of a smoaky Cottage that it may be built a stately Palace as the Southsayers said upon the burning of the Capitol by lightning the Gods did suffer it to be that it might be built better and more gloriously Now these are the actings of faith required in him who would dye to the Lord. Now a Person may dye in the Lord and be blessed who yet doth not thus dye to the Lord for these actings may be suspended either 1. Through our inadvertency not considering what duty is incumbent upon us to glorifie God in dying 2. Through violence of diseases depriving or at least dulling and stupifying the memory understanding reason which are necessarily required to these actings 3. By some fit of desertion whereby we come to doubt of our evidences which alone can make us cheerfully to submit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace now and not till now because now mine eyes have seen thy Salvation And thus I have done with the first thing which needed to be explained who they be that are said to dye in the Lord. II. I shall now speak to the second what that blessedness is which they who dye in the Lord shall have This is an hard thing if not impossible to do the Scripture speaks of it as that which is inexpressible unutterable See 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul rapt up into heaven heard words unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not possible for a man to utter yea which is more unconceivable 1 Cor. 2.9 it hath not entred into the heart of man 'T is in vain to expect that it should be spoken with the Tongue which cannot be conceived by the heart As soon may the Earth and Sea be put into a Pot as the bliss of glorified Saints into the understanding as soon may you hold the whole earth in the hollow of the hand as comprehend heaven in the heart Much hath been spoken and written concerning it doubtless to the great chearing of the hearts of Saints insomuch that some have been ravished with the newes of it that they have in a kind of impatiency been weary of life and longed for death saying come Lord Jesus come quickly yet I believe that when a Saint comes to heaven he will say in the words of the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10 6 7. It was a true report that I heard upon earth of heavens glory but behold the half was not told me The Apostle in the place before describes it Negatively Eye hath not seen c. The eye hath seen much the ear hath heard more than ever the eye saw and the heart of man can conceive more than ever the eye saw or ear heard yet the heart cannot conceive this Surely the full and perfect knowledge of this blessedness is only to those Saints who are comprehenders of it The blind man may say much of light but nothing comparably to him who beholds the light much may be said of the sweetness of honey by what is reported of it but it is nothing to what may be said from the tasting and eating of it See 1 Joh. 3.2 it doth not yet appear what we shall be or what glory we shall have till we come to see this light and eat of this honey I might therefore shut up this part in silence wishing you to wait till this glory shall be fully revealed but because something may be expected upon the method before laid down it being one of the three things promised to be explained and besides much is said of it in the Scripture to the unspeakable consolation of believers making them bear up and be of good chear under present evils whereof this life is full whiles they have an eye to the recompence of reward I shall therefore as the Lord shall enable me give you a brief collection of what is held forth in Scripture concerning this blessedness I cannot go round about Sion and tell all the Towers may I at least but point out some The Israelites rejoyced but to see some clusters from Canaan and it may refresh our hearts whilest we behold some parts or pieces of this glory laid down before us They waited for Gods time to take possession of that earthly Canaan and so must we 't is but tarry till death comes Death will put us in possession of the heavenly Canaan then it shall be said to Saints as to Abraham Genesis 13.17 Arise walk through the Land in the length and breadth of it Beleevers shall be blessed when they die but wherein doth this blessednesse consists I Answer to the making up of blessednesse it is required 1. That it be full 2. That it be lasting Fulnesse implies 1. The absence of all evil 2. The presence of all good 1. Then Saints dying are out of the reach and danger of evill Prastat non esse quà m miserum esse of what may be called evil even the very appearance of evil Though there were no good in Heaven yet it is very considerable that there is no evil Now evil is two fold 1. Of sin 2. of punishment but neither is in Heaven 1. There is no sin there this is the grand evil a poysonous weed that growes every where but in Heaven 'T is said that no venemous thing will live in Ireland I am sure it is true of heaven This weed took rooting in paradise but it was the earthly Paradise and not the heavenly whereof Christ speaks Luke 23.43 and whereof St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 12.4 The best of Saints carry sin about with them one need not tell them so they know it to the great grief of their heart it being that which often fetcheth water from their eyes and blood from their Souls Hearken but to their Closet doors and you shall hear sad complaints against it and mourning over it This is that stone tyed to the birds legg Anselm as one well resembles it upon seeing boys play which pulleth it down when it attempts to fly aloft This is that Pharaoh which keeps Gods Israel in bondage and hinders from serving God as they should and as they would There is indeed a principle of grace in beleevers and there is also a body of sin and in this respect they are like to the tribe of Manasse half in the Land of Canaan half on the other side Jordan But death will convey them into the heavenly Canaan Col. 3.5 and the Jordan of sin shall be quite dryed up may not this be one reason why the Apostle calls sins our members which are upon earth members because of the dear love we are apt to bear to them they are as dear as the members of our body as an eye and hand and earthly because they shall not be in Heaven These sins by the power of grace are mortified in Saints whiles they are upon earth but in Heaven they shall be nullified there shall not be an hoof left behind Here they are cast down there
