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
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
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
diseased ver 6. Lord my servant lies at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented Luke saith Cap. 7.2 He was sick ready to die The person thus visited was a servant in Matthew the Centurion is said to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be translated my child for the word is ambiguous signifying either a child or a servant but in Luke he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant yet it is said a servant who was dear to him and it seems by considering both together that he was a good faithful and obedient servant and therefore as dear to his Master as his child I shall take occasion from hence to call upon servants to do the Will of God in their Relation Servants labour in all faithfulness and diligence to honour your Masters keep up their Authority in your Souls and let your whole carriage savour of a heart that willingly chearfully and humbly yields up it self in obedient subjection thereunto 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Tim. 6.1 Let servants count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1. Consider the Family where thou livest is Jesus Christs he is the Great Master of every Family and he hath given Authority to the Master of the Family where thou dwellest to be his Vicegerent therein and to bear his Image and Authority and to rule in his stead therefore as thou art a Christian and so to honour Christ by believing in him and by rejoycing in him and by doing his Will so the honour thou owest to Jesus Christ as thou art a servant is to honour and serve and obey thy Master in him The Apostle requires the obedience of servants to their Masters for this very reason Col. 3.23 24. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men For ye serve the Lord Christ Servants believe that you are threshing for Christ and plowing for Christ and spinning for Christ this will make you do your service heartily when you consider that you are therein serving the Lord Christ and this will make you afraid of disobeying and despising your Masters when you consider that you do thereby as much as in you lies depose the Authority of Jesus Christ from ruling and governing in the Family 2. Consider that you do hereby adorn the Gospel of Christ This is the Apostles argument Tit. 2.10 That they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things What Doctrine this is appears by the following words the Doctrine of the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Oh how should this prevail with you to consider that when in conscience to God you are faithful diligent quiet and obedient servants you are a precious Ornament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel is honoured not only by Ministers when they preach the Gospel and by Martyrs when they die for the Gospel but also by poor servants when they live in their service as those who are ruled by the Gospel therefore believe the Glory of Jesus Christ as it is revealed and appears in the Gospel and then own and honour the Face and Image and Authority of the same Christ as it shines in thy Master whom he hath placed to bear his Authority over thee 3. Consider that faithful servants are exceeding precious to Jesus Christ Thou thinkest it a sad case that thou must spend all thy daies to toil and drudge like a poor servant but consider the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.21 Art thou called being a servant care not for it never let that trouble thee that thou art a servant And the Apostle gives this reason for thy comfort vers 22. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man When many a gallant Lord and Lady is a servant to sin and a slave to the Devil and stands bound to suffer the wrath of God for ever thou that art but a poor godly servant and art bound to men yet thou art set free from Sin and Satan and Hell and hast a sure right to all the priviledges of Believers though thou art in this mean relation of a servant amongst men yet thou standest in all the glorious relations to Jesus Christ a poor servant and a King and Priest to God a poor servant and a Wife and Brother of Jesus Christ a poor servant and a glorious Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven I tell thee though thou art but a poor servant yet godliness will put such a grace upon thee as to make thee a glory to Christ a crown and joy to thy Minister a delight to Gods people a terrour to the greatest wicked man about thee and a very torment to the Devil of Hell Lastly consider that this is thy particular way wherein thou art called to please and honour God and to work out thy own salvation Psal 37.23 The steps of a good man be he never so poor are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way It was an high and holy saying of one That a poor Milkmaid walking in obedience to God in her calling doth bring more glory to God then heaven and earth There is no duty which thou art bound unto as a man or as a Christian which hinders thee in thy duty to God and man as thou art a servant for Gods commandments do not cross and interrupt one another and we cannot sin against Gods Will whilst we are doing his Will and true Grace will make thee a gracious servant as well as a gracious Christian the same faith and love which causes thee to believe in and to cleave unto Jesus Christ will cause thee to see and to love and to obey his