every true beleever And this point I am now to prove and still I must use the compellation of the Apostle Brethren for as for others I have little hope of I will as I promised make it plaine out of the Scripture That a true beleever that would have comfort of it that hee is a true beleever must be as if not in all the things of this world There is one eminent place for this purpose viz. 1. Iohn 4. 10. Saith the Apostle there Love not the world nor the things of the worid if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Hence I argue thus Hee that must so use wife children credit friends good name prosperitie without loving of them it is likely he useth them as if not for love is the great wheele that setteth all the faculties aworke Now the Spirit of God doth directly forbid all Christians to love the world or the things of the world as they doe the Scripture absolutely injoyneth that we should not love them that is that our hearts must not be fixed on them Another place you have likewise in Colloss 3. 1. Set not your affections on things below Now as I said before if any man doe any thing that his affections are not upon that he doth not love and joy and delight in that hee doth not take care for and the like certainly that man useth it as if not but so must every true beleever use the things of the world so as that he must not set his affections upon them Other Scriptures I might give you to make good this point but I am somewhat afraid to bee straytned Two or three arguments I will adde to make it plaine Why every true beleever must be as if not in all these things First because all the things in this world which are contained in the Text they are all but emptie poore things to a beleever To another man who makes them his God in his conceit they are full but to a true beleever these things are well knowne to bee but emptie things I need give you no better proofe to make this evident then that which followeth in the Text For the fashion of this world passeth away The fashion of the world What is that That is a thing that is a shew without a substance Nay the word signifieth such a fashion as is in a Comedie or stage-play where all things are but for a while to please the eye A man it may bee acts the part of a King that is no better then a begger or a varlet so all things in the world are no better then shadowes and empty like a piece of a stage-play and no marvell if beleevers that know this use them as not Secondly another argument why Beleevers must in all these things use them as if not is because they are none of a beleevers and being none of his it is a meere folly for him to set his heart upon them How are they none of his you will say First for the truth of it these things below they belong to the men of this life but the treasure and estate of a Beleever is laid up in another life hee is but as a stranger and pilgrim here below and therefore they are none of his And then likewise they are none of his because he hath resigned them all up to God in the day when he made the bargaine for Christ. For when we come to be Christs wee must sell all to buy that Pearle and in selling all wee sell not only our corruptions and lusts but wives and children and pleasures and credit and all wee have them not now to have and to hold to doe what wee will with them but now that wee have Christ wee returne all to him and have them as Coppy-hold to bee tenants at will to that great Land-lord wee have only a little time in them And if it be so that every beleever hath no more to doe in this world but thus that he is meerely at the pleasure of God and can properly call nothing his owne but God and Christ then certainly hee must use all these things as if not Conceive it thus A Traveller goeth a long journey hee commeth at night to his Inne when hee is there hee is wondrous glad of his table of his bed of his fire of his meat and drinke and every thing and hee is wondrous welcome but hee doth not so delight in them as the host of the house who is living there and is right owner and hath the whole estate No hee only resteth there for a night after his weary journey but on the morrow God be with you then hee is gone So a worldly man he may say here is my estate here is my stocke all that I have is layed up here But a Beleever saith I am now in my journey I am here no other then a pilgrim my home is in Heaven and while I am passing through this pilgrimage If I have a piece of meat in my hunger and a cup of drinke in my thirst and clothes in my nakednesse there is all that I care for Thirdly the last and the maine Argument to proue that every true beleever must bee as if not in all the things of this world is because if he be any otherwise in them hee will be so intangled that hee shall not be fit for the service of God And this third Argument will be of the greatest force to a true beleever For the other two you will say if they be none of mine why doe I meddle with them and if they be empty why likewise doe I meddle with them But now thirdly if I meddle with them they will make me directly that I shall not bee a Christian they will hinder me from the service of my God this will make a beleever of all things to looke about him The Apostle saith directly that none that warreth intangleth himselfe that is thus Suppose a man have received presse-money to goe a souldier will he be so madde as to lay out his money upon a Farme in the Countrey when upon the command of his Captaine upon paine of death he must follow presently Beloved he that intangleth himselfe with the things of the world and of the flesh if his wife his pleasures his credit or any thing have taken up his heart or if sorrowes and afflictions drinke up his spirits and eate up his very soule when God calls this man now to come to prayer to come to the Church to heare his Word to fight against his lusts or to doe any duty alas his head his heart and all are eaten up with his Farme with his oxen with his wife with his crosses and afflictions so that he is altogether unfit for any service that God hath called him to Therefore saith Saint Iohn he that intangleth himselfe with these things below hee cannot possibly have the love
difficult a worke By faith Abraham when hee was tried offered up his sonne and hee that had received the promise offered up his only begotten sonne Now I cannot handle all these parts by severall peeces as they lye therefore I will deliver to you the juyce and substance of all that I have to say in two Propositions there might bee many more collected from these words but I will speake of no more the first is this That strong and great tryals may befall strong and great Christians The second Proposition is this That Faith will make a man acquit himselfe in great tryals Now for the first That strong and great tryalls may befall strong and great Christians The Text cleares it in Abraham about his sonne his only son a great triall there are ten remarkable steppes in this triall of Abraham in offering up his Sonne First had it beene to part with a dutifull servant this had been something but to part with a Sonne this is much more this wee know that the relation of a servant is much lesse then that of a child Againe if hee had beene to part with a faithfull friend such a one as Ionathan was to David this would have tried him but to part with a tender Isaac this is much more Againe if it were an adopted sonne that he were to part with it were not so much but to part with a naturall sonne one that was a part of himselfe a part of his owne body Againe if he were a sonne amongst many more but hee must part with his only sonne his only sonne Isaac Againe if Abraham had beene young and might have enjoyed another sonne it had not beene so much but he is the only sonne of his old age Againe if it were the sonne of his old age if it had beene an Ismael this had not beene so much but his only sonne Isaac a child of promise and of prayer a child of many teares Againe if it had beene a sonne wherein wee tooke no great delight that his affections were not so much set upon it had not beene so much but it was the sonne of his love he must not onely part with his only sonne and the only sonne of his old age but his only sonne whom he loved Againe if it were but only to part from him to have him takenaway this had not beene so much but he must kill his sonne hee must cut his sonne all in peeces and so offer him up to God wherein his heart might have disputed with that sinfull act of murder Againe if another had beene to doe it to cut his sonne in peeces but Abraham must doe it himselfe the tender Father must take away the life of his tender child Againe it had not beene so great if Abraham had beene to doe it presently or neere to some of his friends that might have hindered him from this Act but Abraham must goe three dayes journey and must goe to an unknowne place and there must poure out the heart and bloud and life of his Isaac In these many particulars we may see the greatnesse of Abrahams triall O the heighth and depth and bredth of this triall no one could impose such a triall but a God and none could answer such a triall but an Abraham Iob may come in as another instance God gives Iob this testimony that hee was an eminent person None like him in the earth a perfect and upright man and one that feared God and eschewed evill Hee seemed to be the tallest Cedar and yet hee had the sharpest windes his eminencie in grace would not deliver him from trouble hee is tried many wayes in the losse of his cattell and then in the losse of his servants and then in the losse of his children and in the losse of all his children at once and all on a sudden and at such a time the time of his greatest prosperitie hee is tried by his neere friends condemned for an hypocrite and by his owne wife contemned and tempted to curse God and he was tried by God himselfe Hee wrote bitter things against him and fastened his arrowes in his spirit But to leave these instances let me crave leave a little to touch upon two things for the full and cleere opening of this point First I will shew you wherein the strength of a tryall may consist And secondly I will shew you why God is pleased to lay strong and great trialls upon strong and great Christians First wherein the strength of a triall may consist and I will observe sixe things which may make a triall great First one is the goodnesse and kindnesse of the agent that deales with us when any neere to us in a singular relation to us shall seeme to turne against us and spoyle us and persecute us when a deare friend shall prove a bitter enemy O this is a heavy triall no sword cuts so sharpe as this nothing makes a greater wound then this when God himselfe shall seeme to reject Hee who had said thus much I will be a God to Abraham and I will blesse thee and multiply thy seed and yet now to command him a Duell with his sonne for a man to meet with a condition of trouble and sorrow when he expects all mercy and compassion and tendernesse of love O this doth cause singular sorrow to meete with waves in the middest of the Ocean it is a common thing but to thrust the ship into some harbour and there to meet shipwrack O this is very much for a Christian to find scornes and hard usage from the world this is but an ordinary thing but when he lookes up to heaven receives such lookes and frownes from God that fetch teares from his eyes and from his heart this is much more Secondly the strength of a tryall may consist in the neernesse of an object when the triall is not that which rends the garment but rends the heart for a woman to lose her ring is not so much but to lose her husband this is much more for a man to lose an outward thing is something but to lose a child is much more this many times is the renting of the loynes a sunder for David to lose a servant is not so much but when David loses an Absalom then he cries out O Absalom my sonne would God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne God is pleased many times to trie his servants by taking away the delight of their eyes and the joy of their heart and the hope of their lives Thirdly the strength of a triall may consist in the neerenesse of a comfort a triall is strongest when it seemes to plucke away the thing that is neerest the heart when God pluckes away a Childe sucking at the breast when he takes away that wherein our delight is fixed when God on a sudden doth take away and consume the Gourd that shadowed
shee cannot want eithera sweet memoriall of her vertues in the booke of God or a stately Monument in the Church and in your hearts too Happily some may scoffe and some may doubt as though this commendation flew too high or out of sight To whom I shall briefly answer both For the former It is reported of two great Tragedians learned and famous in their time Sophocles and Euripides Euripides presented upon the Scaene all naughty women and Sophocles presented all vertuous women and the ordinary observation of the wits of the times was as men are apt to bee vainly witted in these things they thought that Euripides that presented them bad presented women as they were and Sophocles that presented them good presented them as they should bee If I had nothing else to say to the scoffes of any but only this I suppose it would be sufficient I doe beleeve fully that I have presented her as she was but howsoever you can take no hurt if you doe but consider that it is spoken as what you should be I am sure and I know I have presented what you should be And for any that shall doubt yet that it may seeme too high I would desire them only to consider this I describe in the Text the very temper and character of one that is truly godly such as I conceive her to have beene and the truth is there is none that is truly godly but in some degree or measure must attaine and doe attaine to participate in a conformitie with this Character and therefore I have neither done you as I conceive any wrong and yet done her right too And to draw to an end She hath left this honour behind her that she lived beloved and died desired And who is there here almost that suffereth not a losse in her Her Husband hath lost a loving wife that honoured him highly Her children have lost a loving Mother that loved them tenderly that tendered them duly Her servants have lost a loving Mistris that governed them gently and was every way beneficiall to them Her Brothers and Sisters have lost a loving Sister that answered them in their loves sweetly Her Neighbours have lost a loving neigbour full of courtesie to the rich full of charitie to the poore And my selfe have lost I hope there is none here so weake to suspect that I blast the living to blazon the praise of the dead or that I doe robbe or strippe the living to cloath the dead with their spoyles but I thinke I may truly say I have lost as truly and cordially a loving friend as any shee hath left bebehind though I esteeme many her Peeres and I cannot complaine of any But to end all Her gaine in Christ countervaileth and sweetneth all our losses Shee was a disciple of Love shee loved her Lord and loved all his Saints and servants and therefore I doubt not that she was a beloved disciple and resteth in the bosome of her Love where not to disquiet her happinesse and detaine your patience any longer I shall leave her in that blessed place and commend you to the blessing of God FINIS THE EXPECTATION OF CHRISTS COMMING OR A MOTIVE TO A GODLY CONVERSATION 2 THESSAL 4. 16. For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven c. 2 PET. 3. 14. Wherefore beloved seeing that yee looke for such things be diligent that yee may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE EXPECTATION OF CHRISTS COMMING OR A MOTIVE TO A HOLY CONVERSATION SERMON XVI PHIL. 3. 20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himselfe IN the seventh verse of this Chapter the blessed Apostle Saint Paul exhorteth the Philippians to bee followers together of him and to marke them which walke so as they had him for an ensample And that hee might the better direct them in the dutie the imitation of his ensample he sheweth that there is a great difference betweene others that pretended themselves to be the Apostles of Christ and indeed were not and himselfe Many saith he walke of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are the enemies of the crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things These ensamples he would have them to avoide follow not such but be yee followers of us for our conversation is in heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ c. and follow those which walke so as yee have us for an ensample This is the example he would have them imitate In the words you have these things considerable First What the conversation of these men was whom the Apostle would have the Philipians to follow Their conversation was a heavenly conversation Our conversation is in heaven Secondly the reason or incouragement that they had to this imitation to walke so heavenly while they were on earth because from thence we looke for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly the benefit by that Saviour whom they looke for from heaven Hee shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body Fourthly the meanes by which this great worke shall bee effected According to the working whereby hee is able to subdue all things unto himselfe For the first to touch it only in a word there is from that these two Observations clearely arising First That there is a heavenly conversation of the Saints on earth Secondly That while they are on earth they are now stated in heaven Our conversation is in heaven Hee saith not only it shall bee in heaven though there it shall be perfected but it is now in heaven in regard of our present state and possession Concerning the first that the Saints on earth have a heavenly conversation You must know that the word here Politeuma translated conversation signifieth such a course of life and of traffique as is in Cities and Corporations where many are knit and united together in one common societie in one common freedome Our conversation is in heaven that is we have a kind of heavenly traffique a heavenly trade while we are upon earth There are divers things wherein there is an agreement between the cariages and conditions of men in Cities and Societies here on earth and this of the Saints of God that have their conversations in heaven I will only in briefe run them over this being not the thing that I purposely ayme at First in Cities and Corporations there is a Register wherein the names of the Freemen are inrolled So in heaven also there is a Register a certaine booke
