall fall from heaven the very powers of heaven shall be shaken the foundations of the heavens shall tremble Alas what shall the little shrubs in the Wilderness do when the tall Cedars of heaven shall be shaken what shall poor sinful man do when the Angels shall be afraid The last sign shall be in Christs coming to Judgement Mat. 24.29 it is called the sign of the Son of man Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn What this sign of the Son of man is Divines do vary Some hold it is the sign of the Cross which all eyes shall behold even they that pierced him as John saith Revel 1. Some others which I rather assent unto take it to be the glorious beams of Christs Majesty immediately before his personal appearance to enlighten the world being darkned by reason of the want of the light of the Sun and Moon So you see what these signs shall be The signs that prognosticate Christs coming Those that shall be fulfilled long before they are all effected but one as you heard Therefore it stands us all upon as wise Virgins to prepare oyl in our lamps that when our Bride-groom Christ shall come we may be ready to enter into eternal joy So we come from the signs that prognosticate the judgement to the judgement it self Concerning the judgement it self You must know that after death there are two judgements There is a particular and there is a general Judgement The particular Judgement is immediately as soon as ever the breath is gone out of the body As soon as ever the soul is gone out of the body it is conducted by the Angels before the Tribunal seat of God and there receives the particular sentence either of joy or torment according as it lived in the body in this life We need not speak of this we have example for the proof of it in Scripture of Dives and Lazarus the one whereof being dead was presently carried to joy the other presently to torment The other is a general judgement so called because it shall be of all men in general that ever lived and breathed upon the face of the earth men women and children all shall be presented before the Tribunal seat of Christ all must hold up their hands at the Bar of his judgement all must give an account of all their words thoughts and actions all must
receive the sentence either of Come ye blessed or go ye cursed After which sentence once pronounced there shall never question be made of the end of the joy of the one or the ease of the torments of the other But here ariseth a question you know the world consists but of two sorts of persons beleevers and unbeleevers For the beleever it is evident and plain Joh. 5.24 He is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already he shall not come into judgement And for the unbeleever it is as plain Joh. 3.18 that he is already condemned even already both are judged already both the beleever and unbeleever the beleever is saved already the unbeleever is damned already what need therefore a general a second Judgement To this I answer that there is a very great need of it both in respect of the justice and of the mercy of God whose property it is alway to reward the godly and to punish the wicked which seeing he doth not to the full in this life it must needs be that a day will come that he will fully do it You know the course of the Lord as David speaks good men have bands in their death and wicked men are lusty and strong good men are in evil condition and wicked men in prosperity Diogenes the Cinnick seeing Harpalus a thief long in prosperity he was bold to say that wicked Harpalus his living long in prosperity it was an argument to Diogenes that God had cast off his care of the world that he respected not mens affairs And indeed the prosperity of the wicked hath brought the Saints of God to a stand Davids foot slipped almost in seeing the prosperity of the wicked It made Job to say Job 24.12 Men groan out of the City by reason of oppression and the souls of the slain cry out and yet God chargeth them not with folly This made Jeremiah to expostulate his cause with the Lord Jerem. 12. Let me talk with thee of thy judgments Why doth the wicked prosper and they that transgress thy commandements This makes the godly take up that passionate complaint Psal 73.11 How doth God know it is there any knowledg in the most high Certainly we have cleansed our hearts in vain in vain we have washed our hands in innocency in vain we labour to live godly lives Why Every day we are chastened for the Lord corrects us every morning And these have the wealth of the world they have the world at will We in Christianity know this to be true Dives hath the world at will while poor Lazarus is shut out of doors hungry and thirsty cold and naked full of necessity every way This being so the day must needs come that the one shall have fulnesse of glory and the other of misery But to answer those places before cited To the former Joh. 5. where it is said The beleever is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already It is true he is passed already from death to life by faith he hath it already and by hope he shall not come into judgement that is of condemnation so we must understand it but there is a judgement of absolution that is to be executed and so when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with the sound of a Trumpet and the voyce of the Archangels then the dead in Christ shall rise first and be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ and then they shall be set at his right hand and hear that heavenly sentence Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world You see the answer to that that beleevers shall not come into judgement that is not the judgement of condemnation but of absolution at the last day Now for the other place where it is said Joh. 3.18 the unbeleever is condemned already It is true he is condemned already and that three wayes First of all he is condemned already in the counsel of God Secondly he is condemned already in the word of God Thirdly he is condemned already in his own conscience First in the counsel of God God hath made an eternal decree of Predestination whereby he hath elected some to salvation and predestinated them thereto and others to damnation In this Gods eternal decree the unbeleever is already condemned nay before ever he came into the world as you have it in the example of Jacob and Esaâ—… Rom. 9. before ever they had done good or evil God hated the one and loved the other Secondly in the word of God he is condemned Jo. 3.18 Why because he hates the light and loves darkness Thirdly in his own conscience he is condemned for the continual horrour thereof gives him no rest day nor night there is a worm continually gnawing there and a sting tormenting him but the full execution thereof is to be in the day of wrath when he shall be set at the left hand of Christ and hear the sentence Goe ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the divel and his Angels O what a terrible day will this be to all the wicked workers of iniquity for Christ Jesus the Judge shall come then to give them their reward This shall be a black a sad a woful dismal day to them they shall not be able to look on the Judge he shall be so terrible to them You see the terriblness of the Judge set down by Saint John Revel 20.10 11. where it is said he saw a great white throne and one sitting thereon from whose face fâ—…ed heaven and earth and their place was no more found Heaven and earth are great and mighty creatures insensible creatures that have not sinned they flie and tremble and hide themselves at the coming of the great Judge and shall man silly sinful man think to stand before the Judge without trembling Indeed if a man could present himself spotless without blame he needed not to fear but alas it is far otherwise there is none that doth good and sinneth not saith Solomon The most righteous before men are stained and poluted in the sight of God and may cry with the Leper Unclean unclean what is man that he should be pure or the son of man that he should be just with God The Angels of heaven are impure in his sight how much more filthy man that drinketh iniquity as water Job 15. So in Psal 14.2 When God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there were any that would uuderstand and seek after God Will he find any that frames themselves according to the rule of perfection that he requires surely no but this he finds they are all corrupt and abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one so sinful is man in his whole race sinful in his conception he is conceived in sin before ever he sees light in this