judgement seat of Christ and that the Books shall be opened and great and small must stand before God when it shall be considered that unless a Man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of God when hear of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and that the wicked shall be turned into Hell I say again when these things come to be weighed the other passages barely considered will be but as a spiders web wherein is no strength how finely soever it may seem to be woven But now when we have good grounds to believe concerning our dead Friends that they loved feared and served God in their life time that they were godly in Christ Jesus or in the words of the Text that they were in the Lord Jesus when they dyed when we can comfort one another with these words This will afford strong consolation for of such the word of truth saith they are blessed They are freed from sin made perfect in holiness they are entred into their Masters joy they would not live again on earth they are ten thousand thousand times better This is comfort indeed this is an Handkerchief to wipe away all tears from our eyes yea to make us go away and be no more sad This is the use of Consolation Oh that Christians would lay it up as a choice treasure for so indeed it is Some may need it for the present let them make use of it Others may soon need it therefore lay it up against a time of need 'T is ordinary with us when we find any thing though for the present we know not what use to put it to yet we will lay it up saying we may need it before seven years come about So I say of this you will ere long one and another have need of this cordial therefore keep it by you carefully you may need it before seven years come about perhaps before seven dayes yea seven hours come about God may call you your selves to die and what will be your comfort in a sick bed but to know you are in Christ and so shall be blessed if you die He may spare you and take away your Friends Relations wherein can you comfort your selves under such providences but onely in this they were in Christ and therefore are blessed 4. The fourth and last use shall be for Exhortation It directs it self both to Saints and Sinners But a word to the first because there is great need of speaking a little more largely to the other Therefore 1. Let all the Children of God and Members of Christ study their own bliss acquaint thēselves before hand with the glory that shall be revealed afterwards Sursum corda Set your affections on things above Let your conversation be in Heaven Labour in your meditations to be rapt up into the third Heaven Be often as it were drawing the Latch of Heaven door and look in yea walk thorough that holy Land in the length and breadth of it Holy Heavenly Meditations will enable you to do all this Let your hearts take possession of Heaven whiles your bodies are upon earth and this will work a disdain of things below Non satis futura gaudia nostri nisi renuat conconsolari anima tua donec veniant as also a longing after the things above which ought to be in every Child of God surely the more we study this blessedness the more will the desire after it be kindled in our breasts But I shall speak no more to this part of the use because all a long and especially in the foregoing use I have spoken to this matter in particular Therefore 2. This use directs it self to such as are yet sinners out of Christ My Exhortation to you is this that you would speedily get into Christ That you would labour to be such as that when you come to die you may be blessed Die you must Zerxes that great Commandre standing in the head of a vast Army wept to think that within one hundred years they would be all dead even those valorous Men who might seem to outbrave and defie death The impossibility to avoid death is a certain truth at all times but yet chiefly to be considered by us in these dying times times of much mortality God putting us in fear that we may know our selves to be but Men Psal 9.20 We are apt to put far away the evil day Amos 6.3 Isa 28.15 and to make Covenants with death but when we study seriously the decree of God passing upon all like the Laws of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered when we consider our own weakness and frailty our mould and metal we cannot but know we must die If our inside were turned outward it would be seen that for fear of death we are all our life time subject to bondage This lyes near our breast Heb. 2.15 and makes the heart even die within us while yet we live Oh poor Sinners die you must and no doubt but you would be glad to be blessed when you die Balaam would fain be happy in death Let me die the death of the righteous Numb 23.10 His wish implies that none shall be blessed in death but the righteous Sic mihi contingat vivere sicque