of Records as it were wherein are written the names of as many as God hath appointed to life Rejoyce not saith our Saviour in this that the divels are subdued unto you but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven And all that are not found written in the booke of life are cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20. 15. God in his secret counsell and purpose in his speciall providence and love takes notice of all his servants even of their names and he hath them as sure as if they were written downe in a booke there is not one man that commeth to heaven but the Lord knowes him already to be a man ordained to that estate and condition Secondly as in all Cities and Societies there is a certaine law whereby they are all governed in obedience to which they live So there is a law whereby all the Citizens of heaven all the houshold of God are governed that law which the Apostle Saint Iames calleth the royall law a law which commandeth the very spirits of men a law that disposeth the whole man to a heavenly frame and subjection to the will of God the great King of Heaven so that a man while he is here below by degrees is drawne off from the world in his affections and disposition and carriage and made sutable and conformable to the rule of righteousnesse Thirdly as in all Cities there is a kind of safety and securitie to those that dwell there not onely as they are incompassed with walls but also as there is watching and warding some wakinâ—… while others sleepe to keepe the rest in safety So in this heavenly societie the Angels pitch their Tents about those that feare God nay the Lord himselfe is the Shepheard of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth while men oppose them God defends them while men are labouring and plotting and devising against them and they it may be are secure and feare no danger God disperseth and disappointeth a thousand projects intended against his servants It was so with his owne people Israel while they were in the plaines securely lying in their tents there is Balack and Balaam consulting upon the mountaines how to curse them but the God of Israel that is above the mountaines that sitteth on the highest Heavens hee ordereth the matter so that Balaam for his life though hee might have had all the wealth and honour of the Kingdome could not pronounce one curse against Israel because God had said to him that he should not curse Fourthly As in Cities and societies on earth men have communion and societie one with another the lesse have interest in the greater and the greater in the lesse and all have interest one in another the inferiours receive from the superiours protection and provision and the superiours receive from the inferiours subjection and submission So it is in this heavenly Corporation in this spirituall Hierusalem Ierusalem is a Citie at unitie in it selfe There is a communion and fellowship that the Saints have with God the Father with Christ with the Angels with the Saints in heaven and one with another on earth With God the Father they have an interest in him as subjects of his kingdome as servants and children of his family there is not the meanest subject in this kingdome but he may make his request knowne to this Prince there is not the least servant in this Family but he may make his complaint to this Master they may as children goe boldly to the throne of grace and make their request knowne unto him though it be but in sighes and groanes Hence it is that God takes notice of them your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things and therefore hee will supply them If you that are earthly can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that aske him They have interest in Christ also he is their Intercessour therefore hence it is that he is said to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us Hee is their Advocate if any man sinne wee have an Advocate with the Father even Iesus Christ the righteous Hee is their Lord and Captaine the Captaine of the Lords Armie to defend his Church Michael the great Prince standeth up for the children of his people They have interest also in the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinitie they have not only the love of God the Father but the communion and fellowship of the Holy Ghost as the Apostle wisheth for the Corinthians Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is ready to helpe their infirmities to inable them to put up their requests when they know not how to pray as they ought Hence it is that hee sanctifieth them and therefore they are said to bee Borne againe of water and of the spirit that hee comforteth them therefore hee is called the holy Ghost the Comforter As the Saints have interest in the three Persons in the Trinitie in respect of their dependance upon them so the blessed Trinitie hath an interest in them also If I bee a Father where is my honour if I bee a Master where is my feare Because they acknowledge God to be their Father they honour him because they acknowledge him to betheir Lord they feare him c. They have interest in the Angels also Hence it is that they are called Ministring spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect They were Christs messengers his Angels and now they are made Messengers Angels to the Saints therefore saith Christ Offend not one of these little ones for I tell you that their Angels behold the face of my father in heaven They have interest in them not as worshippers of Angels which the Apostle condemneth Coll. 2. as foreseeing to what a height Popish superstition would rise in this kind I say not to worship them to invocate them to pray to them we know no such will-worship which is without the rule Wee have an Angell comforting Hagar we have an Angell defending Elisha we have an Angel incouraging Iacob wee have an Angell carrying Lazarus into Abrahams bosome But wee never had any Angell that stood in this place to have worship and adoration This indeed the Angels have from us imitation of their obedience we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven They have interest in the Saints also yea in those that are dead not as though they praied for us yet they have a common desire of the welfare of the whole Church The soules under the Altar cry How long Lord holy and true wilt thou not avenge our bloud on those that dwell upon the earth All the Saints departed their soules crie to God to finish these dayes of sinne and hasten the comming of Christ. And besides this this further benefit wee have that we are all members
say in the Lord have I Righteousnesse and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiencie in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withall joyntly and together as might bee manifested by the allegations of Scripture as bee not slothfull but be yee followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in this Epistle and more especially in the 10. 11. and 12. Chapters In the later end of the tenth Chapter you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary meanes to attaine everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soule The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessitie of Faith to an acceptable walking and well pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting downe the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for their Faith by which saith hee they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posteritie standing out to this day as so many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them bee at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle having spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessarie to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithfull managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessarie uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us runne the race that is set before us and runne with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithfull are to make account of sufferings in divers kindes in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunitie in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud uerse 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his severall administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I doe but touch upon these things hastening on to the maine thing I intend only desiring to give you a plaine and briefe Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drinke many times of a cuppe of bitternesse yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proofe of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take sucha course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his deare love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth hee chasteneth and scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth verse 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what sonne is hee whom the Father chasteneth not But if yee bee without chastisement where of all his children are partakers then are yee bastards and not sonnes vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their soules that they are his adopted ones and such as hee will one day acknowledge for to bee his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth betweene God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verely for a few daies chastened us and wee gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but Hee for our profit that wee might bee partakers of his holinesse Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in severall particulars and the preheminencie the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First Wee have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have beene contented to undergoe the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of spirits meaneth to keepe us under his discipline suppose it be all our time and perhaps it shall be so yet all that is but the time of our minoritie and therefore if we have beene content to submit to our earthly parents theirdiscipline for a few dayes shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits to his chastisement though it befor our life-time for the disproportion is infinitely greater between the time of this life compared with the state of maturitie and ripe age which the Saints shall come to hereafter and the time of our minoritie and childhood compared with the state of full age and man-hood in this life for alas how short are our dayes they are spent even as a tale
a glasse with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex bee brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were this a meeting for the solemnization of a Mariage I might further descan upon this plaine-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Mariage solemnitie surely howsoever here bee before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortalitie yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Mariage solemnitie to the eye of our soule understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse hee hath his friends friends of the Bridegroome his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us wooe us use all the meanes that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the mutuall consent that passeth betweene the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here wee the Ministers being for him and every beleeving soule for himselfe This contract continueth so long as here wee remaine in this world when wee depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleepe till the Bridegroome be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that hee shall come withall Come yee blessed of my Father receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soule that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternall inviolable communion and sweet societie But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soule we now must looke upon the object here before us and answerably order our matter and therefore with this touch I let passe the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the summe you heard the parts But wee must here proceed Huesteron and Proteron and cleane invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discerne if you doe but well marke the order and method Life is in the last place Grace before it the right that commeth before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will thinke that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it selfe Life and then to speake of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it selfe Life For brevities sake I forbeare to speake much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the onely true God Father Sonne and holy Spirit or as it is in the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soule or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowle Fish or otherwise as it is in Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life onely The life here meant is that wee call eternall life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because comming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heires of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent bee in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification onely beleevers onely sound true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this speciall life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live saith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Sonne of God And the Iust shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect saith our Lord Christ to the penitent beleever upon the Crosse This day the very day that he died shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himselfe I desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgement when the dead saith he are raised then shall wee also that are alive and remaine be caught up together with them in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall wee ever be with the Lord. Now then marke here you see the soule hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A misticall union For Christ the Sonne of God hee is life originally in himselfe for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath hee given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe Hee is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore hee is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because hee is that Bread which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his owne good pleasure hath written our names in the booke of life and hath sent his Sonne to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstration of the wofull plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seeme to be of some account they have a life that is farre different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soule to animate them Oh but this this is is not the life Naturall life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to bee proper to the Saints which commeth by grace whereof wee are heires and therefore of all naturall men it may bee said as the Apostle saith of the wanton
hell out of sorrow and angvish and tentation hee raiseth out their greatest quiet Secondly because the love of God is eternall and unchangeable Whom hee loves hee loves to the end It is unpossible that the Lord albeit he trie and that sharply yet should finally forsake those that are his in their greatest extremitie But againe secondly if you make a peaceable death to bee the reward of the Righteous what say you to this There bee many that in all their life gave little evidence of any Religion or grace but of the contrary rather yet in their death were very quiet and still and seemed to all that were by to have in them no manner of vexation no troublesome thoughts no perplexed motions shall wee say that these were good men because they seemed to goe away in peace It is true indeed it is the common opinion Doth a man lye quietly hath hee his memorie to the end died he like a Lambe surely then hee is gone to heaven but this is an absurd colection for First sometime this outward calmenesse is an ordinary consequent of some diseases as Consumptions and such like by which Nature being formerly weakned hath not power left to make resistance Secondly this outward calmenesse is no argument of a peaceable and quiet soule The Psalmist tells us of the wicked in whose death there are no bands Thirdly wee must distinguish betweene securitie and peace betwixt carnall senslesnesse and true spirituall quietnesse Nabals death was quiet enough yet hee were but a foole that would adventure his soule with Nabals I see many ignorant persons many of heathenish and brutish conversation very quiet in sicknesse without any feare of hell and judgement to come making no doubts casting no perills asking no questions complaining of no sinnes and so away they goe without any more adoe What shall I say that these died in true peace God forbid No when I compare together their ignorant secure benummed hardned kind of life with their senslesse and drowsie kind of death I must say that these are fearefull signes these things argue that the Divill had quiet possession where hee made so small adoe Thus then notwithstanding these Objections I will conclude that a peacefull death is the peculiar and individed priviledge of Gods servants However it be yet I know saith Solomon that it shall goe well with those that feare the Lord but there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Wee may make Use of this first to be a tryall betwixt our Religion and the Romish for from this Doctrine I avouch that Religion to be no true Religion because a Papist by the Rules of his owne Religion can never die in peace This is a hard saying thou maist object or how can I make it good I answer by two reasons First every Papist is taught to beleeve under paine of Anathema and the great curse that whosoever dyeth if hee have not in this life attained to perfection and throughly purged himselfe from the remainders of sinne by workes of satisfaction his soule must after death goe into Purgatory and there continue untill hee hath made a full satisfaction now the paine of Purgatorie is held for the time to bee as great as the paines of hell differing onely in this that it is not perpetuall Now I would faine know how can a man die comfortably and in peace and with a joyfull heart when hee thinkes with himselfe that albeit perhaps after some yeares hee shall goe to heaven yet in the meane space his soule must goe into such a place of unspeakable torment where if the matter be not well plyed by the prayers of them that are alive and by well feeing the Priests they may hap to lye for many yeares I say how can the Doctrine of Popery beget a peacefull death when it teacheth an expectation of such an hellish Purgatory Secondly every Papist as he is bound of a certaine to beleeve a Purgatory so further must he beleeve that hee cannot in this life be assured of salvation otherwise then by a kind of confused hope which may deceive him Now hee which by the witnesse of his owne conscience is sure that hee hath deserved hell and cannot attaine to any certaintie of discharge what comfort can such an one have to dye hee knowes that when hee is dead he must come to his account before God but yet can have no assurance that the Lord will acquit him in Christ Jesus I wish that this may seriously be considered by us for the establishing of us in the truth of Religion I say againe and testifie these reasons which I have alledged being weighed that a Papist by his owne doctrine can never expect that which Simeon did a departure hence in peace He knowes he must to torment he is taught that he cannot know in this world that God will pardon him In the next place let us come neerer home to our selves that we must all dye nothing more certaine Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne God hath decreed it and it cannot bee revoked if our end be not peaceable our estate after cannot bee happy Let our care then be spent about this one point how one may attaine to this to end our dayes in peace I doubt not but wee will all bee ready to say we hope so to doe but this is nothing for when the wicked man dyeth his expectation perisheth What becomes of the hope of the Hypocrite said Iob when God takes away his soule But what course then shall wee take that wee may finish our course with joy I will tell thee in few words I touched it a little before the best meanes for a peaceable departure is a godly and religious life I have fought the good fight saith Saint Paul and he could comfortably from thence inferre that therefore there was laid up for him a crowne of righteousnesse It was Christs owne inference I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe and therefore now O Father glorifie thou mee with thine owne selfe The reason of it is first Gods promise blessed shall bee the undefiled in the way Those that honour mee I will honour said God Now this promise God will not breake He that goeth this way though it be with much weaknesse with many falls with sundry imperfections with divers wandrings yet he cannot misse of the promised peace Secondly life eternall hath three degrees the first is in this life when a man repenteth and beleeveth and is purged from dead workes to serve the living God The second is in death when the body goes to earth and the spirit returnes to him that gave it The third is at the last judgement These three degrees hang together like three linkes the second followeth the first and the third the two former the last cannot be hoped for where