And this will cut sore and lie heavy on our conscience and therefore let us do it betimes Not only to prevent the Divel and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may be taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learn to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soon that evil day may come we know not that the wise man speaks of therefore betimes while ye have opportunity do it And for our own part let us learn this First when God crops such flowers that rise in the bud when he takes away such Children be thankful to God that he hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our years that he hath given us such a great deal of space and opportunity to glorifie him here to do him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it self and a blessing to us if we improve it Again every one remember if Children do die old men must die any man may die For it Death strike such as do but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to fear it I speak not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we fear it inordinatly because we love our lives we love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continual spectacles of mortality let us be acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scares him and he runs from it at the first but at last he grows throughly acquainted with it and fears it not so it is in regard of death many men will not endure to hear of death they will not endure to think of it they will not endure to hear a Funeral Sermon or to come to the hous of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and run from it but if we did oft think of it as oft as we think of sin in the cause of it And when we feel sorrow think here is a harbinger of death I feel pain in me ere long I must surrender to the stroak of Death And as oft as we see spectacles of mortality to read a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves down in our beds think of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and think of Death If the Serpents sting be plucked out a man may handle it he is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he fears it not So we have cause to thank God for death as well as for other things thus far because he hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world he will be our exceeding great reward he will be All in all to us here and hereafter THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF JUDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was That in the day of Judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not only their works 2 Cor. 5.10 God will bring every work to judgement and so Eccles 12. He will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that he will bring every word to judgement too even the very vain words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matt. 12.36 And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speak in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily been passed by He that calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5.22 Then much more those evil speeches against God Jude 13 14. He shall come with thousands of his angels in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evil and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madness fell to evil and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appear that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speak evil and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evil speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appear at that day to be just against him so we see God will bring both words and works to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now bind them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandment of the words of men concerning God he that takes the name of Godin vain he will not hold him guiltless And then the ninth commandment of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdoms they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions whereby the judges proceed in their course of judgment upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vain it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the express rule whereby Christ himself will proceed in matter of judgement Again secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you read of some Psal 73. that set their mouths against God and against heaven Indeed they can do no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sun can hurt the Sun by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against
him And in Levit. 24.11 The word there translated to blaspheme it is in the original that the man stabbed God or did pierce God he offered a kind of violence to the holy name of God Such sinful speeches as are forbidden in the third Commandment and do concern the name of God or any of his attributes or ordinances any thing that is spoken against them or without due reverence and respect to them they are there said to be a stabbing of God in the Hebrew phrase or a piercing of God a wounding of God doing some violence to God himself Now I say when such wrong and injury is done to God shall not God take a time to right himself of those that injure him Secondly it is an injury done to men You know it is a common thing in Law to have actions against men for speeches they make speeches actions they make them lyable to the penalty and censure of the Law for speeches So the Law of God proceeds according to the very speeches of men whereby they have discouraged his servants in any kind at any time in any duty of Religion and course of his worship or whereby they have brought an ill report on it As those spies did upon the Land therefore they might not be suffered to go into the Land So I say when men bring an evil report upon the duties of godliness they shut themselves out of the kingdom of God So likewise when men make that which is straight become crooked It is said of Simon Magus that he perverted the straight wayes ef God that is he did as much as lay in him to make the straight wayes of God to seem crooked that as a man that puts a stick in the water though it be straight when it is put in yet it seems crooked when it is in So when a man puts colours and shews upon good actions and courses as if they were folly and indiscretion and unadvised and hypocrisie and vain or whatsoever is ill this is to make the straight wayes of God crooked to make that that God accounts straight to be crooked this is a setting against God therefore Peter saith to Simon Magus pray if it be possible that the thought of thy heart may be for given thee So you see Saint Paul speaks to Elymas the sorcerer upon the same ground Act. 13. Thou child of the divel and enemy to all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of God Now I say here are the words and speeches that men speak against the wayes of God these are speeches that argue men in a state whereby they are liable and open to judgment and exposed to wrath therefore we should take heed of such words The use may be to condemn those that make light account of words they think they may speak it may be in rashness and hastiness and they may be excused for uttering them it is there hastiness and their passion and it was done unadvisedly c. I but the Law of God is transgressed the Majesty of God is offended the anger of God is provoked You know what old Eli said to his Sons My sons if a man sin against a man man may plead for him but if he offend against God who shall plead for him I say who shall take up the matter with God in such a case as this when the offence strikes against God and his ordinances and his worship Therefore take heed there is much evil there is life and death as Solomon saith in the power of the tongue that is a man may utterly destroy himself by the very words he speaks unadvisedly as he thinks and will plead for himself or passionately and rashly Again much more doth it concern those that proceed to other kinds of wickedness in the tongue we instanced in some particular instances then that we cannot now stand on We came to direct men to carry themselves in their speech as David to set a watch before the door of their lippes he prayed to God to do it And Psal 39. I said that I will take heed to my wayes that I offend not in my tongue And then he prayes to the Lord Psal 131. to keep a watch before the door of his mouth He knew well enough that there will be a time when the words that we think are sleight and vain shall be brought to judgement idle unprofitable frothy talk much more railing and reviling speeches most of all the highest blasphemies and execrations these shall most certainly be brought to a greater censure at the day of judgment But I will not stand on that I then handled Now there remains three things more The first is this that in the day of judgment God will proceed according to his Law So speak and so do as those that shall be judged by the Law I say In the day of judgment God will