mori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now would you be happy in death be holy in life live in the Lord and you shall die in the Lord If you be gracious here you shall be glorious hereafter To whom to live is Christ to them to die will be gain But to them who live without Christ and without holiness Death will be Death and Hell into the bargain 'T is a frequent and true saying that holiness is the way to happiness not the causal and meritorious way which onely is Christ but yet a way and therefore the Apostle saith Ep. 2.10 That God hath ordained that we should walk in it that wherein we are to walk certainly is a way and if any baulk holiness the way they will never find happiness the end 'T is said of the Emperour Bassianus that coming to the Empire and being to chuse a Title he was wished by one to take the name of Pius which signifies Godly but he refusing that chose rather to be called Faelix which signifies happy which occasioned his Friend to make this witty reply and doth the Emperour think to be happy without being holy 'T is much disputed where the place of happiness is and divers opinions are about it but it is agreed on all hands about which is the way that leads to it The way is but one in this sense the way of Holiness which is not onely but one way but also a straight and narrow way opposed to all loose and sinful walkings Heaven is a place which receives not the proud but the humble not the covetous but the liberal not the unclean but the chaste not the drunken but the sober not the envious and malicious but
A VOYCE FROM HEAVEN SPEAKING Good words and Comfortable words concerning Saints departed Which words are opened in a SERMON PREACHED At SOUTH-WEAL In ESSEX 6. September 1658. At the Funeral of that Worthy and Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. Thomas Goodwin Late Pastor there Hereunto is annexed a relation of many things observable in his Life and Death By G. B. Preacher of the word at Shenfield in Essex 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting Luk. 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of God LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for J. Kirton at the Kings-Arms in Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO The Right Worshipful Sir Henry Wright Knight and Baronet And to the Worshipful Mr. John Leech Esquire Justice of Peace And to the Good Gentleman Mr. Richard Sherbrook Together with the rest of the Inhabitants of Southweal Honoured and much Respected I Do here present you with a Sermon Preached at the Funeral of your Pastor Loth I was to Preach it not grudging the Service but wishing the work had fallen into better hands More loth I was to Print it well knowing that there is nothing in this or any thing of mine worth Publishing to the world It sufficeth me if by private Preaching I may serve God in the place where my lot is cast I dwell among mine own people But the urgent importunings both of Ministers and other Christians have wearyed me and being not able to withstand the many Sollicitations I have forced myself to send abroad this Sermon which I Dedicate to your selves to whom of right it doth belong The occasion of it was the Death of him who was your Pastor your Minister and whose Flock and People yee sometime were It comes to you by way of Dedication be pleased to own it with your Christian Acceptation It is indeed very plain without any flourishings and therefore can scarce expect a welcome for its own sake but it tends to keep up the memory of him whom you sometime loved and delighted in you may welcome it for his sake and moreover it contains heavenly comforts Counsels which being the Truths of God you must welcome it for Gods sake and for the sake of your own souls It comes out somewhat long after the Preaching and no marvel if it come late I had much a do to perswade with my self to let it come at all Though indeed the hand of the Lord upon me in a sore sickness made it much longer than otherwise it would have been It is enlarged beyond what it was when I Preached it because the straits of time we being benighted and many persons far from their home would not suffer me to deliver scarce one half of what was then intended I then only delivered the heads now you have the enlargements upon those heads And Now Honoured and Worthy Friends give me leave a little to vent the sorrows of my heart for this great loss The blow indeed lights upon you mainly but not upon you only but upon the Neighbour-hood also yea the whole Church of God I have had many sad Letters since his Death bewailing the loss If others at a great distance be so affected how should you your selves much more lay to heart you may justly call your selves Ichabod Glory is departed The Ark is for the present taken from you God can Glory over you and set up the Ark again among you Amen the Lord grant it but yet remember you had a Goodwin among you some of you I am perswaded being the Seal of his Ministry will remember him as long as you have a day to live Your Town of Brentwood is famous for its situation upon an Hill but its eminency of late years was much from Mr. Goodwins Ministry in that place Your Hill seemed to be the Candlestick whereon this burning and shining light was set He was a Tower a Beacon on this Hill His monethly Lectures which the Neighbours round about did partake of made it as the Hill of Hermon and Mount Sion distilling dewes upon the Valleys round about He is now gone and is as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again Though his Person be dead let his doctrines live yea because he is gone let them the rather remain He shall Preach to you no more unless