of this sweetnesse of mercie as a precious oyntment and become good examples unto others and improve the gifts and abilities which God had given them to the same purpose Shee was not onely mindfull of those at home but her goodnesse extended to the Saints abroad And not in respect of Nature onely because they were come into the Countrey where shee was borne I speake now of those that live in distresse and exile of the Palatinate and Germany but in respect of Grace Shee was wondrous industrious and laborious to procure all the meanes that might bee to send over to helpe them and even refreshed the bowells of the Saints that I may truly say the loynes of the poore blessed God for her in many places In what place hath shee lived and hath not left a savour behinde her nay almost in what company hath shee conversed but this particular dutie hath been as a precious oyntment to sweeten the conversations of all that were about her and to worke in their mindes a vertuous intention and propensenesse to this dutie Beloved here you have her in her carriage and example What shee was in her behaviour towards her Husband and her Children I need not speake there are enough can witnesse it shee carried her selfe as became Wife to him and a helper of the servants of Gâ—…od with prayers and desires and often provocations and incitings that way But for her Children shee seem'd to undergoe a second travaile with them till Christ were formed in them being full of earnest desires and petitions for the working of Grace where it was not begun and for the perfecting thereof where it was newly entred Shee rejoyced exceedingly in any expression of good and more for that of Grace then any other inclination or respect Beloved this was obvious and common to all and any man might take speciall notice thereof dayly and observe it constantly In her servants as there appeared the mere grace in any so much the more respect she extended towards them In the poore as shee perceived the more grace in any the more reliefe they received from her c. 〈◊〉 say nothing what in all this shee suffered those that were acquainted with her disease know what paines shee under-went in respect of her bodie and with what patience shee submitted to the hand of God in all things And many know the wrong shee endured from the World for her desire and care to doe good when she obtain'd opportunitie Some thought her over-bold some to busie others thought her proud and vaineglorious because of her often frequenting of company and speaking openly for the provoking of others to the exercise of goodnesse The Lord smite their hearts that are guilty of mis-judging that which wee are to suppose in respect of her forward disposition is this Shee was naturally of a free spirit which being sanctified with Grace and sharpned with love and zeale for the glory of God made her the more resolute and familiar in frequenting good company not to magnifie her selfe by their societie but that her continuall conversation with them might give her the better occasion to incite and stirre them to goodnesse Let those that are guiltie of misprision leave to censure her Vertues and convert them into an example for themselves to walke in if they doe not the neglect will loade their soules with more woe for such contempt then shee hath received joy for her labour What concern'd her in her sicknesse briefly I have not much to say in that they which were about her dayly know more then I can relate Shee did not onely expresse a satisfaction and assurance of heart that her reconciliation was made with God in Christ but besides that a willingnesse and desire to bee dissolved for that reason that shee might hee with Christ. A Minister that was with her asking how shee that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and 〈◊〉 other comforts could be willing to forgoe so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is deare and my Children are deare to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgoe Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicitie then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his owne protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have wee spoken all this what that wee might adde any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like dutie Some may thinke it impossible there should be such activenesse in doing of good and such unweariednesse in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgement against you and condemne you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Doe good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who tooke her time and opportunitie to doe good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Goe thou and doe likewise FINIS DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITIE CHANGED LAM 3. 58. O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soule thou hast redeemed my life JOB 33. 29. 30. Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring backe his soule from the pit to bee enlightned with the light of the living LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITIE CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14. 14. All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come THis Booke of Iob comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryalls Though goodnesse deliver from Hell yet it privildgeth not from temptations or crosses yea the more eminent Holinesse is many times the more it is exposed to sharpe and manifold assaults Iob is set upon on all sides he found the Divell a sore enemie and his great estate a suddaine shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to peeces Hee had but three Points of Land to looke at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment then to lessen the storme His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his griefe was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsells and compassions should have beene an easie harbour and tender reliefe they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his owne testimonie hee served and feared with singular uprightnesse and whose bowells are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance hee thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not onely a stranger but an enemie and this went deepe that even Mercie it selfe seemed cruell and
all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therfore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the graue no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seeme to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie by the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Iudgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 4â—… reuived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queen of heaven and so willwee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men go on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live so that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Iudgement therefore there must be a judgement then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sinne This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as hee did that one might goe and tell his brethren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would hee have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the soules of his brethren that hee would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sense of his owne guilt hee knew what evill example hee had giuen and what a counseller hee had beene to his brethren and if they should goe on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall bee joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that there should bee a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Iudge but he saith come give an account of thy stewardship I answer There are foure things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of judgement with his stewards that it shall bee like the proceedings of a Master with his seruants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall bee a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the totall yee have done evill in the generall none will deale thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deale with all his stewards when hee bringeth them to a reckoning hee will reckon on particulars for all things that hee hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Iob speakes that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men doe that raise themselves by Vsurie and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injurie of others with-holding the goods from the owners therof from the poore for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his stewards for their sakes therefore marke how Saint Iames expresseth it Goe to now yeerich men weepe and howle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if hee should say you have beene hoarding up your treasures you had rather bee laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not layed out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gold and the moth hath eaten into your garments yee have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Yee aske and have not saith Saint Iames because yee aske amisse to spend it on your lusts so yee lay out amisse yee spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparell for excesse at their tables for vaine buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in whatsoever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as hee that hath got his wealth unjustly and hee that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so hee that layeth it out in a confused sinfull profuse way shall be called to give areckoning for that And not only for matter of estate but besides for matter of place and authoritie Moses knew this well enough and therefore when hee was to goe out of the world hee first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have beene a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come and cleare me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before hee â—…ed that hee might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must bee with you yee must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Marke the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce saith hee in the dayes of thy youth as if hee should say Doe if thou wilt doe if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgement Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deale of strength but hast thou beene the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it for Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word saith Christ that men shall speake they shall give an account of at the day of judgement If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that commeth out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy tongue And so for
Inhabitants of the world This I say is that that affecteth the heart exceedingly that they must lose all their friends specially when husband and wife must part parents and children must part and familiar and deare acquaintance must part this causeth the feare of death because the heart is too much set upon the creature So likewise worldly businesse when a man loveth much employment much businesse he cannot abide to thinke of death Why so because all worke all enterprises cease in the grave as Iob saith A man hath neither the workes of his hands nor the enterprises of his head in the grave all actions cease both of the mind and bodie there So when a mans heart is set upon pleasures below there is neither love nor hatred in the grave saith Solomou That is those things that affected the heart that men love they cease there all his pleasures and comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and businesse and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinfull cause of this feare of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him feare Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the feare of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ. The want of this assurance makes death fearefull for now they looke upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylour either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforts or as a Jaylour to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would faine escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospell This night they shall fetch thy soule from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soule of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath it not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he commeth to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he looke upon Death as a Jaylour so Christ saith Agree with thy adversarie quickly lest hee deliver thee to the Iudge and hee give thee to the Iaylour and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not goe out till thou have paid the uttermost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylour that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judge of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall giue up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvell if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captaines and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountaines to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lambe because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa. 14. there is crying out concerning the comming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their feare who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remaine with consuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrourand wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cōmeth upon them Now marke hypocrites stand altogether unreconciled and therefore it is no marvell if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of feares Againe a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their soules and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whether goe wee I goe now out of the bodie and whither then I goe out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I goe to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I goe to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in miserie or in happinesse They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their owne state to come whether they shall be in happinesse or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the feare of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these feares and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the feare of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but wee must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with feare and sadnesse of spirit Why art thou cast downe oh my soule why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wildernesse they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voyce of Faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the successe is doubtfull sometime as it was betweene Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed Israel had the worst sometime Israel preuailed and Amalek had the worst so sometime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and somtime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it
crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hindrance to the soule because of that tie that is betweene the body and the soule and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soule is affected some what in this sense But it is not so then the soule shall bee loosed from the body and so freer for spirituall actions then now it is The soules under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The soules of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more perfectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their soules are in these mortall bodies And at that very instant when the soule of Gods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love of Christ to him then ever when it was in the body So then here is a cessation of baser actions and imployments to give place to more noble and heavenly and excellent actions wherein the soule shall bee employed in heaven There is then no losse of actions neither Againe there is no losse of company This is a thing that troubleth men husband and wife to part friends to part But we lose no company by death howsoever we lose the company of men that we cannot assure our selves are friends indeed for of all the friends we speake of in the maine point when they come to be tryed there are few to be found to be friends But then we goe to them whose love is perfect that you may be sure of and have the truth of their love Againe how little comfort nay how little have you company with those friends you desire Is not much part of our life spent without any fight of our friends is not halfe of it spent in sleep in the night and the other halfe in businesse and pleasure Alas how little time have we to enjoy our friends we rest on But then we shall perfectly enjoy them when there shall be no need of sleepe when there shall be perfection of love and freedome from distraction and imployment when the servants of God shall fully and freely and sweetly and comfortably enjoy one the other Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and the meanest of the Saints shall meet in the expression of love in such a perfection as we cannot speake of And this is certaine you shall goe to many Who can tell the dust of Iacob Now you have some one or two or three or a few men or women that you account friends and dote much upon but then you shall have ennumerable company a world of friends of men and women multitudes they cannot be numbred they are as the starres of heaven for number I say there is no losse of company by this meanes Againe you shall lose no pleasures by death it may be you shall lose some few sensuall bruitish pleasures a few mixed corrupt pleasures pleasures that have the mixture of sorrow and feare in them that imbitters them to the soule of a man but it shall not be so then you shall be freed from imperfect pleasures and have perfect ones at Gods right hand for evermore pure pleasures Againe you lose no necessary convenience neither the rich man loseth no riches by death he loseth his money doth he lose his riches therefore No The Angels are rich but they have no money the Saints are rich they want nothing but they have no money It may be thou losest a child thou shalt find a Father it may be thou losest a weake friend that loveth not long or it may be not so truly as thou thinkest he doth and thou findest friends that are many and perfect and pure in their love that love with a perfect heart And what then are all those losses when you enjoy that which shall make the soule happy for ever Thus I say you should rectifie your opinions concerning Death looke upon it aright have true apprehensions of it Get an intrest in Christ and looke on death through him get faith and then all these things that I haue spoken shall be your advantage so the Apostle concludeth Christ is to us in life and in death advantage If we live he is gaine to us in life and if we die he is advantage to us in death And death is reckoned amongst the speciall favours and priviledges Christ hath given to his Church All are yours what all life and death things present and things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So we see that Death is amongst the priviledges that Christ hath given his Church therefore rectifie your opinions concerning Death make good that I spake before and you shall find this good that I now speake And for the last the unacquaintance with Death let not that trouble you none come from the dead to tell you what is done there but looke on the servants of God before and when they die and you shall find enough how they apprehended Death when they have looked on it in the glasse of the Gospell Looke upon them before death Iacob being to close up his dayes with blessing of his children Lord saith hee I have waited for thy salvation Hee looked upon Death through Christ the Saviour of the world that he should bee saved by him and though it be true that there is a further meaning for the Tribes in those words of Iacob yet this was proper to Iacob himselfe hee looked upon Death now approching as that that he was delivered from and set into that freedome purchased by Christ. So old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation Iacob accounted it his salvation old Simeon a departure from a worse place to a better from worse company and comforts to a better A change for the better still and a departing in peace Againe secondly looke on the servants of God in death see what they have said too Iosiah a man that was upright in heart he went to the grave in peace he was gathered to his fathers in peace that he should not see the evill that should come upon his people here is all it was but a peaceable taking of him away from a more troubelous condition if he had lived longer Beloved he died in warre yet it is said he was gathered in peace he had inward peace with God though he failed in that particular action And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 5. 4. This is our desire that wee may bee clothed upon not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortalitie may bee swallowed up of life A strange speech he counteth death life to him he counteth the death of this life to be the death of mortalitie by laying aside this earthly tabernacle as he saith in