proceed with men according to his Law He will proceed according to his word written therefore labour that your speeches and actions may be such that they may be agreeable to that John 12.48 The word that I speak to you saith Christ shall judge you at that day There is not a word that Christ speaks but it shall judge he speaks not in vain he is the judge that speaks Now you know Christ speaks two wayes Either in himself Or by his Ministers In himself and so either that that he spake when he was on earth in his own person then all the words that he spake at that time are those words by which he will judge men as far as they concern morral actions by those words he will judge men at the great day for he spake nothing but what was according to his Law Or else that which he spake in his Apostles immediatly by a certain and infallible work of the Spirit directing them to such truth as that they could not err in speaking now in this Christ still spake in them The same way Christ hath in speaking to this day therefore saith he he that heareth you heareth me and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me That which he spake to them he spake in them concerning all the Ministers of the Gospel What we speak as Ministers that is as men that look to the direction of our Lord for we are but Embassadours and our words are so far of value and power as they are the speeches of our Lord and as we speak the word of him whose Embassadours we are Now I say look what the Minister thus speaks as the Embassadour of Christ to the people that Christ will confirm at the day of judgement Now it will appear what we speak as Embassadours if we speak nothing but what is agreeable to the text of Scripture rightly understood Therefore mark it whatsoever sin we denounce the judgement of God against and urge Scripture for it it is the very rule that Christ will observe in judging men Or
soul is heavy unto death yet be not troubled was he so careful when he was in his own troubles on earth to comfort them and will he not now be so in heaven when he is in blessedness certainly the soul that hath recours to Christ shall not return empty therefore see how Christ is exprest in heaven Matth. 25. Come ye blessed c. For what you have done to these you have done to me he is in heaven and so Saul why dost thou persecute me he is in heaven yet in respect of his Church he is below therefore be assured that Christ hath not put off the bowels of love to his people he will be the same if thou receive him as a Lord and Saviour as ever he was to his Disciples But it may be objected we are exposed to many uncertainties though we beleeve in Christ and we find not the comfort of it here Therefore Christ saith rest not upon things present here you are in Tents but you shall come to your fathers house there is a place provided for you between which and this there is as much difference as is between a house and a Tent between a mans own mansion and an Inn. And though you have hard entertainment in the world yet you shall have an abiding place after But you will say indeed there are mansions but there are abundance to receive them what shall we do There are many masions therefore look as there are many children to be brought to glory so there are many places to receive them in glory and to settle them there we see what a vast body the Sun is and the Stars are yet they seem but little sparks in comparison of the heavens above us but what is the heaven of heavens that contain all these infinitely beyond in its own compass there are many mansions But how shall we come to heaven Saith Christ I go to prepare a place for you as if he should say all that I have done is for your sakes I die and ascend and sit at the right hand of God for your sakes I will come at the day of judgment to bring you to glory all that Christ doth now as God-man as Mediator between God and us all is for our sake But when Christ is taken from us how shall we get thither Saith he I will come and bring you with me I will come in glory at the day of Judgment in the clouds and inable you to meet me and thence bring you to those heavenly mansions in my fathers house never doubt how these things shall be done I will do them all Thus Christ would confirm their faith there is the greatest happiness and comfort in this wherein he would have them setled this should stir us up to settle our hearts this way But the time is past this shall be sufficient for this time FAITHS TRIUMPH OVER THE GREATEST TRYALS SERMON XXXII HEB. 11.17 By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up his son Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his onely begotten son THis Chapter doth speak in the commendation of the Faith of many of the Patriarchs and Abraham among the rest is brought in with a manifest testimony of his Faith there be two things observable which Abrahams Faith strengthened him to act one was to give up his Country the other was to give up his Son to give up his Country in verse 8. By Faith Abraham when he was called of God to go out in a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went To leave our friends our parents to take our journey we know not whither to live among we know not whom and all this upon a bare word this was not an easie thing to part with good Land for some good words this was a hard matter sence derides it and reason contemns it and will not hearken to it but Faith can see more in Gods promise than sence can find Abraham will leave his Country when God calls him to it but never shall lose his inheritance by beleeving and obeying no man did ever yet hazard his estate who could part with it upon obedient terms A second thing that he is to part with is with his Son his only son his first begotten son in this Act of faith Abraham sails against wind and tide where he breaks through the contentments of the world not only of sence and reason but of natural affection The story in a word is this God after many years patience at length gave Abraham a son in his old age he was the child of many prayers and of many teares the parents delight and to Abrahams thinking an heir of life because a child of the Promise he had not long spent his gray hairs in a strange land but God on a sudden calls upon Abraham to give back his son his very son Isaac as we may read in the 22 of Genesis Now what doth Abraham do how doth he behave himself doth he expostulate with God Any thing Lord but spare my son Isaac Nay the Text saith he offered up his son Doth he murmure and grumble against God in this manner Lord why dost thou single out this delight of mine why dost thou seem to envy this blessing of mine No he offered up his Isaac as if the Text had expressed Ahrahams language thus O Lord my God what is it that thou callest for whom is it that thou callest for is it for my only son Isaac the son of my love the son of thy promise the son of my age verily Lord thou shalt have him it is true I love him dearly well but I love thee better I got him by beleeving and I shall never lose him by obeying if Isaac were a thousand sons thou shouldest have them all though I am a father yet Lord thou art a God if I give him he is a sacrifice acceptable and though I kill him yet thou canst quicken him and raise him again I shall never lose my Isaac though I part with my son for thou hast said in Isaac shall thy seed be called Now the parts of these words are two First we have Abrahams great tryal Secondly we have Abrahams acquitment First his tryal Abraham was tried when he offered up his son Secondly his acquitment by Faith Abraham offered up his son In the former we may observe three particulars First the person that is tried Abraham Secondly the Person that tried him God Thirdly the thing wherein he was tried it was no ordinary thing it was to part with a part of himself to offer up his dear son Isaac In the latter part two things are observable First his quickening up himself in his obediential act he offered up Isaac saith the Text. Secondly the powerful cause which did inable Abraham to so difficult a work By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up his
