CHRIST's POWER OVER Bodily DISEASES Preached in several Sermons on Mat. 8.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. And published for the Instruction especially of the more Ignorant people in the great Dutie of Preparation for Sickness and Death By Edward Lawrence M.A. Minister of the Gospel at Baschurch in the County of Salop. Isaiah 38.12 He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me Exod. 23.25 I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Valent mihi stillae temporum August The Second Edition LONDON Printed by J.C. for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1672. To the Worshipful and my very much honoured Robert Corbet of Stanwardine in the Wood in the County of Salop Esq and to his Religious Consort M rs Elizabeth Corbet together with the rest of the Congregation in the Parish of Baschurch over which the Holy Ghost hath made me Overseer My very much honoured in the Lord THE reason of this inscription is not because you are preferred by God by your birth family estate and other outward priviledges to be the chief of the Inhabitants of my Parish for although I acknowledge the Wisdom and Will of God as the cause of this order and distinction among men and therefore do heartily give you the honour which belongs to you upon this account yet I must confess that this is not the cause of this publick acknowledgment But the reason is that whereas many great persons are a great curse to their Countrey which they fill with their own sins and Gods Judgments God hath made you the blessing of your Age in endeavouring to fill your place with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ and that in the great changes of our daies you have not as many served the times and your sins but served the Lord and your Generation And also because of your great honour and love to the godly able and Orthodox Ministers of Christ and to his holy humble sober and peaceable people which have been loathsome to others as the sink of the world but savoury to you as the salt of the earth for which although you have joyfully suffered reproach from some yet you have had the honour like that gracious couple Andronicus and Junia to be of note among the Apostles And particularly that you were of the first that called me to exercise my Ministry in this place wherein I have by your constant favour and countenance received much comfort and encouragemet The sense of all which together with my great joy in you by my hopes of your being of the blessed number of those who are really joyned to Jesus Christ and cloathed with his righteousness and who bring forth fruit in him which alone can make of you a sweet savour to God and for that reason precious and acceptable to his Saints hath caused me to signifie my sincere honour and love and thankfulness to you by this Dedication Now although I hope I write this in the singleness of my heart as believing that God will cut off all flattering lips and that a lying tongue is but for a moment yet I confess it fills me with serious thoughts to consider that this when I am dead will be yet speaking And that hereby I speak to you as it were in the hearing of the world and that some whom we are bound in Christian wisdom and charity to judge as upright Saints yet the heart-searching God may justly judge as Hypocrites and that many who have made a greater profession of godliness then any of us have proved fearful Apostates when they have been tryed by Errors Persecutions or Preferments I shall therefore looking upon my self and you as just in our very fall into Eternity and as presently going to Judgment and with the greatest belief and thoughts that I can get of Heaven and Hell upon my heart seriously beseech you according to the intent of this ensuing Treatise to examine your selves whether if you were to die in the reading of this you have a true Scripture-right to go to heaven that so you may find the Witness of God by the word in your own consciences agreeing with this publick testimony of your poor Minister for it is but a poor thing for a man of so little credit and less worth to confess you before men but this will be an honour indeed to have Jesus Christ to confess you before his Father in Heaven on the great day of the manifestation of the Sons of God And continue to live as discerning the great difference betwixt a godly and ungodly man that you may still be known by this character to be persons in whose eyes a vile person though never so great in the world is contemned but to honour them though never so poor that fear the Lord. This difference must needs be great when I dare be bold to say that it is beyond the tongues of men and Angels fully to express the excellency and glory of the one and the vileness and misery of the other And certainly the further insight you have in the Scriptures in God and Christ Men and Devils Sin and Grace Heaven and Hell the more clearly you will know this difference Do but look on the Godly and Wicked as they appear in sickness and death and in the Day of Judgment these put an eternal period to all other distinctions there will be then no such difference as Prince and Subject Landlord and Tenant Rich and Poor but onely Godly and Ungodly see the difference now as it will appear when Come ye blessed and Go ye cursed and the right hand and left hand of Christ hath distinguished and parted the world Be resolved to cleave to Christ his truth and people through all the sufferings and stumbling-blocks which you meet with in your way to heaven sufferings will be harder to you then to many others the greater your names and estates are the greater must your graces be to enable you to part with them you have a greater self to deny and a greater cross to take up great riches and great preferments make many great Persecutors and great Apostates but few great Martyrs you must buy the truth whatever it cost you and the more you give for it the more you will gain by it if you sell all for Christ you shall never complain of a dear purchase Look with the dearest affections upon your Posterity and believe that you will never have such an opportunity to make them happy and to entail the blessings of God upon them as when you are called to suffer for the sake of Christ you may be called to make a great exchange either to part with your lives and estates and to keep Christ and heaven or to part with Christ heaven and your souls to keep the world if ever such a day come look to the poor soul above all keeping keep your poor souls remembring that of our Saviour
What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Be pleased to accept this poor thing which I humbly offer to you give it a little room in your Study and Closet and let the truths therein have a great place in your hearts Now blessed of the Lord be you and your hopeful posterity for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof and especially for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush NOw for the rest of you my dearly beloved my joy and my longed for It is now thirteen years since upon your free choice and consent I was setled to be your Minister I mourn that I have done you no better service yet I bless God that I have done you no worse Some of you are the people of my joy others are the people of my hopes but God knows you are all the people of my love possibly you may not enjoy my Ministry long though if any thing but death part us it is like for your sakes to be one of the saddest days of my age Some know I might have had better places both before and since I knew you but I never thought my self too good for you the Lord make me better whilst I stay and give you a better when I am gone You will wonder to see me appear to you thus publick my late visitation whereby I was brought down to the gates of the grave and brought up again was the occasion of my preaching these Sermons and the unanimous advice of four godly reverend and learned Ministers all known to you caused their printing without which my own private thoughts of them had never consented to have them licensed for the Press I have devoted this little plain Treatise to the Will of God knowing that if he put power and savour in it it will prosper I expect to be scorned by some but if God say Well done I care not who findes fault I had rather bear the reproaches of thousands then that one poor â—oul should lose the least spiritual and saving good which I may be a means to help him unto I leave it with you as a testimony of my sincere love to you not so much that you may remember me but that you may remember your selves your sins and your souls and that you may remember God Christ Heaven Hell Death and Judgement which are always present before you Brethren I must needs witness that most of you have been constant hearers of the Word and that you have many hundred Sermons to answer for but you must be doers as well as hearers of the word the sins of men and the terrors of the Lord make me afraid that there is a storm rising and I doubt there will be a great fall of many professors and if you will believe our Saviour you shall finde that those onely are built on a rock and shall certainly stand who are both the hearers and doers of the word I refer you to his own words Matth. 7.24 25 26 27. I beseech you let not the world and sin come between your hearts and Christ let nothing keep you from heaven which cannot keep you from hell Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Your servant for Jesus sake Edward Lawrence Baschurch July 11. 1661. Reader THough nothing be more certain and common then Death it is no common thing to be prepared for it or else salvation would be common As there are no Truths that are more necessary to be oft preacht and heard then those which almost all men know so also no duties are more necessary to be urged then those that almost all confess and think they practice who will not acknowledge that preparation for death should be the daily business of our lives and done with the first and most serious of our cares And yet to the shame of corrupted humane nature we must speak it thousands that are uncertain to live an hour and certain to be lost for ever if death surprize them in the state which they are in are as mindless of a serious preparation and of the change which should go before that change as if it were no part of their concernment Methinks it is a very doleful spectacle to see men unprepared to dye as busily taken up with impertinent diversions as if their work were done already One drinking and prating and singing in an Alehouse or Tavern though unprepared to dye another imployed in feasting and complement and such company and discourse as will least trouble him with such thoughts while yet he is unprepared to dye another scraping for deceitful riches or gaping and scrambling for preferment while yet he is unprepared to dye another quieting his carnal heart with meer hypocritical outsides and lip-service as if he could charm an unprepared soul into Heaven by saying or hearing a few words and few will know feelingly what an important work Preparation is till the terrors of approaching death be upon them One of Gods means for mens preparation is to give his Ministers a special fitness to assist them in the work As Christ took part with the children that were partakers of flesh and bloud Heb. 2.14 and in all things must be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest and in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted v. 17 18. so that we have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our of infirmities Heb. 4.15 Even so his Ministers must be mortals frail and subject to like passions as other men James 5.17 and the treasure of the spirit must be in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4 7. They must be sick that they may the better teach you to prepare for sickness and they must be exercised in preparing for death themselves that they may be the fitter to teach you to prepare The God of Comfort comforteth them in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wheâ—ewith they are comforted of God â—nd whether they be afflicted or comforted it is for your consolation and salvation Even when they are pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as they despair of life they receive the sentence of death in themselves that they may not trust in themselves but in God that raised the dead that thanks may be given by many on their behalf 2 Cor. 1.3 4 6 8 9 11. Whereas those that are insensible of their neerness to eternity and in healthful prosperity grow secure are like to be no lively feeling Preachers nor fit to waken others to that serious preparation which they
time to have a name from the doing of it for it is observable that the actions of men give a name to these three things viz. to themselves to the places and to the times wherein they live 1. Then do nothing but what thou wouldst have a name from the doing of it man loves sin but he cannot endure to be called according to his sins but if thou dost abhor the name of a drunkard swearer lyar why dost thou live in the sins of drunkenness swearing and lying 2. Do nothing that thou wouldst not have the land to have a name from for the land hath a name from the practice of the people a holy people make a holy nation a prophane unclean perfidious people make a land of prophaness of whoredoms of treachery c. What sins thou livest in thou dost not onely make thy self but also as much as in thee lies thou makest the land laothsome to God and men 3. Do nothing which thou wouldst not have thy time have a name from it makes thee have sad thoughts to think of the time of drunkenness whoredom lying c. but times of prayer meditation holy conference c. are sweet 4. Take heed of idleness this sin makes empty and unprofitable times and leaves people unprepared for sickness When Calvin was reproved for inordinate labour he gives this savoury answer What saith he would ye have my Lord finde me idle Sirs would you have sickness and death and the day of judgement finde you idle Our Saviour in the Parable having intrusted his servants with their talents he bids them Occupy till I come Luk. 19.13 See Christ's coming and improve your talents for him till he come Now that you may abhor this sin of idleness 1. Consider that if you be not doing good you will be doing hurt man is a busie creature let a man look at any time within himself he can never see his heart stand still We read of some 2 Thess 3.11 Who work not at all and yet are busie-bodies Sirs the soul is quick at work a man may quickly lay up abundance of treasures in heaven or hell For as Bernard saith well If you are not exercised in the labours of men you are in the labours of devils 2. Make the work of Salvation thy main business labour to turn every day into a day of Salvation Sirs it is an excellent thing for a man to live so in his calling relations recreations afflictions duties of Gods worship as if all the powers of his body and soul were set upon the work of Salvation this will keep a man from idleness For that man will never want business that knows he hath a soul to save 3. Consider what little time thou hast for this great work perhaps it may never be done if it be not done now they were fools that said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye it had been a wiser speech to have said Let us repent believe and pray for to morrow we dye 4. Consider what thou hast to set thee on work and to keep thee from idleness look into hell and see sin and the world and devils thrusting thee therein and thou wilt finde it business enough to save thee from those unquenchable flames Look into heaven and see God and Christ and Ministers and Christians always calling thee thither and see thy own sins carnal friends men devils a world of stumbling-blocks lying in thy way to stop thee from going into that everlasting happiness and thou wilt finde work enough to go to heaven Look into thy self and see what sins thou hast to conquer and bewail what wants to supply what graces to quicken and ripen what duties to perform what storms and troubles to prepare against Look on God on Christ and see what objects are there for all the powers of thy body and soul to be exercised upon Hast thou any time for idle thoughts or words or affections that hast such a God and Christ to think of and to speak of and to set and fix thy heart and love and delight upon Look into the family and town and place where thou livest and see Christless parents or Christless children or Christless brothers and sisters or Christless servants or Christless neighbours and thou mayst have that in thee to speak or do which may save their souls from hell and shall they perish and be damned by thy idleness Look into the Church and Kingdom where thou livest and consider wherein thou mayst serve them and be a blessing to them and how thou mayst be an instrument to fill them with the Name and Kingdom and Will of Jesus Christ Nay look upon every creature about thee the Heavens Earth Waters Birds Beasts Plants c. see them all filled with the Power Wisdom and goodness of God and as it were bringing their praises to thee that thou mayst be their mouth to honour and exalt God Methinks Sirs these things should keep us from idleness 5. That thou mayst fill up thy time take heed of losing a suffering opportunity Beloved a suffering opportunity is a precious opportunity it 's an opportunity to honour God further the Gospel to save thy own and others souls to be a blessing to thy posterity and to leave thy name as a blessed savour behinde thee I would not tempt men to lust after sufferings I know the Devil would have his servants to serve him by passive as well as active obedience yet I would have none so base as to chuse to sin rather then to suffer and to prefer Apostasie before Martyrdom Sometimes a man may fall into such a nick of time that duty may cost him his life and a sin may save his life This case is implied in the words of our Saviour Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it Now that is a sad loss of a suffering opportunity when a man saves himself from suffering by sin Consider the fearful consequences of this hereby thou savest thy estate name life and losest thy soul which is clearly implied in the next words vers 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Remember when thou runnest into a known sin to avoid suffering thou makest a bargain thou makest an exchange thou gettest the world and the Devil and Hell get thy soul Consider further it is the highest improvement of thy name estate and life to sacrifice it to the glory and will of Christ by suffering for him this is the best that thou canst make of thy self Sirs it is more honourable if thou art called to it to be burned at a stake for Christ then to be burned with Fever or to die for Christ in a Prison then to die in a sick bed Consider lastly What a woful case will sickness and death finde thee in