love but besides that there is a course of affection that floweth naturally and kindly from the Father to the child as it is with those rivers that fall downward they fall more vehemently then those that are carried upward so the more naturall the affection is the more vehement it expresseth it selfe in the motion to such objects Now when the Father expresseth his affection to his child this is more vehement because it is more naturall there is more strength of nature in it I cannot stand upon this only a word by way of inference and application to our selves First are naturall parents thus to their children Then here is a ground of faith for the children of God that he is pleased to stile himselfe by the name of Father and to receive them into the adoption of sonnes and daughters This was Davids expression of God As a father hath compassion of his children so hath the Lord on those that feare him And the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it fully In all their affliction hee was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and pittie hee redeemed them and bee bare them all the dayes of old hee bore them upon his wings This giveth confidence and boldnesse to Gods children in making their requests knowne to him This was it that incouraged the Prodigall I will arise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee c. God saith S. Bernard alwayes grants those petitions that are sweetned with the name of father and the affection of a child I should hence speake somewhat to children to stirre them up to answer the love of their Parents but other things that follow forbids me any long discourse of this Secondly here is Davids pietie expressed in this Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee Hee exprest not only the Pittie and affection of a naturall father to a child but pietie also arising from the sense of his guilt Hee was guiltie of sinne and by sinne he had brought this sorrow upon himselfe and therefore who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me in sealing to me the pardon of my sinne this way in adding this mercy as a further assurance of his love in granting me the forgivenesse of my sinne God had told him by Nathan that his sinne was pardoned though he told him the Child should die it may be by the same mercy he will release me from this sentence of death upon my Child whereby he released me from the guilt of my sinne before Here I say is the sense of his owne sinne The point I note hence is That Parents in the miseries that befall their children should call their owne sinne to remembrance All the sorrowes and sicknesses and paines and miseries that befall children should present to Parents the remembrance of their owne sinne It was the expression of the Widow of Sarepta to the Prophet Eliah Art thou come to call my sinnes to remembrance and to slay my childe Shee saw her sinne in the death of her Child So I say in all the afflictions and crosses that befall children the Parents should call to remembrance their owne sinne But some men will here say There seemeth to be no need of such a course for God hath said plainly That the child shall not die for the sinne of the Parent And after God cleareth his owne waies from inequalitie and injustice by that argument The sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father Therefore what reason is there that Parents should call their sinnes to remembrance in the miseries that befall their children I answer Though he say the child shall not die for the Parents sinne yet we must understand it a right for what doth hee meane by the sinnes of the Parent And what doth hee meane by death By sinnes of the Parent he meaneth those sinnes that are so the parents as that the children are not at all guiltie of those sins then the children shall not die By Death he meaneth as the word signifieth the destruction of nature So death shall not befall the child for that sinne that himselfe is not guiltie of But how then come little children to die before they have committed any sinne actually was this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for their owne sinne they die for the soule that sinneth it shall die and all children have sinned they brought sinne into the world and sinne brought death as the Apostle speakes therefore death reigneth over all even over those that have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression that is that have not sinned actually as Adam had done yet neverthelesse they die because they have sinne upon them they have the corruption of nature In sinne they were borne and in iniquitie their mother conceived them and the wages of sinne is death therefore they die for their owne sinne But what if temporall judgements and afflictions befall them is this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for both both for their owne and for the sinne of their Parents for as death so all the miseries of this life are fruits of originall sinne which is an inheritance in the person of every child by nature as soone as it is borne but yet if the sinne of the Parents be added to it that may bring temporall judgements There are many instances and examples of this how God hath visited upon the posteritie of wicked persons the sinnes of their Fathers according to that threatning in the second Commandement And this you shall see either in godly children of wicked parents or in ungodly children of godly Parents Suppose a man leave a great deale of wealth to his children and have one that feares God amongst them it may please God to lay some losse or crosse upon him to the undoing of him he may utterly be impoverished and beggered and deprived of all that meanes that his father left him by unrighteousnesse Hee getteth an heire and in his hand is nothing saith Solomon that is God deprived him of all that estate his father left him by unrighteousnesse Now I say here is a judgement upon the father and yet a mercy upon the child A judgement upon the father that all that he hath laboured for that which hee lost his soule for should bee vaine should come to nothing and not benefit his posteritie as he thought Yet it is a mercy to the childe to the child of God He by this meanes is humbled it draweth him from the world Nay when God emptieth him of these things that were unrighteously gotten he giveth him it may be an estate another way wherein he shall see God his Father provide for him without any indirect and unlawfull courses So sometimes the very shame and reproach that falleth upon wicked children here it is a
the body Spirituall death when God and grace are severed from the soule The Text speakes of the corporall death Sinne is not the sting of the spirituall death for the spirituall death is sinne it selfe And here I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquirie but I will distinguish two parts of spirituall death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spirituall death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to bee the death of the soule in sinne The second part is when soule and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sinne is the sting And remember this by the way Sinne is not onely a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadlinesse the extremity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sinne for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sinne so the sting of sinne ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I thinke Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sinne there So then you see what death the Apostle speakes of principally of corporall death but it may be extended to the second part of spirituall death for there sinne continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sinne the Apostle speakes of when he saith the sting of death is sinne This is not a time to stirre controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about originall sinne how farre it is the sting of death I let them goe In a word to let you see what sinne is the sting of death remember this Sinne may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sinne be what it will be whether it be originall onely or whether it be any actuall sinne streaming from originall whether it be a sinne of ignorance or knowledge whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sinne immediatly that respecteth God or immediatly respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sinne be if it bee not touched if it bee not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keepes in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sinne will certainly be the sting of Death Euery sinne vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sinne. But in the event that Sinne proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sinne in the event proveth the sting of death but that Sinne that liveth in us or rather that Sinne that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sinne that putteth a sting into death That very sinne that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sinne will make death terrible Secondly Sinne may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soule When a man setteth upon the root of Sinne and the way of Sinne and falleth a crucifying the body of Sinne and the members of it I say howsoever there bee divers motions and stirrings of Sinne in the soule yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue passe over them if they come not within the judgement to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walke but fall within the improbation of the judgement to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sinnes these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sinne remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sinne is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sinne he hath committed if the Sinne be in the booke of God uncrossed bee a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall heare anone then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthinesse of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinfull motions those depraving qualities inthy soule that thou likest and practisest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hands of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in Sinne and will goe on in Sin doe so But know this when thou commest to the full strength of thy Sinne let it be what it will when Death commeth it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sinne the very power of thy sinne armeth Death against thy soule No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will goe on in Sinne. So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to worke in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feeles his sinne there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily fixeth his sting in the soule and makes the sinner feele the smart of his sinne There be three times wherein Sinne can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that beares himselfe up aloft in his owne eyes in scorne and contempt of the ministrie of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrowes into his very soule and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne from the wrath that boyleth in his soule And it is one thing to deale with the Minister and another to deale with God When God strikes his Arrowes of uengeance into the soule of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his owne children for sinne David cries out hee roared for the disquitnesse of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long saith he If there be such deepe disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons
is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrinke nothing can inable a man against feare so much as sincerity and uprightnesse When the Prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have walked before thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death commeth to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appeare before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contemner and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have beene so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the feare of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sinne is not affected in his soule that there is no sinne that hee would live in no duty that he would not doe Lord remember that I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against feare then sinceritie and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soule in an exigent more then hypocrisie It is sinceritie that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Rom. 14. saith he No man liveth to himselfe but if hee live hee liveth to the Lord and if hee die hee dieth to the Lord whether wee live or die wee are the Lords Here is the comfort wee are the Lords saith he How proveth hee that Wee live unto him That is the worke of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himselfe but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death Thy righteousnesse and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is onely a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocriticall divided heart a heart and a heart that will sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortifie thy sinnes now doe it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I thinke hee speakes it in respect of afflictions I professe by our rejoycing in Christ Iesus I die daily If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sinne die daily to sinne and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sinne he that dieth daily to Sin hee hath nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Death may come to such a party but it cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it commeth And observe it so much sinne as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sinne that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie every sinne let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it worke now it will worke fearfully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God wil then present and set thy sins in orderbefore thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to heare this Word getthee home and set thy soule in order The love of Sin and the feare of Death seldome paâ—…t and where Sinne is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sinne if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome worke but remember that those sinnes which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortification of sinne when death commeth he should have nothing to doe but to let his soule loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creatour and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is comming Indeed all the comfort that the soule is capable of is this that the sting of death is tooke away Now when Death commeth upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of miserie hee is in here from all that extremitie of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that hee carrieth about him a body of sinne and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death commeth there is an end of this Body of sinne thou shalt never sinne more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in dutie that death that commeth to thee shall passe thee to the fruition of eternall glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternall glory with God FINIS THE DESRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROVV OF THE LAST ENEMIE PSAL. 9. 6. O thou Enemie thy Destructions are come to a perpetuall end ISAIAH 25. 8. Hee will swallow up Death in victorie LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE DESTRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMIE SERMON VII 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall bee destroyed is Death DEath is a subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in