passion and she cryed to her Husband give me children or else I die but nothing of all this prevailed till she sought it of the Lord and then she was fruitful that is the first Secondly it is recorded of her that she was not only fruitful but that with this fruitfulness of hers there came an increase of Gods people she built up a great part of Israel and what else were the Isralites but Gods peculiar people A right christian indeed is called a true Israelite and the elect are termed by Saint Paul Gal. 6.16 the Israel of God So then hence you may infer that The desire of having Children must aim at the increase and ealargement of Gods Church This is a blessing indeed when the wife by her off-spring builds up Israel not Babel Bethel Gods house not Bethaven the house of iniquity This was the desire of holy people of old when they prayed that their children might be as corner-stones couched into the wals of the Temple meaning thereby that they might grow into the Temple of the Lord to be a habitation of God by his Spirit Blessed is the man saith the Psalmist that hath his quiver full of them it is of such children that are as the arrows of a strong man Whence it follows that they must have more in them then nature for arrows are not arrows by growth but by Art so they must be such children the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Ishmael the son of the bond-woman had twelve sons and all Princes in their Nations but what did all these titles of dignity do them good as long as they were out of the promise Questionless Hanna's drieft in desiring a son of God was that out of her might come one by whom Gods glory might be advanced among men therefore she vowed him to the Lord all the daies of his life The Angel told Zachary that he should have joy and gladness at the birth of his son why Because he should be great in the sight of the Lord and silled with the holy Ghost and turn many to the Lord Luk. 1.50 He that begets a fool that is an ungodly irreligious son for that is one of Solomons fools he gets himself sorrow and the father of such a one shall have no joy but he shall be his very calamity and his meer vexation It is a rule set down in Scripture that whatsoever is done should be done to the glory of God therefore our desire of having children must aim at this that out of our loyns may come such by whom Gods glory may be promoted and the number of the godly increased in the world Thirdly she is recorded to have yeelded in all willingness and readiness to the desire of her Husband When Jacob was warned by an Angel from God to return from Laban to the Land where he was born he made his wives acquainted with the matter and discovered to them his whole intent and purpose they forth-with gave him this yeelding and respective answer Whatsoever God hath said unto thee that do Gen. 31.11 The like is to be seen in Sarah she was no hindrance to Abraham in his removal from his own Country to Canaan no nor at such time when she was ignorant whither he went she was no hindrance to him in the speedy circumcising of his son No nor she did not go about to hinder him in the very sacrificing of his son Out of all doubt if she had been a clog to him in any of these respects the Spirit of God would never have concealed it because the wrestling with her unwillingness and gain-saying had been a strong evidence of Abrahams faith that the Scripture is very careful to set out to the full for his credit and our instruction There are two Women storied in the Scripture above others as examples of Gods judgment upon the untowardness of Wives not joyning with and incouraging their Husbands in good-doing The one is Lots Wife whose love no question was a great delay to Lot in his departure from Sodome that when she should have gone on with her Husband in hast to the place which was appointed for their refuge without looking back she drew behind still lingring after her wonted home but what was the issue she was turned into a Pillar of salt The other was Michal the wife of David when she looked out and saw David dance before the Ark she despised him in her heart and was so far from approving his zeal that when he returned she entertained him with a frump saying to him What a fool was the King of Israel this day but what was the issue of it a punishment was inflicted on her for her fault that she had no child all the dayes of her life 2 Sam. 6.23 I remember a policie of Saint Paul in his Epistle he wrote to Philemon he writes to him for the re-entertainment of a runnagate servant that he had begotten to God in his bonds and for the better effecting of it in his inscription he not only writes to Philemon but joyns with him Philemons wife To Philemon our dearly beloved and to our beloved Apphia Philem. 1 2. Wherefore was this For nothing else I beleeve but to warn her of her duty that when the receiving of Onesimus was manifested to her Husband as a needful duty and a thing pleasing to Almighty God she should not put in her spoke to withstand the motion but further it by all the means she could It was to this end that the woman was created that she might be a help to her Husband in all honest offices to joyn with him to incourage him to provoke him and assist him in the performance of them Fourthly and lastly to omit many other things recorded of her that I might here relate to you and to come to that that more neerly concerns this present occasion it is said of Rachel she died in travel God had commanded Jacob to rise and go up to Bethel and dwell there he obeyed and erected a Pillar in the place where God talked with him thence he journeyed a little further to Ephrath and there Rachel travelled and had hard labour in the sufferance of which which might be some ease she received a great deal of comfort from her Midwife who bad her not fear for she should have this son also but it came to pass as her soul was departing for she died that her sons name was called Benoni that is a son of sorrow as we see verse 18. Who can express the woe of that day and the bitterness of that loss to Jacob who was now berest of his dearly-beloved Wife by the fruit of whose wombe he had reaped such increase of blessing before the children had the care of two watching over them now only of one and that such a one as was not accustomed to interest himself in training up young Children but left it to her and she took
as Gods great Work begins in the judgment There is a judicial death so one that is alive now in respect of natural life may yet be said to be judicially dead when he is dead in sentence when by the Judge he is condemned to death when he is adjudged to die So reckon ye your selves dead to sin make account of this that now in your judgment there is a sentence passed out against sin that it shall be slain that it shall be mortified thus your judgment stands and thus you look upon it as a thing dead in sentence and that is the first It is that in Ezek. 36.31 saith the Lord When I shall be pacified to thee this shall follow upon it thou shalt judge thy self worthy to be destroyed for all thine iniquities and abominations When God is reconciled to a man which is as much as to say when a man is in Christ for by Christ we are reconciled to God this follows upon it that man comes now to judge sin to be a deadly thing to judge sin to be dead and to judg himself worthy to be destroyed for it He looks on sin as it should be looked upon his opinion is right concerning it he accounts it an iniquity a thing against that rectitude against that equity and righteousness wherewith man was once endowed in the Creation and from which so far as he swarves so far he is plunged into death As you know that curse was denounced against man when he sinned he should die so he cannot look upon iniquity upon that that is contrary to that righteousness wherein he was made but he looks upon it as on death it self and a deadly thing he looks upon it as upon an abomination That look as persons that sinned capitally were an abomination to the Land and people among whom they sinned as the Scripture speaks of murtherers and the like the land was defiled if the sentence of death were not executed so it is here in the opinion and judgment of a man that is in Christ he accounts this the greatest defilement that his soul remains so far polluted and defiled as there is any life left in sin That is the first thing reckon this then that sin is dead immediatly that is that you now come to pass as Judges do a sentence of death against sin and that howsoever a Malefactour be not naturally dead when he is judicially dead yet he is in an order to it the next thing that follows will be to be cut off So it is with sin when a man comes to judge himself for his iniquity worthy to be destroyed for his abominations this is the next thing that follows he will not rest till that be slain and subdued till that Malefactour be condemned to death and cut off and took out of the way Here is the first thing herein this change is like death Secondly there is a civil death too so one that lives naturally may be dead civilly so one that is under the subjection and power of another such a one is dead civilly The civil Law accounts any one that is under subjection to be Civiliter mortuus as they speak that is he is in that sence not accounted among living men he is one dead because he is not annimated and acted by his own will but by the will of him that rules him so reckon ye your selves dead saith the Apostle Make account that