will and authority in thy Master So that when thou art most faithful and diligent and obedient in thy service thou wilt finde most freedom and sweetness in Prayer in Sermons in singing Psalms and in feeding upon the Lords supper The Apostle requires all servants to be filled with this principle in their walking obediently to their Masters Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance Col. 3.24 teaching all servants to walk in their Callings so as those that know that this is their way to heaven Ah poor servants rejoyce in your work for heaven is your wages and let me tell you that you are never like to see a fairer way to heaven then you have now you are servants you will finde if ever you come to be husbands and wives and parents and rulers of families that it is harder to rule then to obey Now there are amongst many other excuses these three things which servants pretend to excuse their irreverence and disobedience to their Masters which I shall briefly answer and then proceed First the servant will plead that his Master is a poor man if he were as rich and great a man as some other Masters are then I would honour him but he is poor and I am come of as good
friends as he Answ Though thy Master be poor and mean yet he stands in the place and bears the authority of the great and glorious God and if thou seest reason to obey a Master because he is rich and seest no reason in the authority of God upon him and in the command of God upon thee to obey a poor Master it is a sad signe that thou dost honour riches more then God Secondly but my Master is a wicked man and then how can I honour him and obey him Answ Thy Master indeed cannot binde thee to sin against God for it can in no case be a mans duty to hate God and to damn his own soul yet when thou disobeyest his sinful commands let it appear that this is not to cross thy Master but to please God and though he be wicked yet still honour and obey him in the Lord and own the image and authority of Christ upon him which is holy and good Lastly my Master is so friendly that he looks for no such reverence he allows me to be bold and to be fellow-like with him Answ This is thy Masters sin who is bound to keep up that order which God in wisdom hath appointed and he cannot give away the authority of Jesus Christ nor loose thee from thy duty whereby God hath bound thee to honour and reverence and obey him So much for the first Particular viz. the Centurions servant lyes diseased Secondly Here is the care of the good Master over his faithful servant the servant lyes gasping at the door of death and the Master lyes praying for him at the door of mercy ver 5 6. He came beseeching him saying c. Here is an example for all Masters to teach them to be tender and careful of and to use all good means for the healing of their sick servants as the good Centurion doth here whose fatherly care and love towards his dear dying servant appears in four things 1. He keeps him at home 2. He is full of compassion towards him being sensible of his grief therefore saith he he lies grievously tormented his bowels earned towards him and he useth words to move the bowels of Jesus Christ 3. He useth the best means in the world for his cure he seeks help of Jesus Christ and exerciseth all the might of his Soul in praying for and believing a Miracle for the healing of his poor servant You that are Masters learn here your duty consider you have men and women to your servants made after the same Image of God with your selves let not then such a workmanship of God perish by your cruelty covetousness or negligence They are Christian servants Christ paid as dear for servants as for Masters they are all bought with the same price 1 Cor. 7.23 Your poor servants have need of further season for repentance and to work out their salvation therefore let not them by your negligence be hastned into eternity your servants sickness is an affliction from God upon you he lays this burden on your family therefore submit to him and wait upon him in the use of means to remove it and ease not thy self by thy sin to bring a worse burden upon thy conscience Consider further your estate is Gods and you use it for him in a relieving a sick servant and I dare say neither you nor your children shall be the poorer by exercising such charity To conclude consider that of the Apostle Col. 4.1 Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven Now this is one thing which by the Law of God and the Law of Humanity and Charity is just and equal that Masters use all good means in their power for the health and ease and life of a sick servant and this you must do as knowing that you have a Master in Heaven to whom all the wrong and injustice and unmercifulness which you shew to your servants will cry for vengeance against you therefore think with thy self as Job did in the like case Chap. 31.14 What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Here is one thing more for all servants to learn that is to chuse to live in families where God is worshipt What a mercy was it to this sick servant that he had a Master that prayed for him Certainly it would much promote Family-worship if servants would not chuse to live in a prayer-less family I know it 's a dishonour to God a reproach to Religion and a wrong to servants that in many families there is used such unseasonable times for family-worship I do therefore seriously advise all Masters of Families into whose hands this shall come to order your business so as to make that your ordinary