find this to be the effect of Davids sickness Psal 38.3 4. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin For mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Beloved people would not be so fond of their sins if they saw the diseases and dangers which they bring upon them as a man would not be greedy of the daintiest meat if he knew it were mixt with Rats-bane nor be proud of the finest cloaths if he knew they were infected with the Pestilence So if people saw the Plague Pocks Dropsie Fever and the Consumption in their pride and oaths and lyes and drunkenness and covetousness it would make them afraid of sin as well as of sickness and therefore look not upon sin as it appears in your honours profits and pleasures as it appears at an Ale-house May-pole or Maurice-dance or Cock-pit or Bear-bait or Stage-play for there thou canst not see sin for its pleasures but look upon thy self on a bed of languishing and there see thy sins standing in order before thee and then tell me what fruit thou hast in these things Look upon thy self as hanging over the lake of brimstone and then call thy drunken Companions about thee and bid them pour out their flagons and quaff off their cups and see whether all these can make thee merry when the flames of hell begin to catch and kindle in thy guilty soul call in thy lyes and injustice to bring thee thy treasures of wickedness and lay them under thy pillow and see whether they can bring thee ease when Death and Hell and the day of Judgment stand present before thee And my Brethren it is observeable that when we sin in our sickness we should see far more evil in it then as it is the meritorious cause of that disease as we should look further into a sickness then as it causeth present aches and pains in the body we should see that Death and Eternity which comes after so we should see more evil and danger in sin then as it brings such a disease for the evil of it is not spent in that therefore we should look upon it as provoking God to punish us with diseases and with death and hell which diseases are loosing us into The second End to convince us of the vanity of the creature now we are truly convinced of the vanity of the creature when we judge it to be empty of that good which must free a sinful man from misery and fill him with true happiness It must needs be a vanity when a man may be miserable with it and happy without it Now Christ appoints diseases as means to convince us of this vanity of the creature for as one saith wittily the world is the Devils Chess-board wherein a man can neither move forward nor backward but the Devil attaches him with some creature or other and indeed we are so full of the spirit of the world as it 's called 1 Cor. 2.12 which doth so fill our hearts with the world that God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are nothing to us and therefore this sin is called a denying God that is above Job 31.24 25 28. and Agur tells us that when a man is full of the world he is apt to deny God and to say Who is the Lord Prov. 30.9 Oh what poor scornful thoughts a covetous proud secure worldling hath of God and Christ and Saints and Ordinances and Salvation Now this is one great use of sicknesses to convince a man of the vanity of the world and this is a most convincing argument for I dare challenge all the worldlings which the world it self can own to name me that earthly creature and tell me what I shall call it which can heal the wounds of a guilty conscience or can take out the sting of death or of which a man can truly say Here is a treasure which a lump of phlegm cannot take from me If thou canst not say this of the creature I grant thou mayst use it for thy good but be ruled by a friend never choose it for thy portion But more particularly we may hereby be convinced of the vanity of these five things First Of the vanity of our selves Sickness moved David to beg wisdom of God to know how frail he was Psal 39.4 and this made Job compare himself to a leaf and to the dry stubble and to a flower and shadow Job 13.25 and Cap. 14.2 and we read that this is the use of sickness to hide pride from man Job 33.17 that is to take it quite away to be seen no more and if we did look on every thing which we are usually proud of as it will prove on a sick bed or death-bed it would be an effectual means to abase us and to hide pride from us Beloved it is a most precious thing for a man to be fill'd with the knowledge and sense of his own emptiness and vanity The Kingdom of heaven is unchangeably entail'd upon all such Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Hereby a man is sweetly qualified for every duty Faith never acts with more integrity and strength then when it acts from the belief of a mans own emptiness for when self is most denied Christ is most acknowledged and believed then doth a man most heartily and strongly receive and rest upon Christ to justifie and to save him when he sees what a guilty condemned lost wretch he is in himself and when he sees what a weak helpless creature he is then doth he most trust to the infinite power of Jesus Christ and this also doth exceedingly endear his heart in love to God when he sees that God is so good and so full of grace and love and mercy as to chuse and call and pardon and save such a vile and loathsome creature as he then repentance is most inward and spiritual when a man with Job abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes Job 42.6 and this fills the heart with prayer for prayer begs of God what a man wants in himself therefore when a man sees himself poor and empty of all good and knows that he cannot be supplied from himself then doth he pray to be fill'd with the fulness of God Now I say sickness is a special means to convince a man of his emptiness and vanity for hereby a man is left bare and empty of all those creature-comforts which seemed to fill him before and now he sees that nothing will fill him but grace and glory and that there is nothing in him to make up this fulness Secondly To convince us of the vanity of great men Oh what is a Prince or a Noble-man or Gentleman when the Pox or the Fever or the Consumption will insult over him and scorn him and make nothing of him and there is nothing in him
them desperate Now to arm you against the former temptation which concerns the business in hand fill your hearts with the belief of God as he is a God of judgement for the Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth Psal 9.16 therefore he tells us I kill and I make alive Deut. 32.39 So saith he Isa 45.7 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things All the evil of punishment which comes into the world comes from God all the hurt that is done by fire water wind thunder earthquakes God doth it all the hurt that comes by famine pestilence sword blasting mildew God doth it all that dye God kills them all that go to hell God damns them and is not this a terrible God Thirdly look not on God as men judge of him when they are secure and God is patient but as he appears when men awake with guilt and God awakes in wrath Beloved if every Sin should presently bring a Judgement if every Oath should kill a Cow and every Lye break a Bone and every act of Drunkenness turn a man into a Dropsie then sin would be accounted more dangerous and God more terrible But as we read Psal 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God When men can swear lye be drunk scoff at godliness prophane Sabbaths and yet eat drink sleep work and play all alike this makes them confident that God is not so angry with them as a company of precise Puritans would have them believe We read of this Atheistical temper Psal 50.21 22. These things hast thou done meaning the crying sins fore-mentioned and I kept silence saith God I did not disturb thee nor hinder thee and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self that I liked sin as well as thou didst but thou wilt be of another minde when I come to reprove thee and to set thy sins in order before thee and to tear thee in pieces when there shall be none to deliver thee We read Psal 40.11 Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him and it is said Numb 32.23 Your sin shall finde you out Sinners lye close and hide themselves in their sins as if judgement could never finde them Oh but consider sicknesses and death and hell are looking for thee they are hunting after thee Heark methinks I hear the cry of the hunters and the sound of the feet of death pursuing thy soul I may say unto thee as she said to Sampson The Philistines are upon thee Sampson Sickness is upon thee sinner death and judgement is coming upon thee the wrath of the eternal God is roaring against thee these things should make thee cry out with David Psal 119.20 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Lastly Consider God as a God of all sicknesses and diseases to convince thee that he is a terrible God these with other judgements are called the terrors of God Job 6.4 The terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me and it 's clear that God for this reason is terrible for that is terrible which is destructive to the health and life and being of man this makes fire water wind thunder men and devils terrible and this makes Sickness the Pestilence Fever the Pocks the Stone the Consumption and Death and Judgement terrible Now therefore what a terrible Majestie is God who makes all these so terrible for as there is no fear of an Ox-goad or of the Jaw-bone of an Ass but the one in the hand of a mighty Shamgar was a terrible instrument of death to six hundred men Judges 3.31 and the other in the hand of a strong Sampson killed heaps upon heaps heaps upon heaps a thousand men Judges 15.16 So this makes all diseases and all instruments of death terrible because they are in the hand of a mighty God who for this reason is to be acknowledged and feared as a very terrible God Secondly informs us of the infinite patience of God towards ungodly men which appears in that God hath all diseases and death at command to avenge himself upon them and yet that he is pleased so long to forbear The Scripture makes known the glory of God to us by this Attribute Exod. 34.6 The Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering So Psal 86.14 Rom. 2.4 This patience of God is his infinite goodness whereby he doth moderate and with hold his wrath from falling upon sinners Pardoning grace takes a way the wrath of God and looseth the believer from being bound to suffer it But here the sinner lyes condemned and stands bound over by the Law to suffer Gods wrath but God by his infinite patience forbears to inflict it Now I shall briefly propound these three Considerations to convince us of the patience of God 1. Consider the greatness of that wrath which God withholds from falling on you viz. all the punishments which are threatned in the curses of Gods Law God doth not only keep off millions of diseases but also mountains of torments from coming upon thee every day the great difference which is betwixt thee and a damned soul in hell is made by the patience of God Oh poor Christless sinner when I stand seriously looking on thee eating and drinking and laughing and sporting in thy sins as if thou thoughtest thy self as safe as ever an Angel of heaven and then believe what the Scripture speaks against thee and see what is in God against thee I cannot but tremble to look thee in the face to see whither thou art so merrily going and what an alteration sickness and death is shortly like to make with thee but for present God in infinite patience withholds all the wrath that thou deservest 2. Consider the great provocations that God doth bear Sin is said to provoke or call forth the wrath of God and notwithstanding such horrid sins call and cry for his wrath yet in the infinite power of his patience he forbears The Scripture ascribes a Voice to three things which cry aloud for Gods wrath 1. Sin cryes Gen. 18.20 21. The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is great Swearing cryes Pour out thy wrath on the Blasphemer that belcheth out me Drunkenness cryes Oh thou consuming fire devour this Beast that commits me So there is a cry against a Nation and against a City or Family Oh Profaneness cryes Come away Pestilence come away Famine and devour England that is so filled with me but yet God in infinite patience withholds his Judgments 2. The Estates of men which are gained by sin and wickedness cry for vengeance James 5.4 Hab. 2.11 The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it The Prophet speaks as if all the parts of a house built by fraud and blood did consent to cry one after another for vengeance against the founders of it the Stone cryes Lord revenge
sinner with sickness or other afflictions if he scorn his Rod it must needs be an unspeakable provocation for as it savours much of the spirit and grace of a Childe of God to be suitably affected to the various manifestations of God so that it is his most inward pleasure to have God pleased this puts gladness into his heart Psal 4.6 7. and if God in displeasure hide his face he is troubled Psal 30.7 so on the contrary it is a sign of a base spirit when as it is said of Miriams disease God spits in his face then to be so shameless and impudent as if he could out-face the frowns of his Majesty Secondly This speaks a mans condition to be incurable Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more as if they were grown so desperate that corrections made them worse Beloved this stupidity doth frustrate the end and use of Gods Visitation for they cannot hear the rod if they do not feel the rod because the rod speaks by its strokes therefore they lose its teachings when they do not feel it smart the condition then of such wretches must needs be hopeless when they make Gods last remedy useless as when a man is sick first you seek to restore him by keeping him warm and by wholesome diet if this fail you send to the Physitian but if the Physick do not stir the body if he will not vomit nor purge nor bleed then you look for nothing but death So when mercies will not melt nor Sermons change a sinner and after all God sends sickness or other judgments and yet these do not work what remains but a fearful looking for of eternal judgment And now to conclude this we may see the dreadful condition of senseless and secure sinners on their death-beds they say they have made their peace with God when it is but a peace with sin and an agreement with hell and that they hope for salvation when perhaps the Pulse hath not many strokes to beat before they are sure of damnation yet they will go confidently with the foolish Virgins as it were to the door of heaven till Christ tell them there to their faces he knows them not and thus they die being wholly at ease and quiet and carnal friends think they have made a comfortable end when for my part I do not doubt to say it is as comfortable to see men die drunk as die secure Fourthly This doctrine reproves those who in their diseases trust to Physitians for health Diseases you see are not at the command of Physitians but of Christ This was Asa his sin 2 Chron. 