when you are in Christ sin is no more to be ruler and commander to act and animate and quicken you to obey its lusts that you should be acted and animated by it that as soon as sin tempts you should obey presently make account in this sence you are dead to sin that is sin is dead in you civilly it hath not a ruling power it comes not now as one that hath power to sway all before it that is it the Apostle saith in this Chapter sin shall not have dominion You have a new Master a new Lord you are no more under the rule and dominion of sin that is the second Thirdly there is a natural death as well as a judicial and civil death so things are said to be dead naturally two wayes Imperfectly Inchoate Perfectly Consummate Natural death imperfect and but begun is this as when there is a great blow given with an axe to the root of a tree whereupon certainly it will wither and die and be made altogether unfruitful for the time to come though for the present it have leaves upon it and though for the present all the fruit that is on it be not quite shook off yet now the tree is said to be dead because there is a blow given at the root whereupon it will wither and certainly die So a man is said to be dead when he hath a deadly wound given him though he be not now dead though he may stir and live after and perhaps do some hurt to him that wounded him yet he is dead because he is irrecoverably wounded every one that looks on him will say he is dead So as soon as a man is in Christ by vertue of his union with Christ there is such a blow given to the root of sin not in the judgment only but in the affections also so as it never recovers its strength again to bring forth fruit in that abundance as before and it alway withers and decayes more and more till it be quite removed Now as it is in this case with a tree will you know when it is dead take it in the Spring All the trees in Winter seem to be dead but come in the Spring and in Summer and then if a man see there are no leaves if he see no fruit upon the tree now he concludes it is dead indeed because it brings not forth fruit in the season of fruit So take a man when there is an occasion an opportunity to turn to folly when upon deliberation and judgment he may consider of that opportunity to mannage it for the service of sin it will appear now if he be dead he will not in such an occasion yeeld but at such a time especially resist sin at such a time he will not bring forth the fruit of sin Look what the Spring is to the tree that is occasion to the sinfulness of mans heart Indeed when sin takes a man upon disadvantage upon unequal terms that he deliberates not and considers not what he is doing as David saith I said in my hast then many times sin prevails and binds him as a theef doth the master of the house hand and foot yet nevertheless when he well weighs and considers things at such a time it will appear that sin is dead Thus you see how sitly the terms hold to express the change of a Christian his judgment is right he condemns sin as death in the purpose and covenant of his heart whereby he is bound to God he disposeth it from its
see the Lord hath here promised a large assurance of safety and protection from the malice of his adversaries in the day of evil if he wisely consider the poor Again it makes much for the good of his posterity The good man is merciful c. and his seed inherits the blessing It may be he perceives not such sensible and apparant fruits or outward success in his own life upon this course yet his seed inherits the blessing and the less he enjoyes the more shall they receive of Gods goodness towards them as a recompence for his benevolent kindness towards the people of God And what greater legacy can man bestow upon his posterity then to leave them by his particular means in the loving favour of the Almighty And as it is so for the present so it becomes a course of wisedome for the future also Charge the rich men of the World that they be ready to do good c. laying up a good foundation for the time to come And by this means a man may provide well for eternity Make you friends faith Christ of your unrighteous Mammon that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations The way for a man to provide for eternal good is to use his talent of wealth and estate for the present to the good of many Thus we see the Reasons plainly verified to make use of it briefly and hasten to that which remains Is it so then that it is writ down to be the duty of Gods servants to mannage the opportunities of this life for this end and in this course of doing good that is of distribution and reliefe Then it serves to reprove those that neglect this duty and account it not a business of their life only they conceive of it as a matter of praise and commendations a thing that they do well in performing and not very ill in omitting They conceive it to be of no absolute necessity but voluntary charity as a matter arbitrary but not as a duty necessary and for this cause they appear but slack and indifferent they conceive this as a duty to lay up wealth but never remember the necessity of laying out wealth to be commanded for a greater duty then the former they take it for their duty to get all they can but forget the following precept to do all the good with that they get as they can And here is the reason why there are such lavish expences bestowed upon every vanity that the portion of the poor and such as ought to be relieved with our estates in point of equity and by vertue of Gods Commandment is swallowed up by every vanity It is spent in excessive apparel for the satisfaction of the vain fashion-monger in superfluity of dyet for the Glutton and the Epicure in Haukes and Hounds and Dogs to please the humour of the voluptuous person it is consumed in raising up vain and unnecessary Buildings by earth-worms that make their habitations below and lay a foundation for themselves on earth neglecting that goodly building given of God to the re-edisying of their souls in the kingdome of Grace And thus is the portion of the poor consumed and themselves for want of the same exposed to all the misery that this World can inflict Some cry they cannot do it we have not an estate to undergo it in the mean time they run to excesse of Riot and make such voluptuous and superfluous feasts that the Phenix hardly escapes the bounds of their desires If you can be thus excessive in your dyet in your apparel in your sports if you can cast away in presents and in gifts in bribes and in gratuities superfluously upon rich friends there must of necessity be a defect in your will to the command of God when you neglect the miserable condition of the poor and lend no hand to help them What is the reason of it but because of the natural rebellion and Athisme that is in the heart of every man against God that they will employ their estates any way rather then bestow them to that purpose for which they are appointed by God Oh what account shall such be able to make at the day of Judgment do but suppose when the Books shall come to be opened wherein the particulars Diaries and passages of your life shall be thus examined Item so much for a feast Item on such a day for such another great feast and many a hundred dayes for as many hundred feasts wherein hundreds of the servants of God have endured extream want and inforced into banishment into other places to persecution to misery and distress when thou couldest not find one of them in a corner of thy purse Item so much for such apparel for such entertainment for such building of Walks and Galleries What nothing for the servants of God are they so empty when your houses appear so full live they so poor and you so richly glad what can you spare nothing for Christ and the distressed members of the Church all this while Oh my beloved remember what James faith Go to now you rich men weep and howl for your garments are Moth eaten whereon you have bestowed so much cost and your gold and silver is rusty and canker'd and the rest of them shall eate up your flesh as it were fire at that day Let it teach therefore the servants of God to bestow their Almes most willingly to be free and in continual readiness in extending their contribution towards the necessities of those that want them and not only so but to do good in so doing for that is the principal duty unto which the Text doth invite you While you have opportunity do good But how shall a man in such actions of mercy and bounty and liberality make it appear that he doth good Therefore briefly take some helps in this A man that will contribute out of his estate to releeve others and intends to do good First he must do what he doth justly he must not out of mercy extended to one injure another but must alwayes level his charity by his own ability And this is that which the holy Ghost calls the giving of a mans own Cast thy bread upon the waters thy own bread not another mans To give that which is a mans own by right by lawful procuring his own by right of possession the gifts bestowed out of that makes acceptation before God and provides a double recompence for the giver You see how Zachens gives If I have wronged any man I will restore it and half my goods I give to the poor That is I will first make restitution of what I have unjustly gotten and then of the remainder I will give half to the poor It is no giving for a man to employ all his life-time in the procurement of unjust gain By Usury deceit in trading and other indirect and forbidden courses to heap up abundance of red