set time to worship God when you are like to be in the best frame and I am perswaded you will finde when once you have wisely set your season for morning and evening worship and diligently observed it that in a short time your business will ordinarily fall so as at those times to leave room for those duties however chuse your own time for family-worship and not your servants time rather when your servants should work then when they should sleep and let all servants make it their choice to dwell in such families where they are most like to be helped forward in their way to heaven Observ 3. Christs answer to the Centurions prayer for his sick servant ver 7. And Jesus said I will come and heal him He offers his presence to come and his power and mercy to heal him he grants more then the Centurion begs Observe God often gives more but never less then believers sincerely ask Eph. 3.20 He is able and willing to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think for the power and goodness of God is infinitely above the highest Faith of the greatest Believer we can pray but like men but he gives like an Infinite God Now Christ offers to come to his house as it appears to set awork the Centurions faith for this passage I will come gives occasion for the following words wherein he pleads two things against Christs coming to his house 1. His own unworthiness ver 8. I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof Wherein we may see the gracious modesty of this great Believer when he hath the highest thoughts of God he hath the lowest thoughts of himself this is Fidei ingenium as one calls it the ingenious property of Faith by it when a Believer doth most exalt God he doth most abase himself 2. He pleads that it was unnecessary for Christ to trouble himself to come to his house for he could heal him by speaking a word Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed Herein he acknowledgeth the Godhead of Jesus Christ whose peculiar Prerogative it is to speak creating words Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done
Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos
is alter ego another self but we must obediently give up our friends to the will of God I shall tell you what this is thus quietly to resign our friends to God It is that whereby we solemnly worship God acknowledging and praising his Name and subjecting our hearts to his will as he is a God of this dispensation As for example God smites a Husband with a disease now saith God by this Providence to the Wife What if I make thee a Widdow and thy Children Fatherless Why Lord saith the Wife thou art herein a wise holy and good God and I will still own and trust and love and rejoyce in thee Thus the heart must worship and praise God as he appears in this sad Providence and so the heart agrees with the Will of God as it is signified by this dispensation Now if there appear any rising of discontent we must quiet all such tumults with the Will of God as Eli did 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight We have an excellent pattern of this in Job Cap. 1.20 21. when amongst other sad Providences he heard of the sudden death of his sons he fell down and worshipt God whom he saw in the Providence saying The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Thus he worshippeth and praiseth God as it appeared in taking away his Children And thus when any friends are diseased labour to get thy heart into this frame this will make the mercy more sweet if they live and the affliction less bitter if they die I know your thoughts will now be full of the goodness of your friends Oh such a wise faithful loving Husband such a careful meek loving Wife c. Well look upon them at the very best and as such offer them up to God offer to God the best of thy flock the best of thy friends the better they are the better is thy patience and obedience in parting with them and withall all remember that if God will have thy friends to Eternity there is no ransome to be taken for them but they must be gone Thou mayst cry after them as Elisha did by Elijah 2 Kings 2.12 My Father my Father but Elijah never stops to answer him So thou mayst cry My Husband my Husband my Wife my Wife my Childe my Childe but to Eternity they will go and never stay to answer thee for God taketh away and who can hinder him or who can say unto him What dost thou We cannot hinder him and we must not question him but resigne all to him End 12. Christ visits his people with sickness to fill their hearts with prayer Solomon tells us Prov. 15.8 The prayer of the upright is his delight For a Believer being in Christ and found in his Righteousness at the Throne of Grace there ariseth such a sweet smell and savour to God which makes the Believer and his prayers pleasant and delightful to him and therefore God often sends sickness to stir up a spirit of prayer in the hearts of his people Hence we read of that sick man Job 33.26 He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy So when Hezekiah was sick he turned his face to the wall as he lay in bed and wept and prayed unto the Lord Isa 38.2 14. So David as appears by Psal 30 and 38 and 39. when his body was full of sickness his heart was full of prayer See further Psal 107.17 18 19. That was a savoury speech of a Reverend Divine in his sickness to his friends Sinite me Psittaci instar cum Domino meo balbutire Suffer me to stammer like a Parret with my Lord by prayer The hearts of Gods people are called as Mr. Brightman observes on