16.12 in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians His sin was not in seeking to the Physitians but in not seeking to the Lord. I know it is a great sin upon pretence of Gods power to be disobedient to his will in despising Physick which God hath ordained to be his means to restore us to health this sin is a tempting God wherein we will try what God can do and yet neglect what he commands but we must use the Physitian yet so as to live by faith and not by Physick and therefore the rule is to honour and use them as Gods Instruments but not to put them in Gods place Fifthly It reproves those who usurp Authority and use their own power to hurt or disease the bodies of men I mean not those who have authority from God and man to execute bodily punishments as Magistrates Parents Masters c. nor would I abrogate the Law of self-preservation in the case of a violent and unavoidable assault but my aim is to convince those of their sin who delight in quarrelling and fighting who are said to enter into contention Prov. 18.6 who neglect their callings to go to Cock-pits Bear-baits c. on purpose to quarrel and fight and such who upon every little provocation will be at daggers drawing no more with them but a word and a blow a lye and a stab and such mankeen beasts who delight to feed on the wounds and blood of men accounting it a piece of gallantry and bravery to beat hurt wound and maim others Now if all diseases are at the command of Christ so that he bids them go c. then thou shouldst not usurp Christs Authority to hurt or disease others Now that you may for ever abhor and be afraid of this sin lay to heart these five Considerations First This is a damnable sin without speedy repentance it will bring thee to hell I say unto thee as Paul said to Ananias Acts 23.3 God shall smite thee thou whited wall for smiting thy brother Oh look upon those strong arms and limbs burning with thy body and soul in hell Oh consider what a poor credit it is to go valiantly to hell for this will be thy case for if he that gives his brother but a foul word be in danger of hell-fire Mat. 5.22 how much greater danger art thou in who woundest and hurtest that body which God hath bound thee upon pain of damnation in the sixth Commandment to preserve Secondly Consider what spirit worketh in thee when thou art fighting and quarrelling with others I say to thee as Job in another case to his friend Job 26.4 Whose spirit came from thee Is this the holy loving humble patient meek and peaceable spirit which is so precious and savoury to God and men Is this the way to please and honour the God of thy life and limbs and strength who stands by and looks thee in the face and sees thee like a fool in thy rage The Apostle clearly determines that these fightings are fruits of your lusts James 4.1 And is this thy valour and gallantry to fight so stoutly to fulfil a base lust Thirdly Consider how thou dost hereby abuse thy own body Is thy body a member of Christ and thy hands and arms parts of Jesus Christ and wilt thou make a member of Christ a murderer Fourthly Consider the person whom thou smitest Is he not one towards whom thou shouldst put on bowels of compassion and whose salvation thou art bound to seek and dost thou think to bring him to heaven by Club-law Is he not fearfully and wonderfully made by God in whose book all his members are written and wilt thou by thy inhumane and merciless blows mar such a choice piece of Gods workmanship Is not or may not his body be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and an instrument to serve God and his generation and wilt thou by maiming and wounding him make him less serviceable Nay further he is made after the Image of the Invisible God and I tell thee in striking him thou dost as it were strike God in the face Lastly Consider the many sad and fearful consequences of this sin it breeds malice and revenge and causeth further quarrels and contentions among persons and families it begets many chargeable suits at Law
when those evils which thou fearedst from men shall be brought upon thee by God when God shall fill thy body with greater pains then the cruellest Persecutor could invent or inflict Oh what a loss will then a suffering opportunity be when a man may say I had an opportunity to lose my life and save my soul and now I must lose my life and my poor soul too Direct 5. That you may be prepared for sickness and death do nothing but what you would have sickness and death finde you doing Remember what ever thou art about that sickness and death may finde thee in it Death found Zimri and Cozbi in whoredom Numb 25.8 and Death took Ananias and Saphira in a lye Acts 5. and Death caught Eutychus sleeping at a Sermon Acts 20.9 And on the other hand God took Enoch walking with God Gen. 5.24 And when Elijah and Elisha were talking together no doubt of some good Elijah was fain to break off his good discourse to go to heaven 2 Kings 2.11 and Christ went blessing his people to heaven Luke 24.51 And good Stephen as he was praying was taken from off his knees into heaven Acts 7.60 Oh Sirs if you would not go lying or swearing or drunk or swaggering or ranting into Eternity do not practise these sins now but walk in your callings recreations and duties as if you saw sickness and death fetching you out of these into heaven Direct 6. Labour to be filled with a merciful and tender disposition towards others in their sickness and misery this is a sure way for thee to finde mercy from God in thy sickness With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Psal 18.25 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 5.7 We have a precious promise to this purpose Psal 41.1 2 3. Blessed is he that considereth the poor By the poor is meant not only the poor in estate but also those that are poor and afflicted in respect of other afflictions And it 's a most blessed frame of heart for men when they sit in health and at ease and swim in wealth to be seriously considering their poor diseased and afflicted brethren The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness I say therefore shew mercy to others in their sickness and when the day of sickness and death and judgment comes thou shalt be sure as Paul prayed for Onesiphorus in the like case to finde mercy at that day Direct 7. Be fully satisfied in the belief of Gods care and providence towards thy friends whom thou art to leave behinde thee Beloved it makes the thoughts of sickness and death more grievous to many because of the sad and miserable condition which their poor Orphans and Widdows will be left in when they are gone and especially if their condition be like that of learned and godly Oecolampadius who when he should have made his Will had nothing to bequeath But this trouble is not so much for want of an Estate as for want of Faith therefore go chearfully to your sick beds or death-beds with the belief of these following Scriptures Jer. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless children I will preserve them alive and let thy Widdows trust in me In which words as appears by the context God threatens the Edomites that their children and wives shall be left so desolate that they shall have none but God to provide for them Yet God is so tender of poor fatherless children and widdows that though they were of the families and posterity of Esau yet saith he I will preserve them alive How much more tender then will he be of the poor families of his Jacob See also Psal 10.14 The poor committeth his cause to thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Perhaps it troubles thee to think what a company of poor helpless children thou art to leave behinde thee Why consider the infinite and all-sufficient God makes it one of his great works to help fatherless children therefore this great Creator of the world will be glorified by this name The helper of the fatherless See further Psal 68.3 4 5. Observe here one great reason why the righteous must be glad and exceedingly rejoyce and sing forth the praises of God is because he is a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widdow in his holy habitation Observe In his holy habitation God is in heaven not only filling Angels and Saints with his glorious likeness and presence but he is there also full of gracious thoughts towards poor fatherless children and widdows upon earth And although I do not think that there is any intercourse betwixt a Saint in heaven and his family upon earth and I do not know that he will in heaven be offering prayers for them upon earth yet I do not doubt but he will there know that he hath left a family behinde him upon earth and by his glorious vision of God will see that Infinite Power and Providence which provides for his and all other families upon earth so far as is for his own glory and the good of his Church See again Hosea 14.3 In thee the fatherless finde mercy It may trouble thee to think that although now thy wife and children are respected for thy sake yet when thou art gone they are like to finde the world cruel and unfaithful friends hard and unkinde c. but take comfort and satisfaction in this Scripture where thou seest not only that there is mercy in God for fatherless children but also that they shall finde it and have the comfort and experience of it I shall therefore conclude this with the exhortation of the Apostle Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and then as to any trouble about these things The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Direct 8. Labour to make a wise and holy use of the spectacles of mortality look upon your selves as following your dead neighbours and friends whom you see going before you into Eternity It is said of a dead man Job 21.33 The clods of the valley viz. the Graves and Sepulchres shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable gone before him Consider when you see any one buried that he is gone to an innumerable company that are dead and buried before him and that every man shall draw after him Oh remember that you are drawing after your dead grandfathers and fathers and friends which are gone before you Poor wretch thou thinkest that thou shouldest be like thy Neighbours to have as much wealth and honours and pleasures as they but look upon other Neighbours who are lodged in the chambers of death and
cheerful yet look for another fit sickness is like to come again and death will be sure to come shortly therefore take heed of security Lastly that heed of pride and vain-glory this was the sin of good Hezekiah of whom we read that after he was recovered from his sickness his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 22.24 25. and this appeared in that when he was courted by the King of Babylon he did in a bravado shew all his riches Isa 39.2 Poor Hezekiah thou wast in a better frame when on thy sick-bed thou wast turning thy face to the wall but we may see by this sad instance how apt we are after a mercie and deliverance to be puft up with high thoughts and conceits of our selves The last Duty which I shall mention is this Be careful to perform thy sick-bed-vows and resolutions A vow is a solemn promise made to God either of a duty or of something which may further us in our duty to God The matter of a vow is either to do that which God commands or to forsake sin which God forbids or to do something to further our obedience or to abstain from something which might be an occasion of sin and which we may abstain from A vow must not be of a thing unlawful for that were as if we should promise God to hate him or not to love him it must be also of that which we have power to do else we have no power to promise to do it The nature of a vow is a promise made to God which promise brings an obligation upon us to perform it this promise must not be made rashly for a vow must be the fruit of grace and not the fruit of sin and we must not make promises to God in a passion yet I do not deny but such vows must be performed for it 's one thing sinfully to vow and another thing to vow to sin in such a case we must be humbled for the manner of the vow and graciously pay what we sinfully vow'd It hath been the practice of the godly to make vows to God in their troubles Psal 132.1 2. Lord remember David and all his afflictions how he sware unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Now Sirs in the fear of God make conscience to perform your sick-bed-vows Indeed wicked men are forward to make vows when they are sick and as forward to break them when they are well As Pharaoh when the plagues were upon him he would let Israel go but when they were removed his heart was hardned and they should not go But it is the property of a godly man to make good his vows Psal 15.4 Hence saith David Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God Beloved vows are heavy things David felt them lying upon him and pressing him to the performance of them Vows take up a great deal of room in the soul they fill the conscience when a man is tempted to do that which he hath vowed against his vow will be upon him presently that he dare not do it See what conscience David made of his vows Psal 66.13 14. I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Psal 116.14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Sirs if you break your vows your vows will break you I shall conclude this in the words of Solomon Eccles 5.4 5. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay So much for the Exhortation to those who are recovered from sickness My last Exhortation is to exhort you to some Duties to be performed in time of sickness which I shall lay before you in these twelve particulars Duty 1. Own and acknowledge the hand of God in thy visitation as a man in a croud that receives a blow upon his head will presently turn about to see whence the stroke comes so as soon as Gods hand toucheth thee let thy eye be upon him and labour to finde a special presence of God appearing in thy visitation Poor soul thou art now parted from the use of Ordinances in publick and thou must labour to finde Sabbaths and Sermons and Sacraments in thy sickness that is thou must endeavour to finde the presence of God that appears in these Ordinances appearing to thy soul in the aches and troubles and pains of a sickness To this purpose I have read a saying of an holy Minister of the Gospel which he spoke on his sick-bed concerning people that were then worshipping God in publick Oh said he that they did now see what I do now feel we have a choice example of this duty of acknowledging the hand of God in our visitation in Job cap. 1. where we read that after he had stood still and heard the messengers which came one upon the heels of the another with the sad tidings of the loss of his cattel and servants and children the very first thing he does is to turn to God and to fall down and worship him and acknowledge his hand in his affliction vers 20 21. so I say So soon as ever thy disease begins presently own and acknowledge and worshâ—p God who is the cause of thy visitation so did David Psal 38.2 Thy arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore Consider this affliction comes from the Wisdom and Will and Power and Justice of God and by this disease he hath now chosen to come to thee and to appear to thee therefore labour to have thy heart filled with him that all thy words and actions may favour of him Hereby thou wilt see Reason against all Sin and Reason for all Duties and withal a ground for all comforts Duty 2. Labour to have thy heart filled with the thoughts of thy death and judgement it is the great sin of many that in their sickness strive to put the thoughts of death and judgement far from them and labour to fill their hearts with confidence that they shall live and so many poor wretches fall into hell before they did think they should dye But certainly it 's the safest and wisest way so soon as thou art assaulted with sickness to see thy death and judgement standing before thee and to receive the sentence of death in thy self 2 Cor. 1.9 Look upon thy disease as bringing thee to death and after that to a judgement which will settle thee in heaven or hell presently As thou lyest on thy sick-bed look into the other great world where thou art entring see in what state place and company thou art now to all eternity to be fixt Look into hell and see those many millions of Devils that are chained up there Look what a dreadful case the learned great rich strong and beautiful swaggerers ranters