it be by his former labours and holy life by both which he being dead yet speaketh Mr. Goodwin still lives in Weal if ye his people stand fast in the Lord which that you may do as also be blessed with one to succeed who may call home the uncalled and perfect what is lacking in the faith of others is and shall be the Prayer of him who is Your Servant in Christ Jesus GEORGE BOWND REVELAT 14. v. 13. And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth THe words which I have read unto you are part of a Sermon Preached by an Angel the third Angel mentioned in this Chapter That they depend upon the foregoing words Ad superiora hac refero Aret. in loc and that the voyce from heaven in the Text was uttered by the same Angel is the Judgement of a good expositor This Sermon as it may fitly be called begins from verse the 9th and we may observe three things concerning it 1. The Preacher 2. The Matter 3. The Method First the Preacher viz. God by an Angel from Heaven Preaching and Prophesying to Iohn what things should come to pass in the latter dayes In what age these things were fulfilled whether in the time of Martin Luther as some or later Preachers as others I shall not spend time to enquire The Preacher is an Angel from Heaven and though the Lord ordinarily Preach to his Church by men upon earth yet in some extraordinary cases he preaches by Angels from heaven Ministers indeed are called Angels Rev. 1.20 and it is no small honour which ariseth to that office from the name which the Persons bear yet though called Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pares Angelis they are inferiour to them which are in heaven when they come to Heaven they with other Saints shall be Angels fellows Luc. 20.36 Secondly The matter of the Sermon is destruction to the wicked both here and hereafter but Salvation to the Godly if not in this life yet certainly hereafter in the life to come That which this Angel Preached is such as to which the Scripture in the whole tenour of it consenteth and is agreeable to the Analogy of Faith Angels from heaven will Preach can preach no other that of Gal. 1.8 Is the supposition of an impossible case say Expositors There be indeed Angels that Preach other Doctrines the Devil and his Angels from Hell in their Instruments false Teachers upon Earth There be many Errors among the School-men though they be called Angelical Doctors This Angel in the Text is from heaven and accordingly his doctrines Scriptural as all
follow through divine Justice Having thus opened the words I might draw from them many useful observations but because the time will not allow the handling of them I shall not so much as name them there is one point only which I intend to speak to and it is that wherein the marrow and sweetness of the consolation lies I shall lay it down almost in the very words of the Text viz. Doct. They who dye in the Lord shall certainly be blessed when they dye The Point is so clearly held forth in the Text that I need not look out for other Scriptures to confirm it but I shall gain the time in sparing what may bespared That which I intend is first to speak to it by way of Explication and secondly by way of Application There be three things needful to be explained 1. Who may be said to die in the Lord 2. What the blessednesse is which they who die in the Lord shall have 3. The time when they shall have it I. For the explaining of the first who may be said to die in the Lord I shall take notice of two opinions about it and then lay down a third which I conceive holds forth the true meaning of this phrase to die in the Lord. First therefore some widen the Phrase too much as if it did comprehend and take in all those who having lived professors of the true God and true Religion die holding this profession These make every formal profession though abstracted from the power of godliness enough to carry a person to Heaven making the Gate wide which Christ saith Matthew 7. is narrow Let Men professe the true Religion that is be Christians not Jews Turks at least be Protestants not Papists let them be Orthodox in Judgement and not grosly sinful in life let them but keep their Church hear pray receive and walk in a round of duties these shall be saved when they die This is the opinion of some This hath proved a spreading leaven and it is no wonder to see the Assertors of such Doctrine draw many Disciples after them it is so pleasing and who almost would not trade for Heaven if it may be purchased at so easie a rate 'T is a Matchiavilian axiome that to seem religious is profitable but to be religious is troublesom Now if that be enough to make one religious which was laid down before I pray what great trouble is it hear a few Sermons mumble over a few prayers they may do this and yet live at ease in Syon 'T is usually said to the reproach of zealous professors that some make more a do than they need Master favour thy self be not righteous over-much lesse will serve thy turn But now if the Kingdom of God consist not in word but in power If many may strive to enter into Heaven and yet not be able 1 Cor. 4.20 Lu. 13.23 Mat. 11.12 If Heaven must be stormed and taken by violence then surely every formal slight serving of God will not serve the turn nor suffice to arrive to that blessednesse promised in the Text to such as die in the Lord. Carnal Gospellers may seem to live in the Lord Rev 3.1 Have a name to live and so they may seem and but seem to themselves and some others to die in the Lord but the hoped-for blessednesse where where will it be Secondly Some on the other extreme Apellabo Martyrem praedicabo satis narrow the sense of this Phrase too much limiting and restraining it to those onely who die Martyrs sealing the truth with their blood Martyrdom indeed is a piece of service tending greatly to the honour of God and hath alwayes been honourably remembred by the Saints and will be gloriously rewarded from the Lord These indeed are meant in the Text yea chiefly and eminently but not excluding others who die in the Lord though they die not Martyrs Many Expositors might be quoted who understand it of all the godly those who die in their beds as well as those who die at the stake Peter was crucified and dying in the Lord was blessed Beatus est Petrus dum crucifigitur sed non minùs est beatus Johannes dum in lecto moricur uterque enim c. Aret. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vbi geminum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 auget vocem John dyed in his bed but yet dying in the Lord was blessed We read Psalm 116.15 That the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord not this or that death for kind but in general whatsoever death they die and the Original is emphatical intimating that the Prophet doth not assign it and limit it to any one kind of death but to whatsoever kind of death And thus some Translations render it And though Beza doth translate it as if it pertained onely to Martyrs yet the phrase doth not necessarily import so much as Doct. Fulke sheweth in his confutation of the Rhemish Translation were it meant only of Martyrs the verse would rather run thus Blessed are the dead which are killed or slain for the Lord or for the Lords cause Now many die in the Lord who do not thus die for the Lord as possibly some may seem to die for the Lord who do not yet so much as die in the Lord. The Apostle in 1 Cor. 13. Speaks of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who give their body to be burned and yet have not charity viz. any work of saving grace by a Synecdoche The first Martyrs were Innocents and such should all Martyrs be but that all be not so the Apostle himself intimates and if this be the meaning of dying in the Lord then they are all blessed which the Apostle will not affirm but rather deny But to conclude this we may say in some sense all that dye in the Lord die for the Lord viz. as the Psalmist For thy sake are we killed all the day long that is we are lyable to troubles and persecutions more or less all Saints meet with them even they who have the peaceablest lives and most quiet deaths But this is not the restrained sense before which relates only to such as shall be violently killed and murthered in the cause of Christ therefore Thirdly If we would know who they be which are said to die in the Lord we must mark the phrase and manner of expression which is very frequent and obvious in Scripture viz. Some persons are said to be in the Lord in Christ when others are said again not to be in Christ now such as are thus in Christ shall be blessed when they die The Scripture I say speaks often that some are in Christ who is the Christians Lord according to those expressions the Lords day the Lords table See Rom. 16.7 They were in Christ before me and Verse 11. Them of the Houshold of Narcissus which are in the Lord or in the Lord Christ Thus 1 Thes 1.1 Paul writes to the Church
which is in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ Now these phrases denote that blessed and heavenly union which beleevers have with the Father and the Son through the Spirit 'T is hard to declare and open what this union is it is easier to say what it is not than what it is It is usually for distinction sake called mystical meaning 1. That it is real not putative and imaginary 2. Spiritual it is so real that the Scripture speaks as if the beleever had a subsistence in the Deity Heb. 3.14 We are made partakers of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we hold the beginning of our Confidence The word which is translated Confidence signifies Subsistence This and some other Scripture-expressions have made some speak a great deal too high saying beleevers are deified and some in our dayes blasphemously saying beleevers are God-ded in God and Christed in Christ I do acknowledge it is a most transcendent priviledge for a poor sinful creature to be united to the eternal Son of God but what ever this priviledge is we are to look upon it as a very great mystery Christiani esse est inesse the perfect knowledge whereof is reserved for Heaven Well so it is undeniably beleevers are in Christ united to Christ yea all Beleevers this union is essential to a beleevers being it is that which constitutes a beleever It is a strong union which nothing can dissolve it is not possible that these ligaments and tyes by which the eternal Son of God and a poor beleever are knit together should ever be broken See Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate so we may say what shall separate for the Apostles induction is of things as well as of persons surely if any thing could do it then Death is the likliest but Death cannot Verse 38. Death separates a Man and his estate a Man and his relations bury my dead out of my sight yea Death breaks the union of Soul and Body but not of the Soul and Christ no nor yet of the Body and Christ for that part which sleeps which is the Body sleeps in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 This union out-lives Death It is with a beleever dying as with Christ dying Death broke not the Hypostatical union between divine and humane nature in Christ though it disunited Soul and Body his death being a true death yet not God and Man in Christ So Death disjoynes not a beleever and Christ though it