therefore they should in these things agree together The generall end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord Hee that eateth saith he eateth to the Lord and he that eateth not to the Lord hee eateth not that is still he propoundeth God as his end and the pleasing of God in his actions as the rule of them That he may prove this unto us that they stand thus affected both of them notwithstanding this difference he bringeth in this as the generall reason whereto every particular of their lives may bee reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whether they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live wee live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this generall reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their dutie to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their dutieto God if we live we live to the Lord and if wee die we die to the Load Gods acceptance of them Whether wee live or die wee are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposall of this generall reason None of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe Now when the Apostle affirmeth this of the beleevers of those times he therein intimateth thus much that it is the course of beleevers in all times It is a dutie belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speakes generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universalitie a generality with a restraint He saith none of us hee saith not none in the world live to themselves for there are many in the world live to themselves and not to the Lord but none of us none of those that wee ranke our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speake in this question none of us live to our selves Life in generall is nothing else but that power whereby wee act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soule he gave him the power whereby he acted The acting of this power is the exercise of that life whether the action be of the mind or of the body And so as there is a double life there are two sorts of actions of life there are naturall actions of a naturall life and there are spirituall actions of a spirituall life When the Apostle speakes of living hee intends both these Wee live not that is we doe not the actions of life whether naturall or spirituall to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himselfe he meaneth not only a mans person either soule or body but all those advantages that conduce to the well-being of a man No man of us so ordereth the actions of his life with reference and respect to our selves as the uttermost end wee doe not make our owne wel-beeing or wel-fare the uttermost end of our actions None of us live to our selves You have the sense and meaning of the words which being a patterne to other Christians a thing which the Apostle supposeth is or should be in every beleever it giveth us this point of instruction whereupon we shall insist at this time That is No beleever none that are in Christ should make themselves the end in their actions None should live that is spend their time and strength and endeavour ayming at no higher end then themselves No Christian should so spend his time as to seeke himselfe only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may bee objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seeke himselfe in the things that hee doth When they doe good things that which God commandeth that they may avoide the punishment when being incouraged by the promise of a reward they performe the actions of obedience doe they not herein seeke themselves They seeke the avoyding of evill to themselves and the obtaining of good for themselves and doing thus they live to themselves To this wee Answer Wee must consider our selves two wayes First in subordination to God Secondly in competition with him or opposition against him Consider a mans selfe in subordination to God so a man may seeke himselfe that is he may seeke his owne good though not as the uttermost end wherein his thoughts rest yet hee hath this incouragement Selfe-love is a plant of Gods owne planting in the heart of man and hee will not have any man root out that that he hath planted Grace drieth not up the fountaine of nature It doth but turne the streame into a new channell it guides it the right way When a man is renewed by grace and sanctified he is the same man in his faculties he doth his actions better then he did before and all that he did before he doth them to a better end It is impossible that the will of man should incline to any thing but as he conceiveth it good and good for mee now there is no man can conceive a thing as good for him but hee must conceive it as good and sutable to him sutable to his welfare and condition The law of God forbiddeth not this but stablish it and commendeth it if it be rightly ordered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soule and with all thy strength that is the chiefe notwithstanding thou shalt not hate thy selfe thou shalt love thy nighbour as thy selfe subordinate to the love of a mans selfe must be the love of his neighbour and subordinate to his love of God must be the love of himselfe Thou maist love thy selfe but in a degree inferiour to God Thou must love thy selfe in God and seeke thy good in God and not in thy selfe therefore it is that God in the Scripture hath set promises and threatnings one opposite to the other Now it is lawfull for a man to bee drawne to obedience or driven from sinne by any argument that God useth in his Word When God threatneth punishment shall not men be awakened the Lyon roareth and the beasts of the Forrest tremble When God promiseth here is the act of Faith to receive this promise and to believe it Herein Iesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith is set as a patterne for us hee set before him the joy It is lawfull for a Christian herein to imitate Christ I speake this for their sakes to allure them by incouragements from the Word that howsoever the avoyding of sinne by threatnings is an action of selfe-love without the love of God yet
these two may stand together in a due subordination one to another a mans love to himselfe and love to God to love God more then himselfe and so to seeke all good in God and in the way leading to him Secondly take man as he standeth in competition and opposite to God in matter of will and desire In this case a man must not loue and seeke himselfe but God When a man seekes good to himselfe in a way displeasing to God herein he must not seeke himselfe for he must live to God and not to himselfe when his thoughts and desires and affections are carried for himselfe principally this is against the rule this is not the state of a Christian of a beleever thus to seeke himselfe in any thing contrary to God or in any thing above him Thus you have the opening of it And it shall appeare to be a truth by these reasons For a man to live to himselfe that is to doe the actions of life with respect to himselfe not to others and to God It is First a dishonour to God Secondly injurious to Christ. Thirdly dangerous and hurtfull to a mans selfe First I say it is dishonourable to God It is the greatest dishonour the creature can doe to the Creatour to exalt himselfe to make himselfe his end in the actions hee doth It is to make a mans selfe a God and to make God an Idoll For what is that incommunicable glory that God will not give to another but this to make himselfe his end It is a glory proper only to God Hee made all things for himselfe Prov. 16. 4. Marke how these two agree well together that that that is the efficient cause should be the finall cause too that as God is the maker so hee should be the end of all things and as that that giveth beeing to the creature it is out of it selfe so likewise that that should quicken and act the creature should bee out of it selfe When a man therefore propounds himselfe as his end he is said in that to make himselfe God Those false Apostles Phil. 3. 20. it is said of them that they made their belly their god because this they propounded as their end how they might advantage themselves in the world how they might feed and delight themselves and exalt themselves and serve not God This is to bring God below a mans selfe making God an Idoll and himselfe God I say therefore it is the highest dishonour that the creature can doe to God Secondly it is the greatest injurie that he can doe to Christ to live to himselfe Christ may say truly and more properly and fitly to us then Saint Paul could say to Philemon Thou owest thy selfe to mee Wee owe our selves to him by all rights especially by that great right of purchase hee bought us to himselfe he redeemed us to himselfe You are bought with a price saith the Apostle therefore glorifie God in your spirits and bodies for they are Gods They are his and not your owne because he bought them bought them when you were slaves and had inthralled your selves therefore you owe yourselves to him hee hath purchased you to himselfe In the old Law the rule was that if a man had bought another either out of captivitie or the like he was to demand all the worke and service that this man could doe all his time and strength belonged unto him that bought him for he was his money therefore he might exact of him the uttermost hee could doe for his service for he bought him Much more Christ that hath bought us from a worse slaverie from a slavery under the power of darknesse and bought us with the greatest price even with the effusion of his owne bloud Hee hath redeemed us saith Saint Peter not with silver and gold but with his owne precious bloud a price farre above that if a man should give all his wealth Now when Christ hath bought us for himselfe wee are become not his money but his bloud therefore all that we have and are is due to him because we are his If we have any good in the world in things present if there be any good to the soule in things to come all is by Christ therefore all must be unto him I a man have a servant if he be either bound to him suppose an Apprentise or if he be hyred to him suppose a workman or Artificer if hee live by him and have maintenance from him every man expects that his time be to his Master and his worke for his Masters advantage If a day-labourer come at night and demand pay the Master will aske him what worke hee did suppose the man should tell him he had beene building himselfe a cottage or mending his owne apparell or had beene doing such and such worke for himselfe but what hast thou done for mee saith the Master Dost thou thinke to live by me and not worke to me Doe we thinke to live by Christ and not serve Christ This is the very end why hee hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies that wee might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Marke it wee must serve him for he hath delivered us that is we must doe him service doe his worke not some peece of the day and the worke of another another part of the day doe somewhat with respect to God and somewhat with respect to our selves but we must serve him all the dayes of our life The whole time of the hyreling is for his Masters service and the wholetime of a Christian for the service of Christ for hee hath bought us with the price of his owne bloud Then it is an injury to the Lord Christ because he hath ransommed us at such a price for himselfe if we doe things to our selves and not to him Thirdly as it is a dishonour to God and injurious to Christ that men should live to themselues so it is dangerous to a mans felfe And that will appeare by comparing what wee lose by it with what we gaine by it Compare our losse and our gaine together and wee shall see then that wee doe our selves the greatest mischiefe when we seeke our selves most Consider first what wee lose by it Our happinesse What is the happinese of the creature but the injoying of God We lose our end and perfection What is the blessednesse of the creature but to obtaine his end What is the end of the creature but the glory of the Creatour Then the creature commeth to perfection and blessednesse and happinesse when it is most emptie of himselfe when he most perfectly and with due affection seekes God Therefore in seeking our selves we lose our happinesse Saint Paul so conceived of their blessednesse they let fall themselves in the highest point of selfe-love when they stood in competition with God or opposition against God Moses desired that his name might bee blotted
and drawes him to God therefore I say there are certaine graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himselfe What are those First the knowledge of God in Christ. Get a more full and particular and experimentall knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefest of tenne thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so wee would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then tenne sounes better then tenne friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith the Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in that 11. Hebr. What made them live â—…o to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himselfe by faith Moses forsooke the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whom the world was not worthy wandred up and downe in sheepes skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith workes by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly wee shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soule to Christ. The love of Christ constraineth mee saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for wee thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soule loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that is for instruction Beeing convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinfull estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possibility of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and lesse to themselves A man simply considered without any relation to others or dependance upon another man he may please himselfe but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men hee must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himselfe as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himselfe as a Christian and observe the good of the body hee must carry himselfe as a member to doe good to the whole Let every Christian labour to doe this if he would have comfort to his soule that hee doth not live to himselfe that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithfull dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man saith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the soules of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their soules but when hee saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to doe men good with whether it be inward or outward gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man anything whereby I can bee advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not live to himselfe is bound to serve every man with every gift he hath If God have furnished a man with inward gifts the graces of his Spirit If a man have knowledge and faith or experience or comfort whatsoever graces of the Spirit hee hath there are duties appointed and a Communion of Saints exprest that men may be stirred up to exercise those graces in that communion for the good of all the Saints Therefore wee are said to have knowledge to profit with And gifts to edifie with All that a man hath God hath given him for this end that God may be glorified by it Herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Men have much benefit by the graces of the Spirit in others when they are improved as they ought they are as lights amongst men in the world Grace when it is opened like the Box of oyntment raiseth a desire in others after it Grace exercised and communicated to others it sheweth the amiablenesse of it Christians should therefore doe it that they may make Christianity lovely that they may make the profession of Religion amiable to the world that is by communicating the graces of God to others This every man should doe in his place in his person take all advantages this way And as it is good for others so it is good for a mans selfe to doe thus a man increaseth his owne store Liberalitie we say is the best husbandrie There is no promise in the Scripture for hoarding up there are many to distribute I say it is the best husbandrie in the world especially in spirituall things it is as the oyle increased in the pouring out like the loaves the more they were broken the more they multiplied still We see the hand nourisheth it selfe by administring food to the mouth so a Christian not onely exerciseth but increaseth grace in himselfe by communicating grace to others And what I say for spirituall I say for outward things If a man have wealth or honour or any of these outward things and an opportunitie he should imploy them for others that it may appeare that hee doth not live to himselfe Hee that layeth up riches only for himselfe and his family liveth to himselfe Hee that followeth his calling only for himselfe and his family liveth to himselfe Hee doth that which a man out of Christ would doe but a man that would live unto God hee must glorifie God with his estate To doe good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased Heb. 13. Charge them that are rich in the world that they bee not high-minded but ready to distribute to the necessities of the Saints