his little Son thaâ— stood by his death-bed Disce mi fili mandata Domini ipse enutriet te Learn mâ— child the commandments of the Lord and he will nourish thee Let thy last words be such that may savour of a heart breathing after the salvation of those that are to come after thee Thou art now standing at the end of alâ— worldly perfections thy stomack is almosâ— closed for ever thy sleep is even gone for ever thou art at the end of all the pleasures of sin at the end of all worldly enjoyments of all the Ordinances and duties of this life and thou hast now but a step to that judgment which will quickly resolve all thy thoughts about thy Eternal Estate Now thou seest what a vanity man is what a lye the world is what a cheat sin is what a lost wretch an unbeliever is what a precious Jewel a Saint is what a treasure grace is what a pearl the Gospel is what a Father God is what a Saviour Christ is what a place Hell is what a portion Heaven is Now thou canst speak of these things with more faith and heart and feeling then ever thy yoke-fellow children brothers sisters friends neighbours have now more then ever their hearts and ears open to thee and who knows what a saving work a savoury word from one that is just in his flight to Eternity may make and therefore speak so as one that earnestly desires that the meeting between thee and all thy sad friends about thee may be joyful when you come together next 9. Pray earnestly that as long as thou hast a gasp to breathe it may appear that thou hast a spirit to pray I dare be bold to say Thou mayst gain more good by one spiritual breathing in prayer then the most prosperous Merchant can by the most successful returns of a whole Age. Pray with obedient submission to Gods Will that he will restore thee to health and life Beg of God to spare thee a little this will sweeten health and life to thee when it is given as a fruit of prayer if thou livest and it will be a sweet testimony that thou dost not leave the world in discontent if thou diest Pray for everlasting salvation See how many miscarry at death and what a great crowd of Men and Women will stand at the left hand of Christ at the day of Judgment and beg of God that for his great Names sake and for the sake of Christs obedience thou mayst finde mercy at those great daies Let thy Faith and Hope be never so strong and thy experiences never so sweet and thy evidences never so clear yet thou mayst see reason and need enough of these prayers Pray earnestly for the Militant Church and particularly for that part of it to which thou hast a more special Relation Believe what a Father and Head and Husband and Saviour the Church hath and what a Body and Spouse and Family the Church is and what an everlasting Covenant of Grace there is betwixt God and his Church and what a multitude of mighty subtil cruel implacable Devils and men there are against the Church and that yet in despite of all Christ will present it to himself a glorious Church It is very good on thy sick bed to set this Body the Church before thee to let thy thoughts walk about Sion and go round about her and tell the Towers thereof and to mark well her Bulwarks and consider her Palaces c. Psal 48.12 13. And see thy self of this blessed Flock and Family and so with all thy might pray for this Church Thus dying Moses cryes to God for his Church Numb 27.16 17. Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation which may go out before them and which may go in before them and which may lead them out and which may bring them in that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd Pray for thy Family Friends and Relations The prayer of Cruciger in his sickness is worthy of our imitation Fac meos Orphanos vasa misericordiae Lord make my poor Orphans Vessels of Mercy Beg of God not to charge thy sins upon thy house and that he will graciously supply the want of thee when thou art gone Pray that thy name graces counsel reproofs and example may be blessed to Gods glory and the good of others that by them even when thou art dead thou mayst be speaking Pray also for thy enemies You know the practice of Christ and Stephen who almost breathed out their last gasps in prayer for their enemies Tertullian makes love to enemies to be a property peculiar to Christians saying Amicos diligere omnium est inimicos autem solorum Christianorum All men may love their friends but none but Christians can love their enemies ad Scapulum cap. 1. Every Christian should be always much in that which will prove him to be a Christian especially now thou art dying and going to heaven be found with thy heart filled with love to and prayer for thy enemies that thou mayst appear to be a childe of thy Father which is in heaven Mat. 5.45 Set before thy heart thy most malicious spiteful and injurious enemy consider he is a man made after the Image of the same God with thy self consider what the Word threatens against him and into what a Hell he is falling and what a blessed instrument he may be if God would please to convert him and labour to finde thy soul filled with love and compassion towards him which will cause in thee strong desires after his everlasting Salvation and do thou earnestly offer up these desires by prayer unto God this will be a sweet testimony of thy integrity and will be a service of a sweet savour to God in Christ and perhaps God may in answer to thy prayers give eternal life to thy poor miserable enemy Duty 10. Fasten by faith on some choice place of Scripture When Mr. John Knox lay dying he called some about him to read Joh. 17. For saith he there I cast my anchor and he also called for 1 Cor. 15. and when it was read he cryes Oh the sweet and saving comfort which God hath refresht my soul with out of this chapter and I have heard it reported that when holy and learned Mr. Blake lay on his death-bed he fastned on those words Act. 13.39 By him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses And cryes out I 'll dye with this I 'll dye with this Thus I say Settle thy soul upon some Scripture which settles pardon of sin and salvation upon thee this will be a sweet evidence that thou dyest in faith And thus believing the promises whilst thou livest thou shalt be sure to inherit the promises when thou dyest Duty 11. Be willing in obedience to God to dye this is
11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man with the bands of love there are secret cords and bands in all our mercies to draw and to bind our hearts to God and when we finde our selves nourisht with meat and refresht with sleep we should finde a secret vertue in these mercies to joyn our hearts to God but God useth this means with many one but the soul yet abides in his sins then God sendeth another servant he sends a faithful Minister to call him to himself and a faithful friend to perswade him to come but yet the poor sinner will not come Well saith God I will yet try another messenger Go Fever Go Ague c. Now these are often so blessed that all the former dispensations work afresh Now he remembers his mercies and Sermons and counsels and they all work so effectually that the poor sinner is savingly converted unto God End 6. To convince people of the necessity and excellencie of godly Ministers Beloved Gods Ministers are the strength of King and Kingdom the very Militia of the Land The charets of Israels and the horsemen thereof 2 Kin. 2.12 The Apostle shews how we should esteem godly Ministers 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ If we esteem Ministers aright we should prize them as Ministers prize them for that which makes them differ and wherein they are separated from other men as if you would truely prize the Lords day and call it a delight and honourable as the Scripture requires you must esteem it as sanctified and separated from other days and thereby you shall see it a more holy and blessed day so if you would prize the Lords Supper you must esteem the bread and wine as separated from other bread and wine and as consecrated and sanctified to such a use so if you would honour an Embassadour from a great King you do not so much look upon his personal worth but he is honoured and received as he is sent from the King and stands in his stead So my Brethren if we would prize a Minister aright look upon him as separated to the Gospel as cloathed with authority to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as one through whose hands God hath in wisdom chosen to transmit the treasures of the Gospel to you and as one who stands in the stead of Jesus Christ who is ready to revenge all the affronts that are offered unto him Now my Brethren there are no sorts of men so much abhorred by the world as godly Ministers these whom our Saviour calls the salt of the earth Matth. 5.13 as if the world of men would be but as a piece of stinking carrion if it were not for godly Ministers and godly people And the Apostle tells us they are unto God a sweet savour in Christ 2 Cor. 2.15 yet they are hated as if they were the loathsomest excrements in the world This Paul elegantly expresseth 1 Cor. 4.13 We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day Ministers are loathed as if they were a curse and plague to the world and as if they were the nastiest jakes or sink on the earth for thus the words in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply But now when God throws a sinner on a bed of sickness then a â—aithful Minister is for worth and excellency one of a thousand Job 33.23 for the more a man sees his need of those soul-saving mercies which Christ sends by his Ministers the more he will prize Ministers themselves If a man sees what hell is he will prize Ministers that labour to save him thence If a man believes what heaven is he will account Ministers precious who are to be the greatest means under God to bring him thither If the soul be wounded for sin then how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tydings of good things Rom. 10.15 So look on thy self as gasping under sickness at the door of Eternity and then see whether thou darest boast that thou hadst rather hear a Piper then hear a Preacher or rather set up a May-pole then set up a Minister these will prove but poor frolicks when thou seest nothing but death and hell and the day of judgement before thee thou wilt be glad then to send for these Elders the Ministers of the Church to pray over thee and as fast as thou canst spit in their faces now thou wouldst be glad then to lick the very dust of their feet for the least sound comfort that ever dropt from their sanctified lips End 7. Christ by sicknesses doth further and promote the Salvation of his own people as the following particulars do more fully evince and the reason of this is because Jesus Christ doth every thing to his people as their Saviour and therefore there is a saving Power and Vertue works from Christ in and through all his dispensations towards them as whether a father feed or whip his childe he doth it with the heart of a father for the good of his childe so if Christ afflict his childe he doth it with the heart of a Saviour to save his childe and therefore all Gods people may say of their sickness as Paul in another case Phil. 1.19 I know that this shall turn to my salvation We have full proof of this 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord meaning by those sicknesses and weaknesses mentioned in vers 30 â— that we should not be condemned with the world nor go to hell with the world Hence Tertullian speaking of Gods fatherly love in correcting his people hath this pathetical passage O servum illum beatum cujus emendationi Dominus instat cui dignatur irasci de patientiâ cap. 11. O blessed is that servant for whose correction or amendment the Lord is so earnest with whom he vouchsafes to be so lovingly angry Beloved it is observable that God doth not distinguish his people from the wicked by making them Lords and Ladies or by filling them with the treasures of the earth these are not the effects of distinguishing grace for a wicked man may have his belly full of these things Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures And therefore Job tells us of those that provoke God that into their hands God brings abundantly of worldly things Job 12.6 he brings a whole Empire of the world into the hands of a Nero or a Turk But God distinguisheth his people from the world by making them holy and happy and therefore though the common mercie of God which brings riches and honours and health c. doth not so much abound to the godly yet the distinguishing grace of God which brings salvation Tit. 2.11 never fails and therefore when they have many things which hinder their estates and liberty and health yet nothing shall
knowing that this fruit will abound to his account when Christ and he come to reckon and that this is laid up in store as a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 As a man that intends to transplant himself beyond the Seas turns his stock here into such things which will make his life comfortable when he comes there So a Saint knowing that he is upon a journey beyond this world turns his stock and estate to Gods glory here believing that it will be returned to him a thousand fold in the glory and joys of heaven when he comes there End 17. Which is the last that I shall mention is to gain to himself praise and glory in recovering his people from their sickness Hence we read Job 11.3 4. when it was told Christ that Lazarus whom he loved is sick Christ answers This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Beloved recovery from sickness is a great mercy both to a mans self and others as St. Paul acknowledgeth of Epaphroditus Phil. 2.27 He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not on him onely but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow And therefore upon this reason the hearts of Gods people have been filled with the praises of God Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name And this is one ground of this Who healeth all thy diseases This was Hezekiah his practice in this case Isa 38.19 The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day See also 2 Cor. 1.9 10 11. We had the sentence of death in our selves that is our danger was so great whether by sickness or persecution or rather both I shall not inquire that we looked on our selves as sentenced to dye and this sentence was in us and did fill us but saith he God who raiseth the dead delivered us from so great a death for this end that thanks may be given by many on our behalf Beloved sometimes our sicknesses are very grievous and dangerous as Job cries out cap. 23.2 My stroke is heavier then my groaning and saith Job 10.16 Thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me that is thou exercisest thy marvellous power and greatness in afflicting me Now this should cause us to make the praises of God more glorious for our recovery and therefore in such cases the godly have acknowledged this mercy to be a kinde of resurrection from the dead as Psal 30.3 O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave 1 Sam. 2.6 Who bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Job 33.28 29 30. He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light And this is the Providence that all are to observe and acknowledge Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be inlightened with the light of the living Vses First Vse of Information to inform us of five things First Information is that Jesus Christ is a terrible God this appears in that he hath all diseases at command to bid them go and come and do what he will The Scripture makes known God to be a terrible God Deut. 7.21 He is a mighty God and terrible Nehem. 9.32 The great the mighty and terrible God Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty Psal 47.2 For the Lord most high is terrible And we finde this inference made from Gods visiting men with sickness Deut. 28.58 That thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God Beloved it is one of the most devouring delusions of the Devil to perswade men that God is so merciful that he will never question them for their sins Hence we read that the wicked man who contemns God and his judgements saith in his heart God will not require it Psal 10.13 They think in their hearts and conscience that God will never trouble them for their sins this secure temper of the ungodly is seen by that of the prophet Ezek. 7.7 The morning is come upon thee the time is come the day of trouble is near and not the sounding again of the mountains or as Junius and Termellius read it not the Eccho of the mountains implying that they feared no more the threatnings of the Prophets then a vain airy noise or Eccho in the mountains this makes secure sinners to bear no fear of God Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes Their sins are so notorious and visible that they declare in the very hearts and consciences of the godly that there is no fear of God before their eyes Now to awaken you out of this damnable security I shall propound four Considerations to convince you that God is a very terrible God 1. Consider that when the terrors of all bodily evils are past yet then God falls upon men with everlasting terrors we usually account great men very terrible but God tells the wicked Isa 47.3 I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man thou hast been afraid oftentimes of meeting with thy Creditor or of meeting with the Magistrate c. but consider when thou comest to meet God in his taking vengeance for sin he will not meet thee as a man as a hard Creditor or as a harsh Landlord or a furious Souldier or a severe Magistrate but he will meet thee as a God of wrath and vengeance Upon this ground our Saviour presents God terrible Luk. 12.4 5. And I say unto you My friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you should fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Observe that what our Saviour saith of men is true of all bodily evils when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do then the fear of them is past there is no fear of Pestilence or Fever or Consumptions in eternity but now a wicked man can never say the worst is past because he can never be past hell for God after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell so that when you think it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a merciless Usurer or a cruel Landlord or a bloudy man or to fall into the fire or water or to fall into the Pestilence Fever Dropsie c. then consider that It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Secondly consider God is not onely a God of mercy but also a God of judgment the Devil devours most men by perswading them either that God hath no wrath which makes them presumptuous or that he hath no mercy which makes