disjoyn all other things Now then the meaning of the phrase may be clear Even that they who are in the Lord Christ that is united to him while they live shall be blessed when they die they were in the Lord whiles they lived still remain in the Lord though they dy therefore certainly shall be blessed They die and so are not in the world they die and so are not in the Body but for all this they are in Christ though they sleep it is in Jesus thus we read of the dead in Christ 1 Thes 4.16 Such as were in Christ when they dyed and those Saints Heb. 11.13 Dyed in Faith which is all one with the phrase now before us for by Faith we are united to Christ This might suffice for the opening of the first particular who they are that may be said to die in the Lord but before I pass this it may not be impertinent nor useless to take notice of one phrase which comes very near this but is not the same Romans 14.8 We read of a dying to the Lord There is a dying in the Lord as in the Text and a dying to the Lord as in that place to the Romans Dying in the Lord respects our habitual estate being such as are united to Christ but Dying to the Lord refers to our actual deportment in the great work of dying To dying in the Lord it sufficeth to be true beleevers truly engrafted into Christ Now dying to the Lord requires the exerting and putting forth some acts of Faith which are Four 1. When Death comes to see the hand of the Lord in it not so much the malignity of the disease confluence of bad humours or what ever may be of the second causes the eye of Faith still looks unto the Lord Life is of his giving and Death is of his sending our undoings are the Lords doings Psalm 46.8 See what desolations the Lord hath wrought whether national or personal in the earth or in the house and family it is the Lord he singles out particular persons Death is as the casting of the lot The lot is cast into the lap but the disposing is from the Lord. The lot is cast and such a Tribe taken then such a Family then such a person perhaps Jonathan a young Man a good Man is taken so the lot is cast such a Parish such a Family such a person and still the disposing is from the Lord. 'T is not the drawing a bow at a venture 1 King 22 34. 2 King 9.5 but every Arrow is levelled and hath its particular errand as the Prophet said to John I have an Errand to thee O Captain This is to die to the Lord to see the Lord comming to our particular selves and saying as to Aaron Come up and die 2. To submit willingly to his hand and to all those diseases whereby as by Axes and Hammers he is pleased to demolish thy Cottage yea to submit cheerfully and welcome death as a messenger that bringeth good tidings Welcome fire and faggot said some of the Martyrs they imbraced and kissed the stake Oh how cheerful were they How apt are we to bemoan our selves when tidings of death come as if some dreadful evil were upon us though indeed 't is a very childish thing children cry when they should be had to bed Dying to a believer is but a going to bed Isai 57.2 To dye to the Lord is willingly to submit saying if the Lord please he can turn my captivity and rebuke sickness and send health If he say he hath no pleasure in me in my life breath temporal being here am I let him do what seemeth him good 3. Whiles under his hand to lye breathing out thy last breath sweetly to his glory to lye blessing God to lye calling upon others to love God and to get into Christ Not only not to be moved by the pains of sickness and pangs of death to do or speak any thing to the dishonour of God but to open our mouth to his glory and the shewing forth his praise God hath made death to work for a believers good let them endeavour it may work for his glory 4. To give glory to God in a firm belief that the promise of eternal life and salvation shall now be made good to them expecting blessedness immediately upon the dissolution yea to look beyond the grave and mouldring dust unto the resurrection of the body being assured that it shall rise a glorious body death being but the pulling down
Paul thence presseth they should be contented to suffer because they should be glorified Ridlie the Martyr cheered up his fellow saying Rom. 8.17 though we have a bitter break-fast yet we shall have a sweet Supper meaning in glory From these passages I may infer to your comfort who are Christians indeed that be your present burthens never so heavy yet glory yea I may say one half hour in glorie will make amends for all Some persecutors have been very witty to invent most exquisite torments yet the hope of blessedness hath made them to be as nothing The Martyrs in their undaunted courage made no more of them then Sampson of the Philistins wit hs or like the Leviathan in Job Iron is but as straw and Brass as rotten wood Job 41.27 All their troubles and sufferings are but light they are heavy in themselves but the weight of glory makes afflictions light See 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Oh Christians do but make experiment when you are apt to droop and find your Spirit is overwhelmed run to this as to your Aqua Vitae bottle take but a sip of it and it will refresh you you shall be blessed Write blessed are c. Yea saith the Spirit Oh then lift up the Hands which hang down and the feeble Knees There is no Cup so bitter but this will sweeten it no Fire so hot but this will slack and quench it I say again do but make experiment God hath provided many supports for his drooping people but I may say as David of Goliahs sword None like to this no support like the remembrance of glory One leaf of the tree of life is better then clusters of worldly comforts Be thy