name of my blessed Lord they did not bring to my remembrance they were not Vehicula instruments to convey to my soule something of my God Therefore all that Eloquence vanished and it was but an empty sound like a Cart that runnes with speed rattleth and makes a great noise when it is emptie so all the goodly sound of words when there is nothing of God carryed along with it that puts us in mind of God it will have but little savour and rellish to a pious heart But I must not dilate upon things lest I prevent my selfe in what I more intend This is the first thing that I note here the Object upon which we should place our hearts and soules they should bee toward God and toward his Name But then secondly here is intimated in these words nay and directly exprest the Acts which a Christian should exercise upon this Object There are three Acts that are here mentioned for the whole soule must be taken up and carried with full streame toward God in all the parts and faculties of it and so wee have it here clearely exprest First here is an act of the Understanding the intellectuall facultie mentioned Our remembrance is toward thy name There is a remembrance of God and his name And this should bee one thing which a Christian should take speciall care of Our memories should not be like sives to let out the cleare water and to returne the graines and the dregges We should not have that treasurie to preserve rubbish but to preserve our Jewels as when there was a dispute before Alexander that great King concerning a rich Cabinet that he tooke amongst his spoiles when hee had overthrowne Darius King of Persia the richest Cabinet of the most costly Jewels that the world had then seene there was a dispute before him to what use he should put it and every one having exprest their mindes according as their fancies lead them the King himselfe concluded that he would keepe that Cabinet to be a treasurie to lay the bookes of Homer in I am sure the richest Cabinet that is is in the soule of a man the memorie which is the treasure-house where we lay up all that we know and learne it is a rich Cabinet I confesse and therefore the fitter for the richest Jewell to lay up the word of God there as Marie treasured up those things shee heard in her heart to lay up the remembrance of God there often to thinke upon God It is a very sweet saying of a learned and godly Father A man should oftener remember God then hee doth breath As the Common-wealth is maintained by exportation and importation of commodities so is our life maintained by a continuall exportation and importation of the Ayre passing to and fro breathing out the Ayre when it is too hot in us and fetching it in coole againe to refresh and supply the spirits our life I say is maintained by it and God is the very fountaine of life to us even as the soule is the life of the body so is God the life of the soule therefore we should alwayes be remembring of God so oft as wee breath breathing out prayers to him or prayses of him in returne of his mercie Our memories I say should be exercised in thinking upon God in remembring of God Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth saith Solomon We should begin betimes and wee should never be weary of this The memorie is one of the brittlest parts and we are most apt in age to grow to oblivion and forgetfulnesse as that great Oratour did sometime it is reported of him that his memory which was incomparably excellent before failed him so much before he died that he forgat his owne name Wee cannot forget God but we must be worse then hee and doe that first forget our owne name that wee are Christians that wee are sonnes and daughters of God Therefore this should be a thing that we should often inure our selves unto not to put the thoughts of God from us or thinke they are too sad and serious and so to account them as unwelcome guests but we should rather often bath our selves in these sweet delights in the meditation and remembrance of God That is one thing And then secondly besides the act of the understanding I will goe according to the words of the text there is an act of the will and of the affections one onely named as a tast of all the rest for indeed whâ—…e one is all are they are so linked and chained together that they cannot be separate And here is a sweet act of affection mentioned The desire of our soule is toward thee This should be one part of a Christians character that his desires should be alwayes breathing out and flaming up towards heaven that if he cannot at least obtaine the highest pitch of full sayles of love and of a full perfection in vertue and grace yet whatsoever he commeth short in otherwise to make it up with abundant desires ardent longing desires not to come short in that to be sure that will make an excellent supply And indeed it is that that poore and weake Christians must trust to many times must relieve themselves with thoughts of they often find themselves exceeding short and defective in performances if they did not find some desires working in them there would scarse be any symptome of life As it may be in the body a man can see sometimes but little motion in the body scarse any symptome of life the pulse is very weake and faint and scarse moveth at all that can be discerned but yet it may be there is some kind of breath stirring or else we conclude the party dead so it is in this case desire is that if there be truth in it be it the lowest degree of it which is an evidence of spirituall life there cannot be truth of grace where there is not unfeigned and hearty desires toward God desires to approve our selves to him desires to walke with him in our whole course desires to bee defective in nothing and that is in some sort true as you know Divines have determined it and if it be not mis-interpreted there is a certaine truth in it the desire of grace is the grace it selfe and the desire of God is that which makes some union and giveth us some communion and fellowship with God For it is impossible that the heart should desire and long after God except it bee that the heart be pointed with love toward God except the heart love God for desire is nothing but a certaine configuration of love Love is the generall affection of the soule to any thing that is good in all the postures of it Now if it fall out that the good thing I love be absent from me that I have it not in possession then love is shaped out and sheweth it selfe in desires It must needes be
therefore that where there are desires toward God and desires of grace there is somewhat of God formed in that person there is something of grace begun at least the first lineaments thereof are drawne in some kind of truth This is the second Act that Christians should exercise and take speciall care to cherish that they have continuall pantings and breathings of desires toward God their hearts should worke and beate toward him continually But then in the third place there is another thing expressed in the words of the Text and that is these desires are not only according to our Proverbe of wishers and woulders ineffectuall desires desires that are meere gaping to see if the thing will drop into our mouthes or no without any bestirring of our selves but here is joyned with them if wee peruse the words of the Text we shall find it endeavours I have desired thee in the night and I will seeke thee early the soule of a Christian desires God in the evening and his spirit will seeke him early in the morning for those particulars of the time I shall touch by and by but now I only take notice of that third distinct act here mentioned which is our desires must be joyned with inquiries with indeavours to search after God to see if we may grope by any meanes to find him out to learne to know what is the way of his good will and pleasure how we may lead a life that may be acceptable to him and how we may come to the possession and assurance of his favour and be accepted in his sight Except there be endeavours it is a shrewd suspition that the desires are ineffectuall desires and unformed desires and not those that argue any life and truth of grace But when our desires are joyned with these bestirrings of the soule to seeke after God to search him out in his Word in his Ordinances to find his steps and to find his goings and so to maintaine a sweet and holy communion with him that is a sweet act of grace and a certaine ratification and seale of the truth of it But then let me adde the third thing In what height are all these actions to be boyled up or in what manner must we tender these services to God in this kind How must our understandings lay hold upon God and treasure him up in our memories How must our affections and desires worke toward him how must our endeavours be carryed toward God The manner of all these will make this compleat and so make up the full and compleat Character of a Christian in this generall dutie First the soule must be carried intimatly and most inwardly the inward motions and workings of the soule and spirit must bee toward God And therefore the Prophet here expresseth these acts as the acts of the very soule and spirit of a man All outward actions of seeking toward God and making our approaches and addresses toward him they are all such as may be counterfeited a hypocrite may act them There is nothing in the world no shape of any externall thing in the world but a Painter with his pensill can draw the picture of it give a resemblance of the thing and there is no outward action in the world that belongeth to God or to Christianitie but it is possible for a Painter for a base hypocrite to represent them with an artificiall pensill But the inward acts of life that no Painter can imitate a Painter cannot make a picture to have heart and entrailes and lunges to have life and motion and spirits and bloud stirring in the veines all those things a Painter cannot imitate he can make shapes but he cannot put the life into them he can make outward formes but he cannot put the inwards to them Now then this is that intended here all those outward actions must bee animated actions not dead actions actions that have no further bottome then the teeth outwards that grow upon the house toppe a word growing upon the tippe of the tongue that hath no roote in the heart and so for the rest But they must have the roote in the heart and soule of a man that must inwardly be carried towards God And when the heart and soule and spirit of a man all which words are here used by a supernaturall grace that is implanted in them when I say they are thus carried toward God it is an argument of spirituall life that there is some life Secondly they must be carried sincerely not for any by or base respects When a man makes toward any person or thing and professes love to it and doth it not for the thing it selfe but for some by end he doth not love that person he makes to but he loveth that thing for whom he makes to that person As for example A man scrapeth and croucheth and keepes a doe with a man that he never saw or knew one that he is ready it may bee when his backe is turned to curse but yet he will doe this for his almes for his gaine to make a prey a use of him some way this man loveth his almes loveth his prey loveth his bounty but it is no argument of love to the man So it is in this case for a man to make toward God and to seeme to owne him and to be one of the generation of those that seeke his face to addresse himselfe in outward conformitie and many other things by which another may charitably if hee have no other ground judge of him all this is nothing except a man may discerne something that may give him a tast that his spirit doth uprightly and sincerely seeke God that he loveth God for God himselfe that he loveth grace for grace it selfe hee loveth the Commandements of God because they are Gods commandements and because they are beautifull being according to the rule of his Word But otherwise if it be any sinister thing that carrieth a man on toward God it is no argument of the life and truth of grace You know it is so in experience there be many things that move and yet their motion is no argument of life A wind-mill when the wind serveth moveth and moveth very nimbly too yet you doe not say presently that that is a living creature No it moveth only by an externall cause by an artificiall contrivance it is so framed that when the wind setteth in such and such a corner it will move and so having but an externall Moter and cause to move and no inward principle no soule within it to move it it is an argument that it is no living creature So it is here if a man see another move and move very fast in those things which of themselves are the wayes of God see him move as fast to heare a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hastie to thrust himselfe and bid himselfe a guest to the Lords Table when God
hath not bid him as any the Question is what principle sets him aworke if it be an inward principle of life out of a sincere affection and love to God and his ordinances that carrieth him to this it argueth that man hath some life of grace But if it bee some wind that bloweth him on the wind of State the wind of Law the wind of danger of penaltie the wind of fashion or custome to doe as his neighbours doe if these or such like bee the things that draw him thither this is no argument of life at all it is a cheape thing it is counterfeit and poore ware Thirdly that which I have often said to be the principall and the most considerable thing that I know in all practicall Divinitie and which is the most Charactaristicall of the truth of Grace and of the life of Pietie in any one our spirits and soules and affections towards God must be advanced to this height to be carried toward God aboue all other things I beseech you seriously thinke of it I have often spoken of it but it may be there may be some roome left for the mention of it now and some necessitie of pondering it well It will bee the Charactaristicall thing by which a man may most certainly discerne himselfe And I would desire to know wherein my defect of understanding is if I be mistaken but it seemes to me as a cleare thing that every one here that hath not a mind to affront the mind of God he dares not contest this argument that it is a rationall thing that if God be the best of Beeings he should have the best portion in our love All reason commands us to love that best which is best and to dispense our love according to the degree of the excellencie of the thing There is no man but apprehendeth this clearely A man may say that he loves his Wife and he will prove it and this shall be his argument I love her aswell as I doe another woman Is this the proofe of conjugall love was this the covenant made betweene them hath hee fulfilled it in this case to her or she to him There is no man but seeth that there is more required there is a peculiarity and proprietie of love required in this case It must certainly be so here for we contract and espouse our soules to Christ and upon those very termes for better and for worse to forsake all the world and to cleave to him alone and if our spirits be not raised and advanced to that degree of affection that Christ and God be so lovely and beautifull in our eyes and so good for I name one sometime and sometime another it is all one upon the point if I say they be not advanced thus high the conjugall knot was never tied betweene Christ and the soule it is impossible therefore that such a one should have to plead the benefits that flow from a Conjugall union neither can hee have title or right to any thing that issueth from a marriage with Christ whose soule did but equivocate and would never speake out the words and who never answered the interrogations of a good conscience as Saint Peter speakes in another case that when the soule in the contract should say that she takes him for to love and honour and obey him and to make him her Lord and Saviour if the soule doe not yeeld to this which it cannot doe if it doe not esteeme him the best of all others and that all others are to bee thrâ—… away and to be forsaken in comparison of him This is the tâ—… circumstance I have noted hence which I suppose is intimated in these words Though I have not said it is exprest here yet it is so carryed with such a fulnesse the desire of our soule is to thee and to the remembrance of thy name as if it were to God only or at least to him principally But I must hasten In the fourth place It must be a universall love and so a universall obedience which is the fruit of it which must justifie the truth of our affections towards God and set the heart in a right frame and temper Except a man love God and love all the wayes of God and all the ordinances of God and yeeld himselfe in subjection and resigne himselfe in obedience to them all if he doe but reserve and make choyce of any one sinne to lie and wallow and tumble in he doth evacuate all the other good hee throweth downe all the other good with that one evill Will you come and plead with God that there is but one sinne that you have defiled and polluted your soule with and wallowed and tumbled in all your life and I hope God will never refuse me or barre me out of his presence and fellowship and communion with him for that Yes you are as filthy all over as filthy and defiled and abominable and odious to his eye and to every other sense aswell with one as if you had beene in ten thousand slowghes one after another And as the Philosopher speakes a Cuppe or some such thing that hath a hole in it is no Cuppe it will hold nothing and therefore cannot performe the use of a cup though it have but one hole in it so if the heart have but one hole in it if it retaine the divell but in one thing as we use to say In law one man in possession keepes possession and a man can never have true possession till he have voyded all so except all be rooted out and exterpated and a man commeth to yeeld a full and absolute subjection to Christ universally Christ hath no part or portion in us nor we in him Lastly there were divers other particulars that I thought to have added in this but I see I must passe them over It is not every affection that may seeme to have some height and universality though I doe acknowledge that they will in some measure characterise out the truth but yet there must be this addition as it was with the feed that was cast into the good ground it had depth of earth so this must have depth in the heart it must be well rooted and fastned for perpetuity it must be a constant affection grounded and established in the heart The Ayre you know is light and yet we call it not a lightsome body because it is lighted by the presence of another and when that light body is removed it is darke you may say it is darke for the Ayre is darke in the night when the Sunne is absent as it is light when the Sunne is present those we call lightsome bodyes whose light is originated and rooted in themselves So it is in this case such are not godly persons that may have some injections of godly thoughts and godly affections cast into them and be in them for a spurt and for a brunt and for a little flash like
true to their owne way And if they doe live amongst wicked men to be rather gainers by them to grow the better rather then to receive infection and corruption from them They say that Lillies and Roses or such like things if they be planted by Garlicke or Onions or such like unfavourie things they doe increase in sweetnesse the Rose and the Lillie are sweeter so it should be when godly men are planted and hemmed about with wicked men the vilenesse and odiousnesse of their wicked wayes may make them to loath wickednesse the more and to love godlinesse and to blesse God that hath kept them that they have not run to the same excesse of ryot with them In stead of all other Application which I thought to have added as for example and for instance to shew us the true Analogie of a Christian that we may discerne who is a right Christian and who is not we must not discerne it by our fancies but by those Characters God hath set And a just apologie in the second place for those that are branded with nick-names If this be the description of true pietie and of a true Christian to have the heart and soule breathing after God and seeking night and day after him and setting themselves wholly to walke in the way of uprightnesse with sincerity before God then certainly they are unjustly branded whose consciences doe aime at these things and the consciences of other men may tell them that they doe so and they see no other And so for conviction of those men that are in the Bosome of the Church they may see if they be not according to this stampe if they either faile of it that there is none of these liniaments to be found in them nothing toward God and his name no understanding no affection no endeavours working that way and so for the rest if they utterly faile of this they utterly come short and are not worthy the name of Christians but much more if they doe deride and oppose and contemne the mind and the wayes of God which God hath chalked out to us for our rule and direction that is a high degree of fayling and comming short and therefore they may be convinced that they cannot bee right I doubt when the Bookes shall bee opened and every one judged according to the booke of God which shall be layed for the tryall of our lives if our lives be not according to that whatsoever our words bee and howsoever wee carry it it will not beare us out then And it might have beene a Use also of Examination let every one of us examine our selves and what our estate is according to this rule and what degree of this we have attained too And then for comfort for those that are such according to this rule whether it be in the perfection or in the affection If they have not the perfection yet if their affections stand and runne this way and that they can truly and ingeniously say that they are such in sincerity there is a great deale of comfort for them And for Exhortation out of the severall branches of the duty which I cannot meddle with And out of the severall Motives that I propounded out of the words of the Text. But I say in stead of all these this present Sister of ours whose Funerall we now solemnize I might fetch an Argument as a Motive to all these severall duties from her example To returne now therefore to the present occasion I will speake something concerning Her in honour