the cruelty and injustice that laid me and the Timber answers and cryes Make inquisition for the blood that laid me Oh you that eat the bread of deceit and live upon lyes and injustice were your consciences awakened you might hear the very bread on your tables and the money in your purses and the stones and timber of your houses cry for the vengeance of God against you and yet this infinitely patient God bears with you Lastly the sighs and groans of Gods people cry aloud for vengeance against their Persecutors and Oppressors Exod. 3.7 I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Aegypt and have heard their cry Psal 12.4 For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy will I arise Beloved the godly are hated for their likeness to God this makes the difference betwixt them and the wicked for herein they differ from the world and a man must either make God his enemy and the Devil his father and be content to damn his own soul or else the world and he will never be friends but he that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the spirit Now herein is glorified the patience of God when they that wrong his people rake in the apple of his eye and yet this tender Father stands by and sees his children scorned and loathed and murdered for choosing and honouring and fearing and pleasing him and for a long time bears all Lastly the infinite patience of God appears in that he can always ease himself of his enemies and yet he forbears God complains that the sins of men are a trouble to him Isa 1.14 and that they weary him Isa 43.24 and saith he Amos 2.13 Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Now the Scripture speaks as if God did ease and comfort himself in the destruction of his enemies Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries Ezek. 5.13 I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted Now God can suddenly thus ease and comfort himself let him but command the Pestilence the Fever the Pocks c. they will quickly fetch them to hell never to trouble him more but in his infinite patience and long-suffering he spares them and bears with them Thirdly Informs us of the reason why godly Ministers are so serious in shewing men their danger and pressing them to repentance because they see Almighty God armed with such a multitude of diseases and judgments and deaths against men when a Minister is filled with love to and longing for the salvation of his people and sees the diseases and other judgments which lye at the door of every sinner and knows that the want of his care and faithfulness may be the damnation of a soul or more before another opportunity this must needs make Ministers labour earnestly for the salvation of their people and therefore it is an excellent thing for a Minister to preach and pray and administer Sacraments and live as if he saw God and Christ and Angels and Devils and Death and Judgment looking him in the face to preach as if he were to die preaching and people were to die under his Sermons Hence saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ whence he infers vers 11. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men Beloved we know what Christ will do to us if we preach the word deceitfully and damn the souls whom we are sent to save We know the doom of those who know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.8 9. We know whither drunkards and whoremongers and blasphemers and worldlings and all unregenerate persons are going and therefore knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men we are sent in the stead of Christ to perswade you to heaven and therefore dare not stand in the stead of Devils to flatter you into hell Sirs it is not many weeks since I was even past preaching and I know that death and I must shortly meet again and I know ere long you will be past hearing and therefore I would preach and live so that when sickness and death return I may be found labouring to save my self and them that hear me In the mean time when I look upon God and see millions of deaths in his hands and every death hell following it I dare not but warn you to flee from the wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Beloved a faithful Minister would never tell you of your sins but to cause you to forsake them and the word Hell should not be so often in his Pulpit but that he is afraid lest his people should come there he hath no secret grudge against you neither desires the woful day God knows Jer. 17.16 but he dares not deceive you he dares not be damned for you in preaching you and himself into hell The fourth informs us whence it is that we hear so much of the unexpected deaths of men why here is the cause God commands a disease or some other messenger of death to go and to fetch them away and they are gone if any die God tells all the world who kills them I kill saith he Deut. 32.39 Hence we see great men for a while fill a Country and a frown of their faces and a stamp of their foot makes all to quake about them but they prove like Pharaoh of whom we read Jer. 46.17 Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noise So they make a great noise in the Country a while and then like a sound in the Air pass away Methinks a great man is like a great winde it blows violently and rageth a while as if it would throw down all afore it but it proves but a wind which is soon spent and laid So a furious wicked man he blusters and ruffles a while as if he would blow down God and man but a disease and death comes and he gives up the ghost and where is he David made this observation Psal 37.35 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree Observe he spreads himself he enlargeth his power and riches and greatness But see what follows Yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found for a sickness comes and like a tempest takes him away in a night Job 27.20 and so by the blast of God they perish Job 4.9 So we see others which would be as great sinners but that they are not so great men for instrumenta explicandae nequitiae desunt as Seneca speaks they want instruments to do mischief these curst Kine have short horns and so cannot do so much hurt these men are full of lyes oaths drunkenness and are set on fire against God and godliness sinning with that impudence as if they would out-face and brow-beat God and man and make death
about the City that is they go about like the Devils beagles hunting Gods people Well saith David vers 14. seeing they love the sport so well At evening let them return and make a noise like a dog and go round about the City that is let thy judgements so afflict them that they may like hungry and angry Curs go crying and yelling about the City so that here the murmuring of a man in trouble is compared to the yelling of a dog so this sin is compared to the roaring of Bears Isa 59.11 We roar all like bears and Zanchy observes that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated murmurers Phil. â— 14 signifies a noise like the grunting of a swine nay this sin makes a man like the very Devil who is a most restless and discontented spirit and therefore is said Matth. 12.43 To walk about seeking rest and finding none And it is true of many on their sick-beds which we read Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me when they have howled viz. like beasts upon their beds Now what a fearful case is this that when in thy sickness thou shouldst have been full of the thoughts and language and savour of a Christian so as to be praying unto and praising and pleasing God and saving and edifying others and quieting and solacing thy own soul that thou shouldst by murmuring and discontent be yelling like a Dog roaring like a Bear howling like a Beast grunting like a Swine and be like a restless and desperate Devil Secondly discontent unfits the soul for every duty you cannot indure to see your children go grumbling to meat and grumbling to School and grumbling to bed and grumbling to ask you blessing so it greatly provokes God to see people go murmuring to prayer and murmuring to Sermons and murmuring to Sacraments Beloved lay this up as a rule and let it always reign in your hearts viz. That a man can never go holily and comfortably to any duty except his heart be reconciled to these three things To God to all men and to all Gods Providences Therefore when a man is quarrelling with God and men and murmuring at all Gods dealings always either complaining that his mercies are too little or his afflictions too great how miserably unfit is such a man to look God in the face in any duty Thirdly murmurers are always miserable according to our Proverb An angry person never wants woe as if a man that hath his body full of sores come in a crowd where he is always jogged and thrust this must needs hurt and vex his sores Beloved a discontented spirit is a sore spirit and the least touch of affliction doth vex it and therefore for such a man to live always in a croud of miseries wherewith he is continually hurt and vext this must needs be a miserable man It is observable that God himself is set to cross such a man Lev. 26.27 28. If ye walk contrary to me I will walk contrary to you As thus God would have you to believe love fear and please him Now you walk contrary to God you deny hate despise and provoke him Well you would have God to bless preserve pardon and save you Oh but God wiâ—l walk contrary to you he will curse destroy and damn you Now they cannot but be in an unquiet condition who have God himself always crossing and thwarting them See Psal 18.26 With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward If you will be cross with God he will be cross with you and therefore observe when you are discontented something falls out from Wife Children Servants or Neighbours to exasperate and fret you more so that I say this sin makes a man spend his days in bitterness and sorrow Lastly murmurers shall be judged at the last day as ungodly men Jude v. 14 15 16. where we see that when the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints one great work of that day will be to execute judgement on ungodly murmurers and complainers therefore as you fear the portion of murmurers then do not live the life of murmurers now Thirdly this Doctrine reproves those who are so stupid and senceless in their sickness as not to own the hand of Christ in their visitation for seeing all diseases come from him we are to receive them as the good messengers of Christ saying with Naomi Ruth 1.13 The hand of the Lord is gone out against me This stupidity of spirit is that sin whereby men slight and despise the judgments of God so as neither to be affected in the sense of their sins nor of Gods displeasure for them We have a clear instance of this sin Jerem. 10.19 I said truly This is my grief and I must bear it In the beginning of the verse the people sadly bewail their present afflictions Woe is me for my hurt my wound is grievous now it aggravates their present misery to be upbraided with their former stupidity I said viz. in my trouble heretofore truly this is my grief and I must bear it off as well as I can implying that they formerly thought that they could easily bear off the strokes of God We often hear the like confident language from many stupid sinners on their sick beds saying Indeed I am not well I am something out of order but I will strive with it and hope to shake it off shortly and so go on with my building or trading or purchasing c. Thus usually men flatter themselves in their sickness talking as if they were but beginning to live when perhaps they are ready to die these strive to put far from them the evil day Amos 6.3 Like those who boasted that they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell Isa 28.15 as if they had made some bargain with Death and Hell and had them in Bond and Covenant not to hurt them this sensless spirit possest those Hos 7.9 Isa 42.25 This sin is forbidden Prov. 3.11 My son despise not the chastening of the Lord. Beloved it is a fearful thing to despise any affliction perhaps yet it is but little but it comes from a great God and upon a great Errand therefore remember Psalm 2.11 If his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Consider further the evil and danger of this sin in two particulars First It doth greatly provoke and call forth the wrath of God Isa 26.11 When thy hand is lifted up they will not see they will take no notice of thy displeasure but they shall see Oh then is the judgment of God fearful on the ungodly when Gods wrath puts them past security when the seared conscience is turned into a gnawing conscience I tell thee sinner if sickness will not awaken thee hell will You know if a Father whip his Childe to humble and melt him it cuts the very heart of his Father to see his Childe laugh in his face So when God visits a
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
man into eternity and sinks him into hell when he comes there drunkenness is a sin which of its own nature breeds Dropsies Consumptions and other diseases as we read Hos 4.7 The Princes makes themselves sick with bottles of wine and daily examples witness the sudden and untimely death of many drunkards It is reported of one that when he was drunk as he was getting up on his Mare he said in a drunken frolick that his Mare would carry him to the Devil and his Mare threw him down and broke his neck Sirs do not venture to be drunk lest you fall into hell before you be sober The last sin which I shall here reprove is the beastly sin of whoredom This is a sin against a mans own body 2 Cor. 6.18 hence we read Prov. 6.26 The Adulteress will hunt for the precious life See further Prov. 7.22 26.27 He goeth after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death And thus you see that by this filthy sin men and women sacrifice their health estates names bodies and souls to their stinking lusts carrying a filthy and guilty soul in a rotten body whilst they live and shutting themselves out of heaven into hell when they dye Now that this use of reproof may leave some deep convection in your consciences consider what thy health and life is givâ—n thee for viz. that thou mayst have opportunity of serving and honouring the great God and of providing for eternity Now therefore what a bloudy wretch art thou to thy self that thou shouldest by thy own sins shorten thy space of repentance and put a sad period to all thy blessed oppâ—rtunities and days of Salvation and dispatch thy self beyond all ordinances and means and hopâ—s and possibilities oâ— Salvation and so make thy self unable to live before thou art ready to dye Vse 3. Of Consolation to the truely godly This Doctrine is a great ground of comfort to all the children of God whereby they may see that all sicknesses dangers and deaths come through the hands of their own father for it is a most certain way of comfort to the godly in any sickness to bring their hearts to the first Cause and Author of their Visitation for if they are at peace with him they will be sure to finde peace and comfort in their affliction Hence the Apostle teacheth us Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing that is do not torture and distract and break your hearts with sinful cares and fears but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God bring your hearts and desires unto him And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus Perhaps thou hast nothing to keep thy estate from loss nor thy body from aches and pains nor thy name from reproach nor thy life from death But however thou shalt have the peace of God to keep thy heart full of grace and comfort through Christ Jesus and if the heart be thus kept the blessing and comfort of all is kept in it for in this case thou mayst lose friends out of thy company riches out of thy estate health and ease out of thy body and yet thou mayst keep the peace and comfort of all in thy heart Now that your hearts may be refreshed with this Doctrine I shall shew herein these five grounds of comfort 1. In respect of the season of the visitation 2. Of the end 3. In respect of the godly themselves who are visited 4. In respect of death Lastly in respect of the day of judgement 1. In respect of the season of our Visitation we may be assured that Jesus Christ will chuse the best and fittest season to visit us in See 1 Pet. 1.6 Wherein ye greatly rejoyce though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations This is an argument of comfort that our afflictions come in a season when we have most need of them Husbandmen know that there is a season when the ground hath need of frost and snow and parents know that there is a season when their children have need of the rod And so there are seasons wherein we that are Gods husbandry and Gods children have need of his fatherly chastisements and in these times he chuseth to visit us I shall contract all that I will say of this in the application of a general truth to this particular case viz. that the time and season of Gods remarkable Providence is called the fulness of time in Scripture So we read Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son so that place seems something pertinent to our purpose Eph. 4.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Where note that this is the great and mysterious work of God to gather together in one full body all his Elect that those which are already in heaven with those who are to be gathered out of the world may all meet in Christ their Head and so be the fulness of him that fills all in all Now this work is said to be done in the fulness of time So that this is the glorious work which God is carrying on by ordinances mercies afflictions diseases death he is gathering all his people together bringing them into a body unto their head and I say this is all done in the fulness of time Now there are two things which make a fulness of time 1. When it 's a time set and appointed by God for such a dispensation a time full of the Decree and Counsel of God and wherein his Decrees are fulfill'd So the coming of Christ was in the fulness of time viz. in the time set by God 2. When time is fitted and prepared for such a work in which respect also Christ came in the fulness of time time had been travelling as it were for this many ages Prophesies and promises and the faith and expectation of Believers were full of Jesus Christ and so the time being fitted for his coming he comes in the fulness of time Now to apply this to the case in hand whenever sickness or death comes it is in the fulness of time 1. In that time which is set by the wisdom and counsel of our Father for the good of his children he set the time of thy birth and of thy new birth so he hath appointed the time of thy visitation and of thy death which are all times appointed to demonstrate and glorifie his infinite power and love towards thee 2. They come in a time most fit for such a work Sin grows to such an head that it's time for sickness or some