burthen what it will how heavy soever yet the calling to mind future blessedness will make it light and easie Gen. 21.19 But alass Saints droop and with Hagar are ready to faint when there is a Well of water by them but they see it not at least have not skill to draw The Lord open your eyes as he did hers But you will say when shall we have this blessednesse and glory I Answer at Death you shall have it not now but afterwards See John 13.36 Christ said to Peter whither I go thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me afterwards Christ went to Heaven thither Peter should come at length when he dyed Death is in a sort a cause of this happinesse that is without which it will not be And indeed see how graciously God hath ordered it Death came as a curse Mal. 2.22 but it is turned into a blessing God threatneth to the wicked to curse their blessings and promiseth to the godly to bless their curses Death with one hand holds forth a Sword even over Believers to slay their Body it smites one and other hip and thigh But observe its other hand with that death opens a door of glory Who would think that Death should do this 'T is as in Sampsons riddle Edulium ex edente out of the eater came meat it is a riddle indeed but a very truth And whereas Death is dismal and dreadful the King of fears it becomes now an Anchor of hope the valley of Berachah or blessing So that the Saints can welcome it and say as David of Ahimaas He is a good Man 2 Sam. 18.27 and bringeth good tidings They can wait for it Job 14.14 He was an expectant all his dayes yea wish for it thus Paul I desire to be dissolved Phil. 1.23 They can stand as Abraham in the door of the Tabernacle to speak to the Angel or with Elijah in the mouth of the cave to meet the Lord coming to them by death Now how comes this to pass even because they know they must be as it were beholding to Death to do them this favour and kindness to bring them to their blessedness This sure affords strong Consolation to the Children of God I shall carry on this use of Consolation a little further to the particular case of any who may be excercised in the loss of godly Friends they die in the Lord and therefore are blessed But you will say this was matter of comfort concerning those who dyed under that persecution to which this relates But mark the voice from Heaven said Write intimating it is of use in all ages for what is written is for the Churches Learning and comfort to the end of the World Blessed are the dead that die now in the Lord. The Apostle in 1 Thess 3.4 Holds forth this blessedness which Saints shall have after this life is done makes it a main argument of comfort to those that survive having lost their godly friends verse 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words and chiefly with the words immediately preceding that they are dead in Christ and so shall ever be with the Lord. This is comfort indeed and it is but sorry comfort where this hope is not fixed sure this foundation and no other will bear up the building of comfort Heathens indeed who knew nothing of the blessedness of such as die in Christ had their consolatory addresses to their afflicted Friends They would tell them Death was that which none could avoid therefore in vain it was to grieve Mors ultima linea rerum They told them it was the common lot of all things Not onely Men but famous Cities flourishing Kingdoms had their periods Anaxagoras comforted himself at the death of his Children saying he begat them but mortal ones Heri vidi fragilem ftangi hodiè mortalem mori Epictetus seeing a Woman weeping for her pitcher which she had broken and next day for her Son being dead stayed her mourning telling her it was all one her Son was but as an earthen pitcher Little better are those comforts wherewith carnal Christians labour to relieve themselves and their Friends in these cases as thus Death is the way of all the earth the house appointed for all living Josh 23.14 Job 30.23 Psalm 119.109 Jam. 4.14 Isa 40.6 we carry our lives in our hand Our life is as a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away All flesh is grass and the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth These are Scripture-truths indeed and not taken out of Heathen Philosophers or Poets They are such as rightly used and applyed may be comfortable to relieve under the losse of Friends and dear relations But their intendment is not so much for Consolation as for Instruction to us that hearing of the frailty of this life we may prepare for eternity Nor indeed in themselves absolutely can they afford any solid comfort because they speak onely to the condition and state of the Body But when the state of the Soul after Death comes to be weighed 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 John 3.3 Rev. 20 10 Psal 9.17 as that all must appear before the