Rev. 5.8 Vials full of Odâ—urs that is hearts full of sweet and savoury prayers Oh when the bodies of the godly are as a sink full of filthy humors their hearts are as Vials full of the precious odours of prayer This is the blessed priviledge of a Believer that in the most sad and deplorate condition in the world he hath always access with boldness into the presence of God Ephes 2.18 Through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the Father Hebr. 10.19 Having boldness to enter into the Holiest viz. into heaven by the Blood of Christ Thou mayst by faith and prayer step out of thy sick bed into heaven Job saith in his affliction Chap. 31.37 As a Prince would I go near unto him Sirs the Spirit of Prayer is a Royal Spirit whereby a Believer goes with a Princely boldness and confidence unto God Now indeed sickness is a most special season for prayer because of our present need of those things which we are bound to pray for not only in regard of our need of ease and health and life though the want of these is a reason of prayer Isa 38.14 I am oppressed with pain and trouble undertake for me Hence David prays Psalm 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be seen no more But now our present need of soul-saving mercies should set awork our hearts in prayer now a man is perhaps just in his fall into Eternity and is like to finde within a few hours whether Heaven or Hell be his portion This man hath need to pray earnestly for sound repentance and saving faith and pardon of sin and everlasting salvation End 13. To fill the hearts of the godly with sympathy to one another as a distemper in a toe or finger afflicts all the rest of the members so when one member of Christ is visited all the members about him are called to sympathize and condole with him 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it Hence we finde that when a Christian is diseased there is a spirit of prayer poured out in his behalf from all the Christians about him When Melancthon was sick it 's reported that Lutheri Crucigeri precibus non tam convaluit quà m revixit By the prayers of Luther and Cruciger he was not only restored from sickness to health but as it were from death to life Melch. Adam in vita Melancth So when Myconius was sick Luther affectionately prays Peto ut loco tuo me faciat Dominus aegrotum I pray that the Lord would make me sick in thy stead Melch. Adam in vita Mycon David had this charity for his enemies in their sickness Psal 35.13 But as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for his Mother Shall David thus fast and pray for his sick enemies and shall not we for our sick friends Job professeth what his carriage should have been
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
out of the land of Egypt and God chuseth this as a fit preface to the Ten Commandments as if it were a sufficient reason to all to worship and obey him Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt c. yet how often did the discontented Jews upbraid God with that mercie Would to God we had died in the land of Egypt wherefore hast thou brought us out of the land of Egypt Thus many in sickness and pain forget the mercie of God in all the days of their health and life in a few hours sickness they forget a whole age of rich mercie Lastly discontent frets and disquiets a mans self Psal 37.1 and therefore it hurts them more then the affliction as if man have a cut or wound in his flesh this will disease and trouble him but if a fretting humour fall in the wound to vex and inflame it this is far more hurtful and dangerous then the wound it self so thy sickness must needs trouble thee but if under thy visitation thy heart abound with proud and peevish humours which makes thee fret against God this makes thy condition far more miserable then the disease it self would make it Secondly observe four Causes of Discontent 1. Ignorance of Gods dominion over his creatures this is clear by the parable of the labourers in the Vineyard Matth. 20. where our Saviour doth silence the labourers murmuring about their wages with this Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own vers 15. implying that if they had known and considered that it was his own they would have found no cause to quarrel So many murmure in their sickness to see worse sinners have their ease and health but they do not consider that their life health and bodies are Gods own and all diseases are his own and he sends them to whom he will and though others have more mercy yet they have no wrong do not you put your Oxen to labour and after that to the slaughter yet if any question you for using the poor cattel so cruelly you will not stick to tell them Friends we hurt nothing of yours may we not do what we will with our own Sirs God hath a greater right over you then you have over your cattel if he disease you and destroy you he hurts nothing of yours and therefore he may do what he will with his own 2. Discontent ariseth from mens expectation of settlement in the world for certainly they that trust to vanity shall be filled with vexation of spirit for disappointment always breeds discontent as the Husbandman that dungs and ploughs and sows his ground if his expectation of a crop be too great and he doth not consider how many thousand dangers may come between the Plough and the Sickle but reckon aforehand of so many measures for his family and so many to pay rent and so many for seed now if the crop fail at harvest here is a sad repining and discontent so if a mans