thy self as it were in the grave and see thy ghastly skull lying in the dust among the worms of the earth and then look on thy glorious Head in Heaven and so comfort thy self with this that as vile and loathsome a spectacle as thy diseased body is now and thy dead body will be shortly yet it is a precious member of Jesus Christ who will by his infinite power change and fashion this contemptible dust into the likeness of his glorious body in heaven 4. Comfort in respect of death it comes to the godly without a sting In this we are taught to triumph 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O death where is thy sting Now to clear up your comfort in this consider that sickness and death are said to sting when God as a revenging Judge sends them to execute the curse of the law for sin so that death is compared to a fearful Serpent which kills and devours all the men and women in the world And saith the Apostle the sting of this Serpent Death is sin it 's sin that makes the sting and then he adds the strength of sin is the law The strength that sin hath to sting is from the curse of the Law and the Law hath its strength and power from the wrath of God for the law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 So that by all you see that by the sting of death is meant the dreadful torments of hell which at death come from the wrath of God through the curse of the Law for sin O poor Christless sinner what a miserable case art thou in Look well as thou fittest in thy seat and thou mayst see this stinging Serpent Death lye under thy feet when thou liest down this Serpent lies under thy bed when thou art at meat this Serpent lies under thy table when thou goest out of thy house thou mayst see this Serpent at the door ready to sting thee to heâ— But now here comes in the unspeakaâ— comfort of believers for though death hâ— power to kill them yet it hath no poâ—er to sting them because all the cauâ— of Deaths sting are taken away by Jesâ— Christ 1. Sin is gone for this lamb of Gâ— hath taken away the sins of the world Joâ— 1.29 Observe they are taken away â— if they had never been Hence 1 Pet. â— 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his owâ— body on the tree So that by the righteouâ—ness of Christ given to us by God and received of us by Faith and thereby maâ— our own we are fully cleared and absoâ—ved from sin and God will never impuâ— it to us 2. It follows that the curse of the Law is gone for Christ hath delivered us froâ— the curse of the law being made a curâ— for us So that the law hath no strength tâ— binde us to punishment there being neither sin to binde us for nor punishment tâ— binde us unto 3. The wrath of God which makes thâ— punishment is also taken away for it iâ— God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 and we havâ— thereby peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that God is ours and for us to love bless and save and glorifie us and therefore every believer may with comfort hold up the Blood of Christ in the very face of the King of Terrors and say Here is my Christ my righteousness but O death where is thy sting Nay further Death is now changed from coming to execute the curses of the Law for it comes to fulfil the blessings of the Gospel for death to a believer is a work of a reconciled Father whereby he looseth his childe out of earth into heaven so that we may see death so full of the love and goodness of God that it should even indear it to us and make it lovely and precious to our souls That is a most comfortable promise Joh. 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death It is not meant he shall never die as the Jews understood it ver 52. And I conceive it is not only intended he shall never die the second death but the meaning also seems to be this that a Childe of God shall see so much of God and Christ and Heaven that he may even overlook the fears of death which are swallowed up by God and Christ and Life Lastly Comfort in respect of our glorious victory over all diseases and death at the day of Judgment This victory consists in two things 1. In putting a final period to all diseases and death Sickness shall never trouble us more and death shall never kill us more I warrant thee Christian thy head will never ake in heaven and for certain there will be no Funerals in that Country but corruptible must put on incorruption and mortal shall put on immortality 2. In that the bodies of believers shall then be never the worse for the diseases and death which they have suffered but the bodies which were sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory Beloved a Saint may live comfortably in any condition by living in the joyful knowledge of the day of judgment Hence when the Apostle had propounded this as an argument of comfort that yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He adds this Now the just shall live by faith meaning they shall live a life of holiness and comfort in believing the day of judgment And Saint Paul having made a glorious description of that great day 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. makes this use of it vers 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And in this the godly did comfort themselves Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies This is a most comfortable life to live as those that are always groaning and waiting for the day of judgment A believer may apply this to his comfort against any particular trouble Art thou disgraced and reproached in thy name summon as it were all thy accusers to the day of judgment and believe what a name thou shalt have then and that thou shalt be sure to come off with credit at that day when the glorious Judge of quick and dead shall confess thee before his Father and Angels and Men and as mean and obscure as thou seemest now the world will have other thoughts of thee when they see thee appear with Christ in glory Col. 3.4 And therefore we learn that one great work of that day will be to make a clear and open manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 Art thou troubled with unreasonable and wicked men so that thou mayst say with David My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire Psal 57.4 Consider what Christ will do to them at the day of judgment and what
work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters oâ— the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at thâ— day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thiâ— corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed uâ— in victory Look on this corruptible anâ— mortal body which is now sometimes sâ— loathsome with diseases that a man caâ— scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wilâ— crawl and feed all over it and these verâ— arms and thighs and legs may be throwâ— up and lie like the bones of horses anâ— sheep at the graves mouth yet the day iâ— coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shalâ— exhort all to these six duties grounded oâ— this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense oâ— this truth that the health and lives of alâ— men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at thâ— command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As foâ— our heavenly enjoyments we are best wheâ— we are most fit to enjoy them but as foâ— our worldly comforts we are best when wâ— are most fit to loose them as thus it is ouâ— holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very faâ— into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones oâ— the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this
recreations Lastly make Conscience of the duties of your relations so that you may refresh and revive and not disease and destroy one another our health and life doth much depend under God upon our relations You therefore that are parents do not spend your childrens bread in whoredom drunkenness idleness and revenge many parents finde their lusts more chargeable then their children It is very sad that children may cry out We might have had better education better trades better portions better health had not our merciless Parents loved their sins better then their children You that are children make not your parents lives miserable who have been a means of life to you be not such foolish children as to be the heaviness of your parents Prov. 10.1 Husbands Nourish and cherish your own flesh Eph. 5.29 Make not provision for your lusts with that which should make provision for your wives Wives do your Husbands good and not evil all the daies of your lives Prov. 31.12 labour to be their Comfort and Crown and not as rottenness in their bones So much for the Exhortation to all in general 2. Exhortation directed to people as they enjoy their health The duty which I shall exhort unto is to prepare for sickness and death In this Exhortation I shall use this method 1. I shall shew what this work of preparation is 2. I shall press this duty on several sorts of persons 3. Urge it with some Motives Lastly I shall give several Directions to direct us how to be prepared for sickness and death For the first This work of preparation is that whereby every sound believer is by the spirit of Jesus Christ setled in such a blessed state and frame that he is fitted for all that Christ shall do to him by sickness and death In this description observe three things 1. The principal efficient cause which makes this great preparation in us viz. the Spirit of Jesus Christ Hence Christ is called The Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.12 Where Jesus Christ begins a work of grace and salvation in a soul he never leaves it till he hath finished it and made it up for heaven therefore saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 Being consident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or finish it till the day of Jesus Christ that is till the day of death and of judgment so that this is the great work of Jesus Christ in every true believer to fit him and make him ready for sickness and death and the day of judgment 2. Here is the subject of this work or the person prepared viz. every true believer who is a vessel of mercy prepared for glory 3. Here is that wherein the nature of this work of preparation consists viz. in three things 1. He must be setled in the state of grace and salvation that is he must have a Scripture-right to God as he is the God of salvation by Jesus Christ and so a right to heaven and to all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace 2. He must be wrought into a gracious frame whereby he is bent to yield up himself in subjection and obedience to the will of God in sickness and in death Lastly Here is that which he must be prepared for viz. all that God shall do to him by sickness and death If God fill him with pain and misery he hath his graces of faith love patience humility and meekness to enable him to lie quietly and obediently and chearfully under the power and will of his heavenly Father If God call him by sickness into Eternity he is with Saint Paul ready to be offered and is made fit by grace to receive and enjoy the glory of heaven This gracious frame of heart is fully epxress'd Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord that is we live to this end to please and do the will and to seek the glory of the Lord and we are ready to die to the will and glory of the Lord. So much for the Explication of this work of preparation Secondly I shall press this Exhortation upon these seven sorts of persons 1. I shall exhort little children so far as they are capable to know and practise this duty to prepare for sickness and death Now because this applicaâ—ion may seem strange consider that God himself thinks it not below him to be a Teacher of young children Psalm 148.12 13. Both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord. And all parents are commanded to teach their children to know and do his will Deut. 6.6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently or whâ—t and sharpen them upon thy children So Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Observe there is a way for young children to go to heaven and it is that wherein they should be found when they are old and all parents are bound to set them in that way and indeed children are sooner capable then most conceive to know something of God and Christ and Heaven and Hell Timothy knew the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a sucking childe 2 Tim. 3.15 And this appears by the timely fruits of the Spirit that sometimes drop from their pretty sanctified mouths And certainly baptized children being Christs Disciples and admitted into his School the Church have a right to be taught in the way to salvation and Christ is a Prophet to them and his Ministers are Ministers to them as well as to others And really Ministers have often more comfort from catechized Boys and Girls then from many old ignorant Atheists who are worse then children in the understanding of the Scriptures And lastly it makes much for Gods glory to have his Name praised by the mouths of little children Psal 8.2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thy enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger Observe God hath ordained that his praise in the mouths of little children shall be a strong and powerful means to stop the mouths of malicious subtil Atheists to still the enemy and avenger So we read Matth. 21.16 Out oâ— the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thoâ— perfected praise The praises that come to God by the blessed Angels and all the Saints in heaven and earth is perfected and made up by the praises of these young Saints Now considering these things and seeing sickness and death fetch away so many young children into Eternity I have chosen to direct one brief Exhortation to the young Boys and Girls among us Oh come therefore you sweet and pretty children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord be you prepared for sickness and death Heark sweet Children
you were born children of the Devil and you must be born again if ever you will be the children of God Good children know and love the God that made you and Jesus Christ who died for you to redeem and save you You can be afraid of the Rod and a Bugbear be afraid of sin and hell Perhaps you have godly parents who instruct and catechize you in the knowledge of God Why good children hear the instruction of your fathers and forsake not the law of your mothers God doth not love you as his children because you are pretty or witty children or because you are the children of rich parents but if you will love and fear the Lord then you shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation Good children look on the graves in the Church-yards and you shall see many who were no elder nor taller then you dead and buried before you as young as you are sick and as young as you are dead and as young as you are in heaven and hell therefore be Gods children whilst you are young lest you be sick and dead and damned before you be old 2. Exhort parents to do their duty in endeavouring to prepare their children for sickness and death Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed or nourish your children in the fear of the Lord. Beasts can take care to save their young ones lives but men and women and Christians should be careful to save their childrens souls when thy children dye if thou hast neglected their salvation it must if thy conscience be ever awakened cause stinging reflections in thy soul There is a story of a father who consented that his daughter should commit whoredom which she did and soon after dyed whereupon the poor guilty father cryes out I have damned my daughters soul I have damned my daughters soul Sirs do not teach your children to to lye swear to be drunk or covetous to scoff at Gods children or holiness lest one day you have cause to cry out when it is too late We have damned our childrens souls When your hearts are affected to see your children about you then see diseases and death at your doors ready to make your children orphans or you childless and consider withal how sad it is that such pretty sweet children should be for ever burned in hell Beloved I would not have you worse then Infidels in not providing for your childrens bodies and yet I would have you better then Devils in providing for their poor souls It is a pleasant sight to see parents live as if they were going with all their children to heaven It is comely to see parents sitting in their house and their children about them or to see them sitting in a Congregation and their children about them but how much more glorious will it be to see them sitting in heaven and their children about them though the relation will end yet the comfort of being a means to bring them thither will abide for ever Parents if you cannot make your children heirs of houses and lands labour to make them heirs of heaven do not onely teach your children how to live but also teach them how to dye thou art troubled sometimes to think Alas how will my poor children live