but very full of cares for the promoting Gods glory and his peoples Salvation He hath sometime told me in the time of his health how sadly it would go to his heart upon hearing the Bell ring sometime in the night which gave notice that some person was dead that any one should be sick and die and himself their Pastor have no notice of their sicknesse nor be so much as desired to confer with them about their spiritual estate His Lamentation was in these words Moriuntur oves dormitat Pastor The shepheard lies a sleeping while the sheep lie adying The great care of Souls made him study how to quit himself from being overcharged with the cares of this life declaring by his little medling with the things of the world that he sought not the things of his own but the things of Jesus Christ This should be the endeavour of every sincere Christian but especially of every faithful Minister The Palm Tree Psalm 92.12 to which the righteous is compared is least in the body or trunk near the earth and biggest in the boughs nearest Heaven The frame of the fleshly heart in the body being close shut up in that part which is towards the earth but more broad and open in the upper part towards Heaven shewes what should be the spiritual frame of every gracous heart Thus was it with this good Man 2 Tim. 2.4 and precious Servants of Jesus Christ he abhorred to be entangled with the affairs of this life that Heaven might have the more room in his heart In a word He was a Minister of the Gospel and he did Hoc agere endeavour the fulfilling of his Ministery He did intend his work he made it his businesse being one who studied to approve himself to God a Work-man that needed not to be ashamed 2 Tim. 2.15 He was taken away young but he did work while it was day yea he laboured much as if he did foresee he had not long time to work in Diu vixit et si non diu fnit He did much work in a little time 'T is much to be lamented that his Sermon notes were written so illegibly through a quick and hasty writing whereby it becomes impossible they should ever be published to the glory of God and the benefit of the Church Thus have I given a brief account of what he was in the time of his Life and Health Divers know what hath been spoken is no other than what might be spoken deservedly and in truth yea much more might be spoken without any suspicion of Flattery The summe of all is this He lived in the Lord he lived to the Lord. I may add He died in the Lord yea died to the Lord as may be judged by his deportment under that sicknesse which ended his dayes Dying to the Lord as hath been shewed is when a person cast upon his sick bed endeavours the exercise and laying out of his graces to the glory of God and the profit of them with whom he doth converse Thus did he very sweetly so far as could possibly be expressed considering the shortnesse of his sicknesse being but for the space of fourteen dayes as I best remember and the Stupifyingnesse of his Disease seizing and much dulling his Spirits He did much impair the strength of his outward Man by a free letting out himself in discourse about Heavenly things to some Neighbours who came to visit him the first Sabbath after he was taken This did much increase his distempers and of this he was the day following very sensible and could not but confesse it to me at my first visiting of him At this my first visit in discourse I spake to him by way of remembrance if need were about that Christian duty of willing submision to Gods Will under every dispensation of providence and so that of his present sickness in particular To this counsel he readily concurred and withal added that it was his desire to reach further and not onely to submit which an ordinary Christian might do but to raise up himself to Courage and Cheerfulnesse under the rod Annexing also a reason why he of all Men should not droop under Affliction saying he blessed God that hitherto he could date his choisest mercies from some great Affliction I sometime in discourse held forth what desperate attempts Satan had made upon Gods Children when they were brought low by sicknesse and therefore counselled him to set Faith on work being the onely Shield to quench the fiery darts of the Devil To this he replyed that I blesse God as yet Satan hath got no ground by this Affliction This passed I think at a second visit But comming to him again after a few dayes it was on the Sabbath day the last Sabbath to him in this life I found him brought low by his sicknesse insomuch that I then began to fear he would not break it Hereupon I entred a more close discourse as to eternity hinting withal my own fears that his sicknesse might be mortal he took it as he expressed himself exceeding kindly and gave me a full Answer to what in my discourse I drove at Dear Friend said he two dayes since I overheard the Doctor speaking to my Wife as if he feared me and I blesse God who so ordered it that I should hear it For indeed till then I did not so seriously consider of death as since I have done I did all a long my sickness set my heart to endeavour a sanctified use of the Lords hand but overhearing that I thought it needful to look most carefully into my heart as to evidences for eternity and truly saith he upon a thorough search of my heart I blesse God I find good old evidences though I be but a young Man and they stick very close to me But Friend said he one thing I must tell you troubles and afflicts my Spirit very much that when I grew very serious being exercised about serious work the searching of my heart for eternity evidences I perceived this seriousness of mine was judged by some to be melancholy for the fear of death Now this indeed troubles me very much that any should take me to be such an one who am afraid to die Some other visits I gave him but for fear of wronging him being very weak I onely upon his desire prayed with him and left him At one of these times he spake privately to me that he was willing to have discoursed but because of some Company in the room he judged it not convenient Upon Fryday the day before he departed I had some discourse with him which was occasioned thus Some godly Neighbours had agreed a private meeting to seek the Lord for him and they had desired me to meet with them Now that I might know the better how to order my Petitions I thought it needful to visit my sick Friend in the way and therby to be better informed whether his sicknesse did increase upon him I