Why must there be such a waiting for this â—… these grave cloths are too sad for the freshness of our life and would you have us be like the mad-man in the Gospel who lived among the Sepulchres Nay I beseech you let us consider and settle our thoughts a little you shall be stayed with reason there are many strong Arguments reasons why we should thus wait both by expectation 〈◊〉 preparation First it is the main errand of our life God did not send us into the world to sin and to adorn our selves with the creature but to bring him some honour and then to die the factor is not imployed to take his pleasure abroad but to do his Masters work and then to return home Tortullien confesseth he was a great finner and therefore born to repentance therefore doth God give us life and the Master allows the servant a candle to work by that we may repent of our sins and get our hold in Christ and work out our salvation and do the great business of believing to be good and to do good and so by Death to go up to heaven Secondly death is but once and that needs to be well done which can be but once done if there might be another space after death a second edition to correct the faults and escapes of the former then a present and speedy preparation were not altogether so necessary but faith the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to die and after death to come to Judgment Heb. 9.27 no more but once We usually shadow out Death with an hour-glass A fit emblem but that when an hour-glass is run out it may be turned again but this once out can be set up no more thou shalt never live to amend thy errours in dying O then how needful is it before-hand to prepare for Death Thirdly when death hath done with thee then God will begin with thee thou must once die and after this come to judgment Heb. 9.27 To judgment what is that thou must be presented before the holy and just and great God who is the Judge of the quick and the dead and with all that thou art and with all that thou hast done there must appear then before him all the courses of thy life all the bent of thy affections all the secrets of thy heart shall then be pulled in peeces and opened and all thy works and all thy words shall be exhibited scann'd and surveyed and that with severity and righteousness how say you then is it not fit to be preparing for Death to sit thy soul to reforme thy heart and life wilt thou be presented before Gods severe Judgment-seat with Usury in thy bags with bribes and oppression in thy hands with a scum of holiness in thy mind with uncleanness in thy members with drnnkenness in thy mouth with swearing in thy tongue O Lord I tremble to think of it Fourthly the soul when it is once gone by Death can never be recovered any more the tree may be cut and that may grow again the ship may be lost and the wealth laboured up again but if the glass be broken in peeces it cannot be made whole again the soul of man is but one and the loss of that one is the loss of it for ever when death hath closed up thy eyes thou shalt never have opportunity to pray more to weep more to humble thy self more to fast more Never any Prophet or Apostle shall come unto thee in the name of God more after death all the Ordinances cease unto thee for ever and all the space of returning shall cease unto thee for ever thou shalt not lie a few years in flames of wrath and then get leave to come out and take a better course O no if once there then for ever there this life is the time of mercy and space of repentance but when Death shall deliver thee up to be judged by the Lord thou must stand for ever to his sentence therefore as Christ spake Agree with thine adversary while thou art in the way lest the Judge deliver thee to the officer and he cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last mite Luke 12.58 And get oyle into your lamps before the door be shut Fifthly consider it will be as much as thou canst do to do the work of Death when Death doth come therefore prepare and get all thy other work done before For my Beloved consider three things First Conscience usually is most active at the time of death a man that could withstand and silence it in his life yet when he comes to die he shall here his voyce and perhaps not be able to stand under the bitter indictments and manifold accusations of it then it will spread the book of thy life before thee and then and there thou shall see thy sins as gastly presented as if they were so many wounds newly made Secondly thy patience will be tried with variety of pain interruption of sleep every place will be a thorn to thee and every action a burden Thirdly thy faith may be tried to the utmost if thou lookest to thy Wise her tears may trouble thee if to thy Children their cries may perplex thee if to thy friends they may be discomforters to thee and will Satan let the alone all this while will he let him lie down in comfort who would not scarce let him live an hour in peace oh what a victory would it be if he could at the last make thee cast away thy considence it is true the cannot attain it but he may desperately attempt it Why brethren who knoweth the power of these sharp temptations which may then beset him Verily all the holiness which we have attained already all the duties we have performed already we may then look on them with tears and cry out O why no sooner why no better why no more then all the strength of thy faith will be little enough to support thee Will there then be a change befall even all the sons of men Then to make some Use and Application of what hath been said to our selves First build no Tabernacles here We have here no abiding City And brethren saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 7.29 30 31. The time is short it remains that they that have wives be as if they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they reioyced not c. Why this thirst for riches there will be a change why this unwearied seeking after the things of this life as if thy soul were to go into a barn or a bag and there tumble it self for ever Thou fool this night may thy soul be taken away and whose possessions shall then thy careful and only gettings be the glass will be broken and all the wine will fly abroad though thou hast with much eagerness grasped the world in
Scriptures pretended for his conceit Apostolical Traditions and by reason of the venerable name of Antiquity it is not to be denyed but that some of the ancient Fathers received some tang of the same opinion from him as may be seen or collected of Justin Martyr and in the end of Trajans time Apollinarius Tertullian too much misled by Montane and Lactantius who were in part spiced with this Millenarisme so perilou a thing it proves to the Supine and out of a secure or careless disregard to suffer Humane Tradition to become a Diotrephes and to have the preheminence above the infallibity of the undoubted Scriptures which sacred and unerring written Word of God doth hold forth as of certaine credibility inspired by the Divine and first verity that can never deceive no such clear truth that the Lord Christ shall in Person before the General Resurrection come visibly and corporally upon the earth and as by a first resurrection cause all those who died in and for him to arise and with him in a peaceful tranquility and glory to reign and to beare sway over the wicked as Vassals for a thousand years which date of time being expired immediately shall ensue the General Resurrection and the day of the last Judgement No such evidential verity is demonstrated in Holy Writ as of Absolute Necessity to be believed unto salvation But whatsoever is alledged out of the propherick Scriptures for the stablishing of that opinion is to be understood either of the first coming of Christ in the flesh or of the state of the N.T. in general or else of the glorious estate of the Church triumphant to be expected hereaster in the eternal Kingdome for ever in Heaven as Gerard judiciously I have not time to alledge or you patience to hear on this occasion the several Texts cited by the