I tell thee thou hast more need to think How will my poor children dye for there are few so poor but they can make some shift to live but there are millions so miserable that they know not how to dye 3. Exhortation to young men Vnto you O men I call and my voice is unto the sons of men Prov. 8.4 make it your care to prepare for sickness and death Solomon having taught that childhood and youth is vanity Eccles 11.10 he infers this Exhortation to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth It is necessary for all young people to live as those that know that God will bring them to judgment Eccles 11.9 Consider you are never prepared for sickness and death till you are prepared for judgement Oh young men and women look upon your selves as going to judgment Heark do not you hear the great shout that calls you all to make your appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ Sirs be nothing now but what you would appear to be at that great day Wouldst thou be judged as a Drunkard or Swearer or Whoremonger or Worldling or as an enemy to godly Ministers and Christians at the day of judgment If not then be not such a one now do not think your selves too young to enter into a serious way of godliness For what if sickness and death will not stay till you are old Thou art not too young to be sick or to die Do not then think that thou art too young to go to heaven lest God think thee old enough to go to hell 4. Exhortation to old men to prepare for sickness and death The daies which Solomon calls evil daies are already come upon you Methinks I may allude to that of our Saviour Joh. 4.35 Look on the fields for they are white already unto Harvest When I look on old people I see a white crop of gray hairs which speaks them to be ripe for the sickle of death Sirs diseases and death have done a great deal of their work upon you already they have worn away your colour beauty and strength yet how sad is it to see an old man more unfit to die then a very childe that begins to live He is old and ignorant old and covetous old and malicious old and cruel old and yet a drunkard Oh poor man what hast thou been doing all thy daies Hast thou had fifty threescore almost fourscore years to prepare for sickness and death and to lay up treasures in heaven and hast thou done nothing else but been heaping up wrath in hell Heark old Father for I must needs honour thy hoary head the sick-bed death the grave call for thee Oh then repent and believe presently let not the Devil who long ago perswaded thee thou wast too young now perswade thee thou art too old for as old as thou art yet it is better for thee to go to heaven a young Babe of Christ then to go to hell an old slave of the Devil 5. Exhortation to rich and great men of the world to prepare for sickness and death Sirs there are messengers at your doors to fetch you where mountains of gold are worth nothing your riches cannot guard you against sickness and death God can as easily turn a Bed of Down into a Bed of Languishing as a Bed of Straw and a disease cares no more for the richest Velvet then the poorest Sheep skin and a sickness can as easily catch thee in a Coach as in a Cart and death enters into the stateliest Castle assoon as the poorest cottage Read your case Jam. 1.10 11. As the flower of the grass he shall pass away For the Sun is no sooner
risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Oh tell thy friends lands silver and gold that thou art going into Eternity and art presently to stand before the Judge of Quick and Dead and see what help they can afford thee Thou wilt certainly finde Solomons words true Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Beloved If we would know whether a man be happy or miserable we must not look upon him as he appears in his honours and riches c. but follow him to his death and the day of judgment see how he speeds there and how he comes off then for then the man comes to his proof and we shall see that all the riches of the world yield no profit in those great daies but then the highest carnal Monarch shall be no more respected by the Judge of all the world then the ugliest Devil of Hell when a poor godly servant or day-labourer shall be crowned with incorruptible glory before his face Oh therefore you rich men look among all your jewels and treasures whether you have a God and Christ and grace for your poor souls these only are the provision which will maintain you against the terrors of death and the dread of judgment 6. Exhortation to poor men to prepare for sickness and death We think them poor who have nothing to live on in this world but they are poor who have nothing to live on in the other world Poor people you cannot come at the silver and gold and riches of this world when you will but you have as much freedom to the riches of the other world as the mightiest Prince upon earth Thou mayst call God Father and ask what thou wilt and live upon the everlasting Kingdom of heaven as thy own and therefore you that are poor and godly let your riches of the other world comfort you against the poverty of this Look on thy cold Cottage and then look on thy house not made wiâ—h hands Look on thy poor leathern cloaths and then look how thou shalt be cloaâ—hed when thou appearest with Christ in glory Look on thy brown bread and course fare and then remember the entertainment which Angels and Saints have in heaven Oh poor people though you know not how to be maintained whilst you live yet get saving grace and you will be rich enough to go to heaven when you die The last Exhortation shall be to such who in some respects seem nearer death then other persons I shall instance only in three sorts of people to whom I shall direct this Exhortation to prepare for sickness and death First Such whose callings and imployments do expose their lives to daily and great dangers as Water-men Colliers Carpenters Masons c. These men by a leak in a Boat or Ship a fall of a little earth a slip of a foot may be turned to heaven or hell every day Yet we often see that many who live in the greatest dangers live in the greatest sins My earnest advice to you is to prepare for death that though you stand in dangerous places yet you may stand upon sure ground for the salvation of your souls Sirs for ought I know you may get heaven with less danger then you get your livings Remember what precious souls you have and that every time you venture your lives you venture your souls too Labour by sound repentance to forsake your sins and to turn to God Do not swear and lye and be drunk and deceive others Do not prophane the Lords daies if you expect that God should preserve you on working daies labour by a sound faith to rest on Christ to save your guilty souls see your nearness unto Eternity be often looking from the places where you are into heaven and hell and see what a little there is betwixt you and them and seriously consider if now you should fall into Eternity in which of those two places would be your portion Get such a saving knowledge of God that you may comfortably commit the keeping of your lives unto him and solemnly worship God in your Closets and Families and live in the fear of God and in peace with him and use your callings to his glory that he may preserve you in your ways or however that if you do die in your callings you may not die in your sins Secondly Such who though they have ordinarily present case and health yet they are subject to dangerous and sudden pains and fearful distempers as Convulsions Falling-Sickness Stone c. you have need in regard of these to be always prepared for sickness and death you would not be without what remedies you can get when your distempers come Oh do not be without God and Christ and Grace if death should come in them Whatever you are doing consider Now my distempers may surprize me therefore if they take you in bed at meat at work let them not take you in your sins in all likelihood these fits will shorten your daies therefore let them hasten your repentance these distempers will fill you with torturing pains or for present deprive you of your reason parts senses c. so that then will be a very unfit time to prepare for death therefore improve your times of health and ease as merciful opportunities that when your diseases or death finde you they may not finde you unprovided Sirs always remember that you carry death in your bodies therefore be sure to carry grace in your souls Lastly Women that are with childe have special reason to be prepared for sickness and death God hath inseparably fixt this punishment upon this Sex that in sorrow they shall bring forth children Gen. 3.16 And our Saviour tells us Joh. 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow And experience witnesseth the grievous pangs and pains of all and the sad deaths of very many in this condition so that thou must certainly within a few weeks be grievously diseased and thou mayst probably dye do not then venture into such dangers in a Christless state Poor woman perhaps thou hast bred that life which will be thy own death therefore labour to finde that Christ is as sure formed in thy heart as the babe is formed in thy womb and before that sad and dangerous hour of the birth of thy childe come examine throughly whether the new birth be past in thy soul I would not have thee oppress thy heart with the dismal fore-thoughts and distracting fears of that time for to be sure sufficient to that day will be the evil thereof but I would have thee so prepared that the short pangs of childe-bearing may not end in the everlasting pangs and torments of hell and that thou mayst be a new creature and found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that if thou shouldst no longer live with thy
Husband nor enjoy the fruit of thy womb upon earth thou mayst live with Christ and enjoy the fruit of his righteousness in heaven for ever I shall conclude this with that suitable Scripture 1 Tim. 2.5 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety lest poor women should be swallowed up with the sad thoughts of the sin mentioned in the former verse where it 's said that Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the gransgression for which sin disgrace and punishment is fixt to the Sex these words are added for their comfort to shew that notwithstanding that sin and the punishment thereof yet they shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety Poor woman methinks I see thee walking with two souls over eternity and both full of sin Oh therefore hasten to make thy peace with that God whose power alone must take the childe out of the mothers bowels that so thou mayst comfortably depend and call upon him to save both your lives but however to save your poor souls I come now to urge this duty with these seven Motives Mot. 1. It is the will of God that you should be prepared for sickness and death in so doing you do the will of God he commands you to wait and watch and prepare for the day of judgement Matth. 24.42 Mar. 13.33 35. Now it 's a certain rule that all those Scriptures which command us to prepare for the day of judgement do imply our duty to be prepared for sickness and death which are the forerunners of that day and the same preparation which is made for the one will serve for the other Now my Brethren this is a sufficient reason to move you to this duty for it 's the will of God which makes it our duty and binds us to it and must be the reason to us why we do it or we can never be prepared aright Beloved God would have us to be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 to reign with him in heaven and therefore to be always ready against the time that he sends for us thither Mot. 2. It 's a signe of a very wise man to be prepared for sickness and death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man fore-seeth the evil and hideth himself A wise godly man sees sickness and death and the day of judgement before him he knows he must go through all these and therefore he takes care to provide so as to be safe and happy in those great dangers Beloved it 's the greatest wisdom in the world to be wise to salvation It 's better miscarry in a thousand businesses then in the business of Salvation Now he that is wise to salvation prepares against all the dangers that he must be saved from and the greatest danger is at death when a man must go through that door where so many millions fall into hell what a wise man then is he who is prepared so as that door to him is the door of heaven Many that get estates and preferments in the world are much admired for their wisdom and yet when death comes they must be damned for their folly Remember the Parable of the ten Virgins five whereof were wise and five were foolish Now why were those five called wise the reason was because when that great cry was made at midnight Behold the Bridegroom cometh they were prepared and why were the other five foolish because they were unprepared for that great time Beloved when the great God our Saviour shall come out of heaven with his mighty Angels and his glorious Saints and shall shew his blessed face in the clouds and sound a trumpet that will call all the quick and dead before him in the twinkling of an eye certainly they will prove the wisest persons that are so prepared as to stand and triumph and lift up their heads with joy in that great appearance Ah Sirs when Come ye blessed and Go ye cursed hath distinguished and parted the world it will then be known who are wise men and who are fools Mot. 3. Because it 's altogether uncertain when sickness and death will come the Scripture useth this argument Mar. 13.33 Watch and pray for ye know not when your time is Solomon elegantly sets forth the uncertainty of our time Eccles 9.12 For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them As the fishes are sporting in the water and are presently masht in the net and as the birds are hopping in the chaff and are presently caught in the snare so poor man is suddenly and unexpectedly surprised in the snares of death Sometimes a man is fast asleep and sickness awakens him sometimes he is feeding at the table and death comes between the cup and the lip sometimes he is riding a journey and death throws him into eternity and sometimes he is making a purchase and death comes and breaks the bargain sometimes he is marrying a wife and death comes and mars the match Sirs sickness and death are under no rules of civility they care not for disturbing the weightiest business in the world if therefore we cannot say of any thing I will do this or I will have that before I am sick or dead certainly our very next work should be to prepare for sickness and death Mot. 4. Because thou knowest not what kinde of sickness or death may come upon thee We read of a great death 2 Cor. 1.10 Sometimes death comes with great pains and great terrors and great temptations which make it a great death so that the provision of a whole age of grace will not without the mighty support of Gods Spirit keep thee holy and cheerful at such a time It is said Job 18.13 The first-born of death shall devour his strength The first-born is the chiefest and mightiest in it's kinde and therefore the meaning is that death shall come in the most cruel and terrible manner to devour a man Now set before thee those that have dyed in the most fearful pains of body and have been assaulted with the most horrid temptations and consider this may be thy case however prepare against the worst that Sin and Death and Devils and men can do against thee Mot. 5. By thy being prepared for sickness and death thou art also prepared for health and life for there is none so fit to live as he who is fit to dye the same graces which will make thee holy and patient and joyful in sickness will make thee so in health for the same faith love humility meekness and patience which qualifie the soul for passive obedience do also fit the soul for active obedience as the same provision of victuals or money which is made against