expectation of the world is too high and having heaped up riches he begins to bless himself saying I have so much for a purchase and so much for portions for my children now if when he is just catching at them to use them they take themselves wings and flie away no marvel if they leave the owner murmuring at the Providence When the Israelites were so miraculously saved from Egypt they thought that deliverance had put a period to all their troubles and therefore every cross being a disappointment sets them on murmuring so they that promise themselves health and ease and plenty in the world when sickness and want comes they presently fret and complain whereas they that look and prepare for changes live in a more composed and quiet frame if mercie comes they are thankful and if affliction comes they are content The third Cause of discontent is Unbelief Hence the Israeliles murmure because they believed not the good report which Joshua and Caleb gave of the land of Canaan Numb 14.11 How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signes which I have shewed among them Sirs an unbelieving heart is always a discontented heart for an unbeliever hath nothing to still and quiet the heart with in his afflictions observe every cross takes away something which did feed and please the heart as health riches credit pleasures and friends c. now when these are lost a man doth as it were feel something go out of his heart but then faith fills and stills the heart by bringing into it God and Christ and heaven Why art thou disquieted O my soul trust still in God Psal 43.5 but now God and Christ and the promises and heaven are nothing to an unbeliever and so yeild him no peace and comfort therefore he must needs be like the troubled sea when the storms and winds of affliction blow upon him and he hath nothing to calm and comfort his soul Lastly discontent ariseth from mens being so very sensible of the evil of affliction and senceless of the evil of sin Mens bodies are tender and their senses quick and therefore even the biting of a flea the scratching of a Pin is presently felt and men are so tender of their reputation profits and delights that the least touch in these is a cross to them but their hearts are so hard and consciences feared that they can lye securely under all the curses of Gods book and have mountains of wrath abide on them and feel nothing and therefore afflictions lye so heavie because sin lyes so easie Whereas if a man knew what sin is and saw at night what wrath he had treasured up all the day he would rather wonder that he were out of hell then murmure that he were in trouble this did silence the Church when she remembred the wormwood and the gall because she knew that it was of the Lords mercies that she was not consumed therefore she pleads Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain A man that deserves death and hell cannot reasonably complain if he be alive as it is unreasonable for a Thief that deserves to be hanged to complain because he is whipt And then it is added a man for the punishment of his sin Why should a man complain of that which he hath brought upon himself Solomon speaks of this as very unequal Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of a man perverteth his way that is mans sin brings him into trouble and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Man is in all the fault and he would have God to bear all the blame In the next place observe four sad consequences of this Sin First murmuring debaseth a man by turning him into the likeness of the basest creature we have a remarkable Scripture for this in Psal 59. in the sixth verse David saith of his enemies They return at evening they make a noise like a dog and go round
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
wholly turned and set for the service and glory of God So that in this case a man may improve his knowledge and faith by all the advantages both from Scriptures and Creatures and get his soul filled with the highest thoughts of the infinite power and wisdom and goodness of God and then boldly say This is my infinitely great and good Father and all his glorious power and wisdom and love is on my side then he may look into the world and see all things working busily about him and then conclude that this is the greatest work upon the wheels to bring happiness and salvation to me and to that body of which I am a member And then on the other hand he may look in himself and see all the powers of his body and soul united in this great designe to please and praise and enjoy God So that by these things you may learn what it is to be at peace with God whereby you may also see what is the enmity betwixt God and a sinner it is that whereby a sinner is against God so as to be fearfully bent to hate and deny and despite him and God is against the sinner so as to blast and curse and damn him so that this is thy case sinner if thou art not at peace with God all manner of diseases and all kindes of deaths and dangers yea and all the curses of the Bible are against thee because the God of all these is against thee I would therefore seriously perswade you to come to agreement with God which that you may do let me tell you that I am this day sent as an Embassador of peace from the Lord of life and death who hath committed to me the word of reconciliation So that I have authority from him to offer most blessed conditions of peace viz. if you will this day sincerely turn from sin to God and truely receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel you shall have the great God to be your Father his onely begotten Son the true God to be your Husband and Saviour the infinite and blessed Spirit to be your Comforter you shall have grace and peace to abide with you here and an everlasting Kingdom of glory to possess and enjoy hereafter Sirs are not these blessed and honourable terms Well where lyes the difference Answ In nothing but sin Now what a fearful case is this that after God the Father hath sent his onely begotten Son and after he hath dyed the most shameful painful and accursed death of the Cross and after so many hundred Sermons and offers of peace Wilt thou now break with God for a base lust canst thou indure hereafter to lye among the Devils and damned in everlasting burnings and to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and hear thy own conscience upbraiding thee to all eternity that thou hast lost heaven and dost lye in hell for loving thy cups oaths whores or the dust of the earth better then Jesus Christ O Sirs repent and believe quickly you have more need to do it then either to eat drink or sleep for ought you know you may be in hell before such another offer be made I am sure there are millions of diseases and deaths waiting at your doors to break up the treaty I shall therefore conclude this in the words of Eliphaz to Job cap. 22.21 22 23. Aquaint now thy self with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee the law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles Fourthly prize and improve godly Ministers and people whilst you have them seeing it appears by this Doctrine that you know not how soon they may be sent for to heaven where I am sure they will be better respected Now the greatest honour that you can shew to godly Ministers is to be doers of the Word which they are Preachers of Ministers are more honoured by the conversion though of the poorest servants then by the highest commendations which the most able and learned Doctors are able to express for this is their greatest glory to be instruments of Gods glory in the salvation of poor souls for thereby the Word of God is glorified 2 Thes 3.1 By the applause of men Ministers may be cryed up for persons of excellent gifts and parts but this is their greatest glory when by the salvation of souls the excellencie of the power appears to be of God and not of men But Beloved the ignorant unbelieving world knows not the worth of godly Ministers or Christians because they see not the excellencie of God and Christ and Holiness and Heaven which are the causes which make them so precious The world knoweth us not because it knew him not 1 Joh. 3.1 But whatever the men of the world think who can prize nothing but honours and riches and pleasures to which they should be dead and crucified I tell you godly Ministers and Christians are the blessings of their age and those are the best Kingdoms and Countries and Towns and Parishes and Families which have most of them and which love them best Solomon tells us Prov. 10.11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life I need not tell you what a necessary publick mercy a well of good and wholesome water is to the Town or Family where it springs Now a righteous man is a Well of Life he is a spring of spiritual Aqua vitae Many a poor sinner or sad swounding Christian receives the spiritual life of grace and strength and comfort from the mouth of a godly Minister or Christian Prov. 15.4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life It 's a Metaphor taken from the Tree of Life in Paradise which was Gods Ordinance to preserve man alive had he continued in innocencie Thus a godly man is a tree of life in this evil world he turns a Family into a Paradise where he grows and is prized so that many a man who was dead in sin and many a fainting childe of God is quickned and revived by feeding on the fruit of his wholesome tongue Now my Brethren the serious consideration that these blessings are by sickness and death ready to be taken from us should cause us to esteem and improve their spiritual and savoury company How did Elisha cleave to Elijah when he knew he was presently to be taken from him and therefore we finde that three times Elijah to try Elisha his constancie seemed to shake him off but Elisha every time answers most solemnly As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee 2 Kin. 2.2 3 6. and if you read the story you will finde that it proved well for Elisha that he was so wise and careful to improve that precious opportunity See Acts 20.25 where Paul useth this
Argument to press his following exhortation And now behold I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kindom of God shall see my face no more Oh people honour your Ministers children be instructed by your Parents whilst you have them for shortly you must see their faces no more Christians exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day For yet a little while and you shall see one anothers faces no more We finde that Saint Paul having exhorted Timothy to those great and necessary duties mentioned 2 Tim. 4.1 2 5. he presseth all with this melting motive vers 6. For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand as if he had said My dear son Timothy I am not like to counsel and instruct thee long therefore hearken to the counsel of thy dying father Paul Preach the word be instant in season out of season c. Sirs look upon your Ministers as dying Ministers and your Friends as dying