Chiliasts or of the Orthodox many reverend and renowned Divines have eased us all of that labour let it suffice at the present to take notice from our Saviours own lips that his Kingdome is not of this world John 18.36 but within us Luke 17.21 and from Heaven and besides we find in our Creed which is founded on the Scriptures and may in every article thereof be proved by them we find I say in our Creed mention made but of two visible comings of Christ the first in Humility to suffer and to be judged the other at the end of the world but not before in the glory of his Father to judge the world both quick and dead in righteousness and unto them that look for him faith the great Apostle shall he appear the second time without sin that is without suffering any more as a sacrifice for sin unto salvation Heb. 8.28 Leaving then those Millenarian conjectures to such as abound with leisure rest we in the solid determination of Orthodox and stable judgements who resolve by the day and by the appearing here mentioned in this text to be meant the last great day of the general Judgement according to that Scripture Acts. 17.31 and the Lord Christ his second coming upon that day in glorious Majesty unto the judgment of all the world so that however those who labour in the Word and Doctrine meet often with so great discouragements that they seem to labour all in vain and spend their strength for nought as the Prophet speaks Isa 46.4 yet surely their Judgement is with the Lord and their work that is the reward of their work is with the Lord his goodness is laid up for them O how great Psal 31.19 In the mean time let it be our delight and contentment that we do our Masters work not as by constraint but willingly sith indeed such a vertuous service ever carryeth its own reward with it as being a thing to be desired and embraced for its own worth and certainly that sweet comfort and complacency that a righteous soul findeth in the sincere discharge of this duty within its proper station in conscience of God is infinitely more valuable than all the treasures the earth can afford without it only as the Husbandman we may not anticipate the season of the Harvest but we must wait and then in due time we shall reap if we fant not Gal. 6.9 Heb. 10.36.37 and when the reward actually cometh it being so large will abundantly recompence all our work yea end all our patience too sith the manner of it will be the more manifest and conspicuous before all in that great day when all of all sorts both great and small shall upon the general summons stand before the last Tribunal and then upon the appearance of the Chief Shepheard we shall raceive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Hereof S. Paul had a particular assurance in his own person when he faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness and if for him why may it not be also possible for others to be in like manner assured of the same especially provided that we are such as do love his appearing This question I confess is solid yet such as wanteth not its intricacies The Roman Catholicks in this controversie are wont to resolve thus that indeed for so great a Saint as S. Paul was this assurance might be possible yea was attained to by Revelation extraordinary by means of his sides privilegiata his special and priviledged faith which as an Apostle and a chosen vessel of honour he was endowed and adorned withall from Heaven for that God had a great service for him to do who was selected as it were to take up the Gauntlet in the quarrel of the Gospel against the manifold fierce and potent Adversaries of the same so that as I said in the beginning to steel his resolution with the greater courage he was fortifyed before-hand and armed with an extraordinary assurance of a glorious reward after his work and warfaring therein was over But now whether this assurance be possible for an ordinary Christian by the use of ordinary lawful means to attain is the next disquisition To which the resolution is affirmative the thing is possible though confessedly very difficult and this possiblity is both Certitudine Objecti and also Certitudine Subjecti both as it is sure in its self as it is determin'd by God and likewise in the particular evident and special experience of the same in the soul of a true believer and this is proved partly from those Scriptures which exhort unto a diligent endeavour after it 2 Pet. 1.10.2 Cor. 13.5 Now the nature of Evangelicall precepts and exhortations in a contradistinction to those of the Law is that they carry a spirit a secert energy vertue and power with them inabling through grace unto observation therefore the Gospel is called life and spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4.13 partly also this is proved from one principal end of the spirits Donation his being given us namely That we may know the things that are freely given unto us of God and to co-witness with our spirits that we are his Sons and Daughters 1 Cor. 2.12 Rom. 8.16 1 John 5.13 Thirdly from the duties required of us upon this account as Thank fulness Ephes 1.3 Col. 1.12 13. What wise man will give thanks for that which he hath no certainty that he doth enjoy this were for a man to boast of a false gift as of a cloud without water so likewise of Love we love God because he first loved us 1 John 4.19 in so freely giving his Son to us John 3.16 and together with him all things that do accompany salvation Rom. 8.32 even to the Author of life and salvation unto all that obey him Heb. 5.9 And how come we to know of all this love but by that experimental proof thereof that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5.5 And lastly by the examples of Saints that have had this assurance in themselves as Job 19.25 〈…〉 and here in my Text Saint Paul which eminent Saints were not set forth in Holy Writ as Wonders meerly to be gazed at but as Patterns of imitation and though ordinary Christians and Saints cannot reach to the same steps yet they may walk in the same path and may possibly attain though not to the same measures yet to the same soundness of perswasion and indeed as a reverened Divine observes its firmness rather than fulness of assurance namely in respect of adherence or of recumbency that the Saints in this life arrive unto but to this firmness they may come by the use of the ordinary and of the right means as here St. Paul did by fighting the good fight by finishing his course and by keeping the faith hereby as by the ordinary means be concluded therein likewise shewing us an example that from henceforth there was a Crown of Righteousness laid up in Heaven for him yea and for all others with himself who loved the appearing of the Lord Jesus But though it be cautionately understood thus possible notwithstanding it is very difficult and hard to be attained and that for many weighty and important reasons As First in regard of the difficulty to put a distinction between seeming Vertues and real Graces which are the signs and fruits of Election and which give the best evidence of glory so that there needs much discussion and an exact Spirit of Discerning to put a Difference and to discriminate the one from the other yea we are to take notice that there are many Vices neer of kin to many Vertues and carry in semblance a near affinity as it were with them There is faith devout Bernard à à minium vertutis a certain kind of Vermilion wherewith Satan paints over the outside of Vices and makes them shew like Vertues and but by an Eâ—… and an Heart exercised in piety hardly discernable each from the other thus â—…ttery sometimes carries the stile of affability Covetousness of Frugality Rashness of Fortitude a Divellish Matchiavelisme of a lawful policy excess and ryot of good fellowship and under this mistake of judgment that is taken for zeale which is nothing but an impetuous headiness or a fiery kind of vehemency that instead of heating the house is apt to burn it Thus in short presumption passeth often for Faith this being the guile of our hearts and Satan complying with it who can tansform himself into an Angel of Light and set a fair gloss upon naughty wars making the tinsel of Hypocrisie to pass for the Silver of sincerity we must not too much â—…ely upon our own Judgments in this matter but bring things to the beam of the Sanctuary and there prove and weigh them the Word of God ever giveth a right Judgment the searching hereinto John 5.39 and examining of these matters hereby requiring great deliberation this makes the assurance difficult when the Evidence is perplexed and not presently cleared Secondly its hard in regard of the plenty of Lusts and of the works of the flesh which too much over-grow and abound in every mans Heart but graces are but rare and come up thin much chaff and little solid grain