according as the Word describes and presents it to him and surely this makes people so unprepared to dye because they want an understanding of things It cannot sink into their hearts that sin is so bad and Christ so good or the world so vain or grace so precious or hell so terrible or heaven so glorious but they are so confident that lust is sweet and riches are precious and death is far off and hell is but a bug bear and heaven is but a fansie And in this confidence they will live and dye and therefore the Apostle prayes that the Philippians may try things that differ that they may be fit for the day of Christ I shall therefore give you this Direction in these following particulars 1. Look upon God and the world together and you shall see the difference for this end I beseech you search and believe that Scripture Isa 40.15 -17. Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance Behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity Now let thy heart judge of and act towards God and the world according to this difference Set all the world before thee give every creature its due see what a vast world of Kingdoms and Nations it is look upon the strong Islands which are fortified and moted about with the Seas which this great God takes up as a very little thing see a world of great and mighty men before thee see the rich world of gold and silver and precious stones lying on heaps before thee look upon the lands and buildings which make all the woods fields pastures medows orchards vineyards gardens towns cities and stately houses in the world O what a glorious world is this which made the very Angels shout for joy at the rearing of it Well take a full survey of the glory and beauty of this great world and then looking on a drop of water hanging on a bucket what a poor thing is this which is ready to break and fall on the ground and no body catcheth at it look also upon the small dust of the balance a thing of neither weight nor worth it doth not so much as turn the scales Now labour by faith to have such a clear insight into the greatness and goodness of God and Jesus Christ that thou mayst be able to judge all the world to be but as a drop of the bucket or as the small dust of the balance to thy Father and Saviour and let thy whole man act according to such a wise holy just judgement and this will exceedingly fit thee for sickness and death which come to loose thee from such a vain world into the presence and everlasting injoyment of such a glorious God 2. Look upon sin and upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ look upon these together Beloved faith hath a deep insight into the evil of sin for it sees the glory of God which sin is against wherein the evil of it appears and believes the dreadful curses of the law and what the wrath of God and what hell is and what an immortal being a man is that must suffer these Faith also hath a piercing insight into the excellencie of Christs righteousness it sees what an infinitely-glorious God Jesus Christ is which makes his righteousness so precious and meritorious and so savoury and satisfactory to the Father and for this reason so all-sufficient for faith to rest and live upon for this is the precious property of justifying faith that it receives Christs righteousness for salvation for the same reason which God receives it for satisfaction that is because it is the righteousness of God and indeed faith must see God satisfied before it can see the believer saved and seeing enough in Christ for the satisfaction of God it sees the same sufficiencie in him for the salvation of the Believer Now Christs righteousness never appears more precious then when the soul is filled with the deepest sight and sense of sin for then the soul believes him to be a great Saviour when he sees the great evil of sin which he saves him from and therefore it is observable that the Apostle demonstrates the direful guilt and filth of sin as a preface to that great Doctrine of Justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ Rom. 3. from vers 9. to the end of that Chapter And as you know it was a sad and fearful case for the poor Jews to be bitteâ— with the fiery Serpents and to lye groaning under the pain and anguish of those poisonous and deadly wounds yet then what a glorious sight was it to look upon the brazen Serpent and thereby to finde power and vertue to heal them presently So my Brethren it is a fearful case in it self for a man to stand in the very jaws of death and to look into the horrid nature of sin and see death and devils and hell and all the curses of the law ready to flee in his face and yet how glorious is it then to look upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ and see them all swallowed up and himself saved And thus as he sees the grace of God in Christ raigning and over-abounding all sin Rom. 5.20 21. so his faith and hope and joy grounded thereon doth rise above and over-abound and swallow up all his fears of death and hell which he was in because of his sins 3. Look upon all your sufferings on earth and upon the glory of heaven together The Apostle tells us Act. 14.22 We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God Observe there is an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven out of all our afflictions and our way to heaven lyes through much tribulation an hypocrite seems to go strongly in the way to heaven but oftentimes when he comes to trouble persecution c. there he is stopt and can go no farther but he that believes the goodness of duty and the glory of heaven if tribulation sickness poverty persecution seek to stop him he goes through them he knows duty is sweet and safe and therefore he will follow it till it bring him to heaven whatever it cost him Tertullian comforts the Martyrs in prison with this That in their close and dark prisons they might see illam viam quae ad Deum ducit that way which leads them to God There is a way to heaven out of prison sick-bed or any other affliction Hence those that come to heaven are said to come out of great tribulation Rev. 7.14 Sometimes a poor Saint comes hot as it were out of the furnace of affliction into heaven from chains and bolts in a prison he is loosed into heaven from gasping and groaning upon a sick-bed to heaven surely when he comes there he findes a strange alteration Well look upon thy self now as standing
remember thou art shortly to be like unto them The very carkasses in the graves are ready to say unto thee as the Prophet brings in the inhabitants of the Tombs crying to the King of Babylon Isai 14.10 All they shall speak and say unto thee Art thou also become weak as we Art thâ—u become like unto us Look upon every thing about thy friends Funeral with a particular application to thy self look on the Bier at the door as if it stood there to receive thee look on the Coffin as if it were made for thee and look on the Winding-sheet as if it were washt and made ready for thee Look on the Sextons Spade as ready to dig a grave for thee Certainly these things would prove excellent means to fit us for sickness and death Direct 9. Keep up a spirit of prayer for surely a man is in a great measure fit to die who is fit to pray This appears by the Preface to the Petitions in the Lords Prayer Our Father which art in heaven whereby we see that a Childe of God by prayer doth as it were part from the world and is with his Father which is in Heaven Hence Heb. 10.19 Prayer is called An entring into the Holiest viz. into Heaven Besides it is easie to demonstrate that the same things which make us fit to pray make us fit to die and that a praying frame is a dying frame for our hearts are most set upon those things when we pray which we must receive when we die Death brings us to the things which we pray for and he that is unwilling to die is unwilling to receive an answer to his own prayers Beloved it often puzzles the thoughts of men to think what will be the issue of things what things will come to at the last Now it seems to me a clear and excellent expedient for our satisfaction herein to study well the Lords Prayer and to believe that all the Petitions therein shall certainly be granted and whatever we see before for certain at the Day of Judgment every Petition therein shall be fulfilled and therefore the more a mans heart is set on those things for which we are thereby taught and bound to pray the more ready and fit he is for Death and Judgment Prayer is one of the first and last things of a Christian so soon as ever the spiritual life is begun it presently breaths in prayer and I am perswaded that the godly do usually die in prayer Last Direct Live as one that knows that there are bounds set to thy life It makes many so unprepared for sickness and death because they look upon their lives as boundless they always think they have some time to live and therefore think of no time to die Now it is clear that God hath set bounds to the life of every man and when he comes to those bounds he is stopt and can go no further Job 14.5 Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Proud men climb to such a height of preferment and as they are rising higher Death stops them and they can go no further The covetous man gets such an estate and as he is reaching after greater wealth Death stops him that he can get no more Oh what a sudden stop did Death cause that rich Fool to make when he was constrained to die the same very night when he thought he was as it were beginning to live The malicious man goes to such a height of persecuting the godly and as he is raging in his malice and madness Death stops him that he can go no farther Oh what a stop did Haman meet with in the very height of his bloody designe against the Church of God! On the other hand the poor Childe of God is zealous in worshipping and serving God and as he is seeking to serve and praise him more Death stops him and his work is done therefore do every thing is knowing that thou mayst meet with thy bounds and be stopt in the very midst of thy work All the daies of my appointed time will I wait till my change come saith Job Cap. 14.14 Job knew that there was a change to come and that Death would make a great alteration with him shortly and that there was a secret time appointed for this change therefore he will every day wait and look for it Think with thy self in a morning I may see a great change before night and think with thy self at night I may see a great alteration before morning Sirs when a man goes from his house friends food and estate to heaven or hell believe it he will finde a great alteration Oh then live as if every day were to be the day of thy change as if every journey and work and duty would bring thee to the end and bounds of thy life So much for Exhortation to be prepared for sickness and death The next Exhortation is to such who have been visited with sickness but are by the mercy and power of Jesus Christ restored to health I shall exhort such to these five duties 1. Bless and praise God who hath restored thee to thy health God tells his people Exod. 15.26 I am the God that healâ—â— thee And certainly there comes power â—nd virtue from Jesus Christ to heal our â—iseases Therefore when Christ had healâ—d the woman diseased with an issue of â—lood twelve years I perceive saith he that â—irtue is gone from me Luke 8.46 And beâ—oved when ever we have been diseased â—nd restored there came virtue from Christ â—â—to the head or lungs or liver or where â—ver the disease lay and caused the cure which we must in all thankfulness acknowledge Thus did David Psal 116.6 8. I was brought low and he helped me For thou hast delivered my soul from death â—y eyes from tears and my feet from falling Now for the performance of this duâ—y of praising God observe these five directions 1. Get a clear knowledge of the glorious and excellent Name of God Psal 76.1 Iâ— Judah is God known his name is great in Israel Gods Name is great only where it is known and it is a most savoury thing to hear people speak of God as those that know whom they speak of Where God is thus savingly known the workings of the heart towards God are answerable to the glory and excellency of his Name Psal 48.10 According to thy Name O God so is thy praise Psal 150.2 Praise the Lord according to his excellent greatness Grace is more or less in a man according to his knowledge and sense of the Name of God and Jesus Christ In that heart where God hath no Name the man hath no Grace but it causeth great faith and great love and great joy in a Believer to see the great power and the great love and the great goodness of God and Jesus Christ 2. Praise God as he is a God of mercy to thee ascribe unto him a name from that which he
and gallants of the proud presumptuous scornful unbelieving envious sâ—cure covetous world are now flaming in and consider that thou deservest to lye in the midst of them and therefore now the greatest care of thy soul should be how to be saved from those unquenchable flames Then look into heaven into thy Fathers house and behold there the high and lofty one dwelling in that high and holy place and the Lord Jesus sitting at his right hand in glory and an innumerable company of Angels looking him in the face and there see a great multitude of blessed and glorified Saints Illic Apostolorum gloriosus chorus illic Prophetarum exultantium numerus illic Martyrum innumerabilis populus There is the glorious quire of Apostles there is a company of triumphant Prophets and there is an innumerable multitude of blessed Martyrs saith Cyprian There thou mayst see those who were upon earth the poor reviled despised afflicted persecuted imprisoned banisht hang'd burnt Children of the most high God whom the world could not bear but are now happily possest of their everlasting Kingdom where they are filled and satisfied with the likeness and presence of God and are singing and rejoycing with unspeakable joy to behold his glory And then consider Yonder is the place wherein I am now to seek to enter And thus let thy sickness fill thee with the deep and serious thoughts of death judgement and the world to come Duty 3. Be sure of a well-grounded Scripture-peace setled betwixt God and thy soul It 's a good saying That the day of death is a day of truth See therefore that thou hast a peace which will prove true and sound when it comes to the great tryal of death and judgement The unbeliever is not then to be tryed at the bar of his own secure and seared conscience nor by a Jury of carnal atheistical neighbours The Believer hath then a present appeal from the â—ash and false judgement of his enemies and also from the dismal sentences of his own doubting heart and the Cause of both is presently to go to a hearing before the judgement-seat of Christ Now see that thy peace be setled on such a sure foundation that thou mayst be found in safety and glory when thou art called to appear before the Judge of quick and dead There are two main things which may assure thy heart of peace and reconciliation with God 1. If Christs righteousness be thy own so that as sure as thou art a sinner in thy self thou art righteous in and by the righteousness and obedience of Jesus Christ See therefore that all causes agree to make this righteousness thy own 1. Set the Lord before thy eyes and be able to say I know and am surely convinced that God is a good God a living kinde and merciful God and that he is good to poor sinners by the salvation of whom he hath chosen to make his goodness glorious to all eternity I know that there are forgivenesses with him that he hath a heart to pardon iniquity transgression and sin that he is inclin'd and ready to pardon according to his infinite goodness and loving kindness and this goodness is the cause of all that great Salvation revealed in the Gospel and I come to him and my soul doth cleave to him and love him and all my expectation is from him as he is a God of such infinite and incomprehensible goodness 2. I know that out of this infinite goodness he hath sent Jesus Christ to me that to me a childe is born and to me a son is given Isai 9.6 I know surely that he came out from the Father and I do believe that he hath sent him John 17.8 I know that the Son of God is come and hath given me an understanding that I might know him that is true and I am in him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 3. God hath herein commended his love to my soul in that Christ dyed for me and I know this true God the Lord Jesus Christ did in his infinite love to me as my Surety dye for me and thereby satisfied Gods justice for my sins which he bore in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 4.24 And that he loved me and gave himself for me an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour 4. I know that it is the will of God concerning me that I should take this righteousness of Jesus Christ to be mine for he hath commanded me to take his â—ody as broken for me and his Bloud â—s shed for the remission of my sins And this is his commandment that I â—ould believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ 5. I know that God by his Spirit hath convinced me that I am lost without Christ and that he hath made me to see his righteousness so precious and meritorious and necessary for my Salvation that I do by the power of his Spirit willingly obediently lovingly and joyfully receive and take this righteousness of Christ for my own and rest onely upon it for the pardon of my sins and for my Salvation as it is freely offered and given by God to me in the Gospel Lastly I know that God hereupon imputes this righteousness to me and accounts it my righteousness and that I am bound to account it my own so as to own it live upon it and to glory in it and by this righteousness God justfies me being he is just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 And thus being justified by faith in Christs righteousness I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 And hereby I have a right through the free grace of God to go from my sick-bed into the everlasting Kingdom of peace And when I am called to the Judgement-seat of Christ being found in his righteousness I shall be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 2. That thou mayst be assured of a Scripture-peace and reconciliation with God labour to finde thy self truely joyned and united to Jesus Christ thy whole body and soul joyned to all of Christ so as with him to make one self one mystical Christ that thou mayst be able to say As poor and weak as I lye here groaning on this bed of languishing yet this aking head pale face weak hands feeble limbs withered body is all a member of Christs body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 For by the grace of God I can say that whereas I am in my self a dead plant and as separated from Christ can doing nothing yet by faith my heart is truely rooted in Christ and I do receive him to rule me as my Lord according to his will and to teach and every way to save me and my minde is set upon him and my heart and affections do cleave and are fastned to him and there comes true spirit and life from him which spreads and works in