Friends and labour to draw from these wells of life whilst they live for you little know what a loss you will have of them when they dye Fifthly believe and improve those precious Promises which God hath made for the preservation of your health and lives and in the use of means live by faith and prayer upon those gracious promises See Prov. 3.1 2 7 8. My son forget not my law but let thy heart keep my commandments For length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee vers 7 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil It shall â—e health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones See also Prov. 4.20 21 22. Job 33.25 His flesh shall be fresher then a childes he shall return to the days of his youth Hence we often see that when a mans body is withered by sickness and baked like a potsherd he is restored by the blessing of God to such a good constitution and temper that his body becomes fresh like the flesh of a childe This is elegantly expressed by David Psal 103.5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Some say that the Eagles at every ten years end cast off their old Feathers and are quickly cloathed again with new as if they began to be young again and so live till they be an hundred years old Some also write of this property in the Eagles that when by reason of old age they have the upper part of their Bills bending down so far below the lower that they are scarce able to feed and so languish with hunger that then they break their beaks upon a rock whereby being able to feed they grow to their former strength to which the translation in the singing Psalms seems to allude Like as the Eagle casts her bill Whereby her age renew'th Whether these and many other such relations of the wonderful properties of the Eagles be true is uncertain yet it 's generally received that they are Birds long-lived and for many years continue so healthful that they seem to grow young again And thus God often blesseth men with health and strength and long life that their strength is renewed like the Eagles and although that which we read of Moses was extraordinary that when he was an hundred and twenty years old his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated yet we often see many live to a great age with their health and strength and parts through Gods mercie continued youthful and fresh to them Now Sirs lay up these promises in your hearts and improve them by faith and prayer so they may be the better to you then the wholesomest dyet or best physick in the world Lastly use the means of health and life so as that the God of life may bless you in the use of them for this purpose make conscience of these four things First Of your food It is God that gives a blessing to this Exod. 23.25 He shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take away sickness from the midst of thee Therefore pulse and water with Gods blessing made those conscientious Saints look and like better then others that were fed with royal dainties Dan. 1.15 Take then your food as it were out of the hands of God who openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145.16 and eat and drink as those that see a presence of God at your table Deut. 12.7 Ye shall eat before the Lord your God eat as those that therein seek to please and honour God Rom. 14.6 He that eateth eateth to the Lord and giveth God thanks I know these Scriptures intend particular occasions of eating yet they hold out upon the same reason our duty to eat and drink so as to do the will of God and to bring glory to him according to that 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God as God turns all to a Christians good so it 's the admirable property of grace to turn all to Gods glory A gracious heart can feed upon the goodness of God in and bring glory to God out of every morsel of meat that comes into his mouth Tertullian gives a very savoury relation of the Feasts of the primitive Christians Before saith he they sit down to taste their meat they first taste of prayer to God they eat so much as hunger requires and drink no more then is profitable for chaste and sober persons they are so filled as thereby fitted to worship God in the night they discourse at meat as those that know that God hears them and as they began so they conclude the meal with prayer and so they depart not as if they fed onely upon meat but also upon discipline and instruction I refer the learned Reader to his own words Apolog cap. 39. here is a most gracious example worthy of the imitation of all Christians Secondly make Conscience of your apparel let it be such as becomes a holy chaste humble member of Christ and not a proud vain wanton limb of the Devil let your garments be both wholesome and comely neither so immodest as to dishonour the Gospel of Christ nor sordid as to disgrace the Body of a Christian Thirdly make Conscience of lawful and seasonable recreations These are healthful for our bodies and when used in the fear and according to the Will of God do very much fit us for the most inward communion with him What Solomon saith of one kinde of labour is true of others that it is a weakness and weariness to the flesh Eccles 12.12 For as it weakens a bow to keep it always bent and mars the strings of an instrument to keep them always stretcht so it weakens the body to keep it too long bent to one imployment therefore it is Gods will that it should be remitted to its harmless inoffensive and honest
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