our graces are like Gidâ—…ons Army but a handful in comparison but our fins are like Midianites Innumerable as Grashoppers Hipps and Hawes faith one grow in every hedg when choycer fruits are but in some few Gardens and every soyle almost yeilds stone and rubbish but Gold and precious stones are found in very few places now Saint Peter who exhorts to give diligence to make Election sure exhorts also 2 Pet. 1.5 6. to add to Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge c. a large enumeration induction of graces is required to clear up this assurance and certainly that is a matter of no ease Thirdly that I may hasten this is difficult in regard of the great progress that an Hypocrite or a Cast-away may make in the wayes of Christianity and yet never attain to this assurance He may have some degrees of Illumination Heb. 6.4 much like a Coruscation that a suddain flash of Lighting maketh in the Ayre He may have good wishes as Balaam Numbers 23.10 A sight of sin as Cain had Gen. 4.13 Confess sin as Judas did Mat. 27.4 have zeal as Jebu had 2 Kings 10.16 in these and in like other gifts may a very Cast-away make a great progress But no child of God can have any real comfort in any thing wherein he cannot say he hath yet therein gone beyond a Cast-away and yet but in the ground or rule or end of doing these things are hardly discernable each from other All which and much more that might be added to the same purpose shew though not the utter impossibility yet surely the very great difficulty of attaining unto the assurance that a man can say as S. Paul doth here in a particular application unto his soul Christ loved me and gave himself for me and henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness There yet remains but one Pearl more in the Cabinet of this Text which I shall onely offer to your short notice and so conclude it is that due qualification which renders other Christians as well as it did S. Paul capable of the Crown of Righteousness they must be such as who do love the Lord Christ's second appearing in the day of Judgment And indeed it is the property of none but Saints to love it and long for it See Phil. 1.23 Rev. 22.20 Amen even so come Lord Jesus Some cautions notwithstanding must be here remembred sith it 's possible that times may fall out when we tremble at the thought or mention of it as when conscience is
6. Epist Jude 14. Reas 1. Because of Gods decree Heb 9 27. Reas 2. Because of his righteousness Reas 3. Because of clearing his wayes before all men and Angels Reas 4. Because of his hatred against sin declared In particular judgements in this life Reas 5. Because of the horrour that is in the conscience of the wicked The manner of the Judgement 1 It shall be the last Judgement 2 It shall be a General judgement 2 Cor 5 10.3 It shall be a manifest jndgement 4. It shall be a sudden judgement 5 It shall be a righteous judgement Rom 2 5. 6 It shall be an eternal judgement Vse 1. A preservative against tentation Vse 2. For Instruction Acts 17 31. Vse 3. Keep a good conscience Vse 5 To fear God Observat 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mic. 7.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro. 2.8 Reas Tho. Aquin. Quod lib 9. act 16 Cajes Tract de Indulg Canus 1.5 Cap. 5. Luther L. de capt Bab. Melancth in Apol. Confes art 4.5.27 Lorich in Forotalilio haet 1. de Sanct. Bellarmine indeed in the very beginning of his Retractations tells us he allowes not the word Divus to be given to the Saints and that either the word fell imprudently from him or writing a B. for Beatus the Printer mistook it for D. and printed Divus But others stick not at the word nor at much more Stratius in an Ode of his thus Kinaldus Antister beatis additus agminibus Deorum And Melchior Nunez in an Epiâ—… of his to Ignatius anno 1544 among other matters of the Indyes speaking of the Iesuits Zaviers death calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zaverii Bishop Vida in his bymne called Divis caelestibus after he hath invocated the B. Virgin and others saith Tum vos caducicorporis Ceu nos onusti pondert Quondam mares aut virgines Nunc Dii beati caelites And to adde but one more Liâ—…siâ—… in Virg. A pricolli câ—…p 30. thus Tunc libi audes DEA dicit omnâ—…s sextus aetas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men. Reas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Testa Such a tyle brick or pot as is made of burnt clay Morior Desinam alligari posse definam agrot are posse desinam posse mori Observat 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reas Vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 23.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ez. 44.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen Parts of the Text. The excellency of mans soul 1. By nature and that in respect Plato 1. Of the original Aug. Manichees Heb 12.9.2 The Image Plato Aristocle In respect of the substance The indowments The comand over the body 2. By grace 1. In Redemption 2. In renovation 3. By glory Bern. Vse To take especial care of our souls Plato Aug. The possibility to lose the soul Mat. 24. Quest Answ How the soul may be lost Vse 3. A man may lose his soul in gaining the world Note 1. Rich men Are covetous Ambiâ—ious men Vse To tax covetous men Bern. 1. Ambitious The loss by this gain Observat The worlds gain with the souls loss it comes to nothing 1. Death takes all away Jer. 17.11 2 He loseth the chiefe good Chrysost 3. Possest of the greatest ill Simile 4. Without hope of deliverance Bern. Vse To prevent this misery betimes Parts of the Text. Doctr. Christ will come to judgement to reward the godly and ungodiy The speediness of Christscoming 1 Cor. 10.11.1 Job 2.18.1 Pec. 4.7 Two benesits concerning Christs coming to judgement 2 Pet. 3.3.1 Consuted by S. Peter Psal 9 0.4 Mat. 14.24 Numb 14.25 Luk. 12 38. 2 By S. Paul 1 Thes 2. Object Heb. 9.26 Answ Act. 1.7 Signs of Christs coming Of three sorts 1. Long before The preaching the Gospel to all the world Mat. 24.14 2 The revealing of Autichrist 2. Thes 2.3 3 General deparure from the ftaith 4. Corruption in manners 2 Tim 3. 5. Persecution of the Church 6. General security 7. Calling of the Jewes 2. Signs immediately before Christs coming 3. In Christs coming Revel 1. 2. The Judgement it self Two Judgements 1. Particular 2. General Quest Joh. 5.24 Joh. 3.18 Answ Necessity of a day of Judgement Psal 37 Job 24.12 Jer. 12. Psal 37.11 Unbeleever condemned already how Revel 20.10 11. Job 15. Psal 14.2 4. The end of Christs coming The punishment of the wicked Psal 60.3 Isa ult Ezek. 38 12. Rev. 14 10. Eternity of the torment of the wicked Extremity of torments Iam. 2. The reward of the godly Isa 2. Isa 12. Vse 1. Comfort Vse 2. Terrour to the wicked Mal. 4.1 Vse 3. To be fitted for the day Looking four things in it 1. Earnestness Rom. 8.19 2. Patience 1. Thes 1.3 Heb. 10.36 1. The time is uncertain 2. It seems long 2. Gods strange working 3. Joy Rom. 5.1 4. Diligence 2. Pet. 3.14 Blessed hope 1. In freedome from all ill 2. To enjoy all good Appearing of Christ twofold 1. In the flesh in humility Psal 22. 1. To Judgement in glory 1. His person 2. Throne 3. Attendants 4. Administration 5. Saints 2 Thes 1 10. Christ is God 1 Ioh. Isa 9.6 Christ a great God Vse 1. Comfort to Gods children 2. Terror to the wicked Object Answ Comfort that Christ the Saviour is Judge Act. 17.31 Doctr. Every Christi an so to live as expecting the appearing of Christ Luke 2.36 Phil. 3.20 Jude 21. 2 Pet. 2.14 Obs 1. Col. 3.3 Vse Observat 2. Observat Vse 1. Vse 2. Observat Vse 1. Aug lib. 8. Confess Cap. ult Parts of the Text unsolded Sleep threefold 1. Natural Psal 3.5 2. Moral Dan. 12 2. Act. 7. ult 3. Spiritual compared to sleep 1. For the time the night 2. Exposed to danger Dâ—…ut 32. 3. Willingness 4. Suddenness Mar. 26. 5 Insensibleness and immovableness 6 Vain fancies 7 The continuance 2 What meant by waking 1 To open the eyes to see the light 2 To rouze the senses 3. Get out of bed 3 Who must awake Quest Answ 1 The natural man 2 The regenerate Cant. 5.2 Mat. 25. Rev. 3.2 4. Why the Apostle calls upon those that are asleep Exhortations not in vain 1 To the godly 2 To the wicked The dead sleep of the world 1. Idolaters Rev. 2. 2. Adulterers 3 Drunkards Prov 23. 4 Sabbath-breakers 5 Oppressors 6 Security The sleep of the Church Signs of sleepy Christians 1 Carelesness 2 When men intend nothing but slâ—… 3 Wasting of time 4 Decay of natural heat Exhortation to awake from sleep 1 It is unprofitable 2 It unfits for duty 1 Exercise 2 Combate 3 To wait our Masters coming 3 Our enemy sleeps not Mat. 13. Prov. 24. 4 Gods mercy sleeps not 5 Gods judgments sleep not 6 We are all to meet death Parts of the Text. Propos They that are in covenant with God may be without carnal fear 1 What