of whose Funerall solemnities we are at this time met together that gave us the occasion I shall according to my custome dispatch it briefly When any children of God die the last offices of Love are performed to them by three severall sorts or rankes The Angels they convey their soules into the bosome of their father Abraham into the blisse of eternity The Bearers attended with the Mourners they carry their bodies to the bosome of their mother earth to rest in tranquility The Preachers as it were a middle betweene God and them they commend their name to the mindes of their friends the hearers to live in their memories My part at the present is to doe this and I shall doe it not so much to trumpet out her commendation as to take a hint of something for your instruction which may be usefull But I must intreat you to remember that you doe not use to lace or adorne your mournings and therefore you have little reason to expect any eloquent adorning any Festivall ornament in such a Funerall argument My language must be blacke and patheticall sutable to our sad occasion it must not be pleasing to the fancie in the fresh flowers of Rhetoricke my language I say must be in blacke but in blacke layed upon a ground of truth which shall not blush for blame speaking any thing besides what I doe really conceive As I dare not doe you so much wrong as to paint or guild a rotten post so I am willing to doe her so much right as to set a rich Pearle in gold To passe other circumstances as that shee was descended of an honest and worthy Familie and of good qualitie that Shee had a full and hopefull issue descending from her selfe and such like circumstances which I leave for Oratours as unfit for a Divine to meddle withall All that I shall say concerning Her shall bee out of the Text in which you may behold a true picture of her in all the linaments of her and out of it you may be able to draw and take a good patterne for your selves The Byas of her spirit was toward God and toward his Name whose lively Image shee bare graven in her memorie living in her desires and beyond all pictures moving also in her endeavours to seeke after God The very quintescence of her spirit was carryed this way and that intimatly sincerely universally and constantly With her soule shee desired him in the night and with her spirit shee sought him in the morning the light of the morning and the evening starre as sometime the Starre did the Wise men conducted her to the Sunne of righteousnesse In mercies Shee was not wanton but thankfull and fruitfull In judgements as in a fatherly way of correction Shee had a deepe share wherein being exercised with many yeares weaknesse as those that knew her knew very well but yet in such fatherly dealings shee shewed her patience her perseverance her proficiencie and being a Mourner for the stubbornnesse of the wicked shee was a gainer likewise by them too and all because shee looked up to God who sees and weighs all our paths In which I have briefly recollected upon the matter the summe of the whole things conteyned in the text so that so long as this Text is in the Bible and so long as the Bible is in the Church and so long as any thing though unworthy of this Sermon remaines in your memories
must understand his second comming to judgement For there is a threefold comming of Christ. A twofold comming in his Bodie and one by his Spirit The first was the comming of Christ in the flesh when hee came to take our nature upon him and to be borne of a Virgin The second is the comming of Christ by his Spirit so hee commeth continually and dayly in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospell in vertue and efficacie His last comming and his second comming in respect of his body is when hee shall come to judgement Never looke for the comming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Iesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continuall expectation of all the Saints of God and the continuall desire of their hearts their continuall waiting is for the second comming of the Lord Christ. As it was before the first comming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second comming Before the first comming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore saith Iacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiencie Oh that thou wouldest breake the heavens and come downe And immediatly upon the time of Christs comming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continuall expectation of it and therefore it was made a marke of a good man in those dayes It is said of Ioseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second comming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last comming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up saith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it bee there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Crosse yet it is intended in generall of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will bee since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himselfe in his second comming to finish all these dayes of sinne And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appeares by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4. 8. saith the Apostle there Henceforth there is laid up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to mee only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall bee saved and hee saith they are such as love the appearing of Iesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and lookes and longs for And in Heb. 9. 28. Christ died once for many and unto them that looke for him shall hee appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and onely to those that looke for the appearance of Christ. Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 11. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompence of reward and that they saw the promise a farre off They looked still for those things that were to appeare by Christ. This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infallible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to looke for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ. Without this there is little love to Christ. The Church in Cant. 1. 2. sheweth her love to Christ Draw mee saith shee and we will runne after thee And chapt 2. 4. Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love and chap. 5. If you find him whom my soule loveth tell him I am sicke of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit saith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit shee saith come too Christ saith to his Church I come and the Church shee saith againe Come Here is the agreement betweene Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the comming of Christ. There are many that pretend they waite and desire for the comming of Christ. When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall heare a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evill times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs comming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appeare in these three things First it will appeare by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the comming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope looke both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that hee beleeved above hope because he knew that he that promised was able to doe it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright waite for and desire the comming of Christ. But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companions of this expectation of Christs comming when it is right and as it should be in the soule of a Beleever The first companion of it is Patience If we hope for that wee see not then doe we
with patience waite for it saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 25. If we have hope and expectation of Christs comming if it be right it will stay the heart and calme and quiet the spirit in the middest of all injuries and crosses and afflictions in the world it will make us to waite with patience Hee that beleeveth will not make hast When a man beleeveth that there is a time when Christ will put an end to all these things it is that which mortifieth and subdueth the rising of his spirit and discontentednesse in afflictions it makes him possesse his soule in Patience There is a kind of impatient waiting of men in the middest of discontent and revilings and evill speakings and threatnings of others and then Oh that Christ would come But when Faith workes kindly in the soule of a man there is a calme composednesse of heart a submission to God in the present tryall and yet neverthelesse a rejoycing in hope of the comming of Christ and of that glory that shall bee revealed That is the first thing there is Patience accompanying it The second thing that accompanieth it is Love No man can in truth and aright hope for and waite for the comming of Christ but he that loveth Christ and his comming Now this Love must be grounded on our tast of Gods love Not that wee loved him but that he loved us first saith the Apostle no man loveth Christ but first he is loved of Christ no man loveth God but first he is loved of God and the tast and rellish of Gods love in my soule workes love to God againe as from the heate that commeth from the Sunne there is a reflection that boundeth backe againe to the Sunne so Gods love in us reflects love to God againe This Love will appeare in the secret sighings of the heart All the creatures groane yea we also sigh in our selves saith the Apostle waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies There is I say a secret sighing of heart and that not only in the time of trouble and affliction but in the time of comfort and prosperitie when a man hath abundance of outward things about him yet then because his love is set upon Christ and the perfection and end of love is the fruition of the object loved therefore there is a sighing a holy discontent as it were a kind of yearning of the heart toward Christ When shall I come and appeare before God saith David how long Lord how long saith the Church in the Revelation If a man love Christ and his comming only because it shall end those miseries and those troubles that are upon him in this life this is not so much love of Christ as love of a mans selfe of his owne ease and peace and rest But the love of Christ is this when for the injoying of himselfe I long for the fruitton of him whom my soule loveth and I account nothing amiable in comparison of Christ nothing delectable nothing comfortable nothing sweet to Christ this is it that putteth the soule out of tast and rellish with any thing makes it sigh as it were under the enjoyment of all the comforts of this life and long for the appearance of Christ because then hee shall be perfected in the perfect enjoyment of Christ himselfe This is that love of Christ that is accompanied with Faith in a Christian and hope and expectation of his comming Now then if thou waite for Christ in truth how commeth it that thou dost not love him thou canst not waite for him aright except thou love Christ himselfe and for himselfe And if thou love Christ it will appeare by thy care to walke in Christ to derive vertue from him in all holy actions to derive all heavenly wisedome all heavenly disposition of heart from him to please Christ in all thy wayes to doe that whereby thou maist aprove thy selfe to God in Christ. This is the disposition of a heart loving Christ and this is that loving of Christ for himselfe and in himselfe that giveth me assurance that I love the appearance of Christ. That is the second companion of this waiting for Christ if it be right there is a love to Christ. The third and last companion of a mans waiting for Christ is the continuall affection of the heart those same ejaculations that intercourse that holy and heavenly communion which the soule hath with Christ here First in his ordinances having a holy communion with him in them waiting at the Posts of the dore of wisedomes house to heare what Christ who is wisedome it selfe will speake to us waiting if that hee will come now in the ministrie of his Word in his Spirit whom we hope to enjoy fully in glory Wayting for him likewise in the Sacraments to receive a further confirmation of our faith in him wayting for him also in prayer to receive further consolation and strength from him Thus Annah it is said that She was one that waited for the consolation of Israel and served God in the Temple in prayer day and night So where there is a waiting for Christ there will be a continuall intercourse of the soule with Christ a heavenly and holy communion with him in duties Dost thou waite for Christs comming and yet runne from Christs ordinances How can these stand together There is no man that can ever waite with comfort for Christs comming in glory but hee that now waiteth upon Christ in his ordinances If thy delight be in holy duties in the worship of God and that in such religious performances thou waitest for a further conveyance of the Spirit of Christ into thee thou hast warrant to waite for and to expect with comfort the second comming of Christ. Try yourselves therefore by these things It is not every one that saith I would that the Lord Iesus would come or I would that these dayes were full and finished It is not every one that saith thus that rightly lookes for or desires the comming of Christ. But he that thereby becommeth patient and stayes and composeth his heart in a calme and quiet temper in the middest of all crosses and troubles and afflictions that befall him and that upon this ground because Christ will come and put an end to my sinne as well as to my sorrow therefore I will waite with patience till hee come And againe hee that loveth Christ that sigheth for his comming And hee that now delighteth in his ordinances this man only waiteth for the comming of Christ. There is yet a third Tryall and that is the effects and fruits of our waiting for the comming of Christ And that is threefold to goe no further then the Text. The first is a heavenly Conversation The second is a mans resting on Christ as his Saviour and Lord. The third is the change of the body which shall bee in the great day when the soule and body shall bee united together Who shall
vapours from a malecontented spirit Did they not account these afflictions their Justs and Barriers and Turnaments and exercises of honour and chivalrie at which Angels and Archangels were present with their Euges and approbations God himselfe the chiefe Spectator and rewarder of these exercises they themselves tryumphing and boasting in their tryalls with the impresse of the Apostle on their shields of faith Wee are perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus They were more Eagle-eyed by the strength of grace to pry into the nothingnesse of the creature then all the Philosophers by the strength of nature they did mortifie and crucifie and keepe under the body with the lusts thereof and more truly detest the corruption of the outward man then any Platonist whatsoever but were these the grounds the rise of this celestiall affection nothing lesse to see God to enjoy God to dwell with him to converse with him to be bee dissolved to be with Christ these transported their affections not the emptinesse of the things below but fulnesse of things above not the basenesse of earthly things but the glorie of celestiall things not the miseries of this life or of this crazie vessell but the happinesse of the life to come they had but a glimpse of this strange light darted into their soules and the whole world was darknesse unto it they had a gust of sweetnesse cast into the palate of their soules and all things else were bitter and unsavorie Christ was placed in the summitie and height of their soules and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so farre from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groane at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attaine to this perfection As there are two sorts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weake faith and there are strong Christians and there are weake Christians the strong Christian is willing to dye and patient to live the weake Christian is willing to live and patient to dye hee goes when God calls but he could wish that God would deferre his calling hee hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all hee is not perplexed with the feares of Hell yet hee is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven hee hath much strength but knowes it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintnesse of heart or ignorance of his owne strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trye his owne whereas a strong Christian a man growne in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the necke of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facilitie all other pettie feares of ignominie povertie and the like which therefore are dreadfull because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the summe of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crowne of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsoever But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what meanes the agony of the Apostle I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ. What meanes the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit saith come and the Bride saith come and let him that heares say come What meanes her fainting in the Canticles I am sicke of love let him bring mee into his chamber Let mee see his face I am sicke unto death Let mee dye lest I dye that I may see him for ever What meanes the character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What meanes the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What meanes the heroicall encouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Goe out my soule goe out why tremblest thou What meanes the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to die is to live What meanes the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that hee would thanke that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What meanes this groaning and thirsting in my Text Doe not these demonstrate that it is lawfull to desire death Not simply in it selfe or for it selfe it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evill of punishment the daughter of sinne to desire it simply were to desire evill which is abhorrent to nature much lesse ought wee to hasten our death by violent meanes Let their memories bee buried in perpeturall silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianitie who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sinne a sinne against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the worke of his hands the Tabernacle which hee hath made and not to be removed or to bee taken downe but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others wee may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envie this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle betweene two good things his owne glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said Let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be suspended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the booke of life so thousands bee inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightened to me so they bee enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort
feare prohibited Not the feare of God c. Feare is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kindes of feare First naturall feare and that is called naturall either in regard of the materiall or efficient cause When the partie that doth feare is phlegmatick or melancholie and so is naturally inclined to feare this may be called a naturall feare Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the feare of death it is naturall to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this naturall feare is an affection that Almightie God concreated with the soule it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evill but according as it is determined by circumstances Againe there is a carnall evill feare namely when a man feares the evill of punishment more then the evill of sin a corporall evill more then a spirituall a temporall more then an eternall Hee is afraid of losing something hee enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnall feare as I shall explaine it to you more anone and this so farre as it is carnall is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile feare and this is such a feare as lookes at the punishment only and not at the sinne when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never feares sinne that is the cause of it And so withall when this feare is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sinne there is a love of sinne a wishing that God would give him leave to sinne and let loose the reynes to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devill no Heaven nor Hell that he might sinne freely And if he abstaine from sinne at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sinne and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile feare though in it selfe it bee not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that feares servily hee doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as farre as it goes It is good for the restraining of evill men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filiall son-like feare that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatnesse and especially of the goodnesse of God whereby a man so hates punishment as hee hates sinne also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filiall feare One degree we call innitiall feare in this world And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the feare we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to doe that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstaine from evill out of the feare of punishment For answer briefly Any thing almightie God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to doe well or to deterre us from evill we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we doe so we doe well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propovnded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstaine from the forbidden fruit partly out of feare of punishment if Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evill we may have an eye to the punishment that will bee the consequent of the thing For Christ urgeth this to his owne Disciples Feare not him that can kill the body c. And to doe things meerely without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stirre us up to avoid evill and it is well if wee can heartily and truly out of love to God doe it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a feare meerely for punishment and still to retaine the love of sinne and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstaine from sinne partly out of love to God and partly out of feare of punishment this is acceptable to God For a man must love himselfe in subordination to the love of God and therefore he may looke to the avoiding of evill and to the getting of good eternall to soule and body Now these feares we may consider of them thus The naturall feare may be accompanied with the Spirit but it comes not from the Spirit that must be ordered by the word of God Secondly carnall feare comes not from the spirit nor is accompanied with it this is ever to be mortified this wee must take heed of and this feare Abraham is exhorted against here Thirdly the feare that is servile it comes from the spirit but it is not accompanied with the spirit As the dawning of the day the Sunne is the cause of it yet the Sunne is not present when the day dawnes but some glimpse goes before him this wee must cherish so as we bring it to filiall feare and then wee deale aright in that Lastly for filiall feare we must cherish that at all times wee must labour to get still a more reverent respect of the Majestie of God So I have breiefly shewed you what feare is And what feare wee must labour to be freed from all slavish and carnall feare in regard of the world or any thing in the world any ill that may befall us or any good that may be taken from us Now you see that a Christian is such a man as may live without all feare that is carnall Feare not them that can kill the body And in Isaiah 8. 12. Feare not their feare What is the ground of this I will tell you briefly Christ came into the world to deliver us from all our enemies that wee might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse Luke 1. 47. So then the ground is this that man that hath no enemies that man that cannot possibly be molested with any evill what need hee feare For there is no evill in the world that can surprize a man that is in covenant with God that labours to keepe his covenant but by the power of the Spirit he may conquer it For only evill and evill future is the object of feare Now if there be no evill that can befall a child of God but such as may be conquered hee should contemne it and not feare it Now
and the arme of flesh their portion that they must relie upon here is a reed that will either breake or pierce a mans hand No wonder that this man feares in all occasions and extremities because he forsakes the Lord and cleaves to the creature But that man that lives by faith is without feare As Peter when hee began to sinke saith Christ Why dost thou feare O thou of little faith The reason he did sinke was feare and why did hee feare because his faith failed him he did not lay hold upon God and Christ. Lastly let us remember to order our selves aright in regard of our love and this will keepe us from inordinate feare For we must conceive that love is the fountaine of all other affections we love things and therefore we desire them if they be absent and wee rejoyce in them if they be present and wee feare the losse of them to be abridged of them Now let us order our love aright in regard of the things of this world and wee shall never feare much for it is the observation of S. Austin we feare to lose somewhat that we have attained or not to enjoy somewhat that we desire so it ariseth from love somewhat that wee love and afect we are afraid of the losse of it and this is the cause of feare Now in regard of wealth a man is afraid hee shall not have enough he shall not have a competencie it is because hee loves the things of the world too much A man is afraid of Death why because he loves his body too much A man is afraid hee shall lose his children or his friends what is the reason he loves them too much too inordinatly Wee should labour to love them only in and for God and then we shall not be afraid of the losse of them but shall be content to bee disposed in them and in ourselves as God shall see convenient in his heavenly wisedome A word for the occasion and that I will dispatch in a word You know the occasion of our meeting at this time and in this place it is to performe this last rite to the body of a Child that God hath taken lately to his mercie You see how Almightie God is pleased to dispose it sometimes even oft-times from the Cradle to the Grave out of the swadling-bands to the winding-sheete God will have it so sometimes and when it is so wee must lay our hands upon our mouthes and bee content with the will of God For those that are Parents let all learne this lesson not to dote too much upon their children not to be enamoured too much upon such flowers you know how soone God takes them away before you be aware It is not their witt or their comelinesse or agilitie and nimblenesse or healthy constitution or any thing that can award them from the stroake of death when God sends it Therefore learne to love them in and for God for his sake and you shall have no cause to feare the losse of them or grieve immoderately when they are taken away why because they are all alive still to God and this tender Babe is not lost he is but sent before he is alive still in the presence of God the soule still lives and the body shall live and is in Gods account Christ hath the charge of it and will raise it at the last day That man can lose no friend that loves his friend in and for God because they live with God and he shall enjoy them at the last day Againe as we may mourne for the losse of our friends and children or else we were without naturall affection so we must rejoyce that they have gained as we have lost them as they are taken from us so they are taken from the evils of the world from a great deale of sinne and miserie and what that might have beene the Lord only knowes therefore wee have cause to bee thankfull And beloved be thankfull too if God spare any if hee take one he might have taken all and prepare for it too be thankfull for them that are left And remember labour betimes to instruct your children in the feare of God let it be the first thing we infuse into them as soone as they be capable namely the elements of Christian Religion holy and heavenly things why because they may bee taken away before we are aware It may be wee have but a little time but a few opportunities to doe good to them I tell you what our conscience will tell us else that wee have not beene so carefull to instruct our children as they have beene capable And this will cut sore and lie heavie on our conscience and therefore let us doe it betimes Not only to prevent the Divell and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may bee taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learne to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soone that evill day may come we know not that the wise man speakes of therefore betimes while yee haue opportunitie doe it And for our owne part let us learne this First when God croppes such flowers that rise in the budde when he takes away such Children be thankfull to God that hee hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our yeares that hee hath given us such a great deale of space and opportunitie to glorifie him here to doe him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it selfe and a blessing to us if we improve it Againe every one remember if Children doe die old men must die any man may die For if Death strike such as doe but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to feare it I speake not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we feare it inordinatly because we love our lives wee love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continuall spectacles of mortalitie let us bee acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scarres him and he runnes from it at the first but at last he growes throughly acquainted with it and feares it not so it is in regard of death many men will not indure to heare of death they will not indure to thinke of it they will not indure to heare a Funerall Sermon or to come to the house of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and runne from it but if we did oft thinke of it as oft as we thinke
free gift of God And in Rom. 8. hee saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed all our sufferings all our workes they are not worthy of the glory of God we cannot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when wee are justified and an eternall life when wee are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternall life is not a retribution to our workes but the free gift of God When God crownes our merits hee crownes nothing else but his owne free gift these and many other sentences wee finde among the ancient Fathers plainely convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not onely from Scripture but from all sound antiquitie Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our owne deservings doe all the good thou canst take heede it doe not puffe thee up thinke not to merit heaven Alas thou canst not doe it for what is it to the Almightie as it is sayd in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst doe him no good therefore thou canst looke for nothing at his hands since thou canst doe him no good but all that thou doest in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to doe it but all thou canst doe is no more then thou art bound to doe Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy selfe to bee an unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good workes yet thou hast more sinne and the least sinne of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeale must bee to the throne of grace and thy onely plea must bee that of the Publican every one of us God be mercifull to me a sinner when wee have done all wee can it must be mercie and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternall life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gift it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then wee could have no certaintie of it the devill would easily pick the Locke yea without picking he would shake in peeces the crazie joynts of the best worke wee doe he would steale it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us hee hath kept it in his owne hands hee hath layd it up in the Cabinet of his owne mercy and love that never failes for with everlasting mercie hee hath compassion on us Esay 54. hee loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercie that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not and whom hee loves he loves to the end It is layd up in the mercy of God hee will have it his gift least we should keepe it and it should be lost hee hath reserved it in his owne hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternall life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is warie to discerne and faithfull to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternall life is the free gift of God it must make us thankefull to him for it which wee should never doe if we deserved it doth a master thanke his servant for doing his dutie So if wee did thinke heaven were our due we should never be thankfull for it Pride is a great enemy to thankefulnesse therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that wee deserve no good thing at Gods hands then wee will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankefully Especially when wee consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal. 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will heare thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou doe Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankefull to him is all the tribute wee are to pay to this our royall Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thankes We set eternall life at too low a rate if wee forget to bee thankefull There was never a precious Iewell afforded so cheape as eternall life for our thankefulnesse If wee did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants sayd to him concerning his washing in Iordan If the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternall life wee should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankfull be but thankefull Thus I have described to you this twofold seruice the wages of sinne that is death temporall eternall The service of righteousnesse the wages and reward of that eternall life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30. 19. Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sinne nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seede may live If wee follow sinne the wages will be death if wee apply our selves to righteousnesse in the service of God our reward shall be eternall life not that wee deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sinne is death and the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. FINIS THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS PSAL. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have beene afflicted that I might learne thy Statutes ISA. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquitie of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruite to take away his sinne LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12. 10. For they verely for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but Hee for our profit that we might bee partakers of his holinesse THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousnesse and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one
or over-gries any thing hee is troubled and disquieted Let not your hearts be troubled that is grieve not for things more then they are to be grieved for and feare not things more then they are to be feared For all these will dis-joynt the soule as it were it will put the spirit to much paine and disquit as a bone out of joynt Therefore by all meanes keepe your hearts in a right state in that order that God hath set them Let not your hearts be troubled That that I will briefly note here shall be but thus much that Men are wondrous prone even the very best men to be disturbed in their passions and affections Our Saviour Christ speakes it here to his Disciples to those that he had taught before whom hee had gone as an excellent example all his dayes yet these holy men these followers of Christ that had followed him through so many dangers and after so many teachings and instructings of them hee had need to call upon them to stirre them up to consider of their owne estate that their hearts might not bee troubled You may see the Maladie in the Medicine Every prohibition in the word supposeth a corruption and an aptnesse in the naturall heart and spirit of man to sinne and transgresse in that particular Therefore when Christ speakes to his Disciples and tells them they should not be troubled It shewes that even the best men are subject to excesse of passion and affection to be disturbed and troubled through immoderate feare or griefe for that was the case of the Disciples Now briefly I will shew the grounds of it and come to the Application because I will hasten This trouble that is upon the spirits sometimes of the best men it ariseth Partly from Gods providence and hand upon them And partly from Sathan And partly from themselves I will shew you the causes in these in particulars and then applie it First it riseth many times from the hand of God The Lord is said to bee a Sunne and a shield The Lord will be knowne to bee a Sunne and a shield to his people Now looke as it is with the earth when the Sunne withdraweth his light it is all darke and cold and dead So it is with the hearts of the best men when God withdrawes the light of his countenance from the soule it is as the earth at midnight And as it is with Souldiers in the battell if their shields be taken from them they are exposed to every dart and danger every thing may annoy them and wound them So it is in the state of the soule if God withdraw himselfe from it and doe not now support it as before and doe not fence and strengthen it as at other times the fierie darts of Sathan will pierce deepe into the soule and the spirit will not bee able to uphold it selfe against these assaults Now God withdrawes himselfe sometimes from his servants and that in speciall wisedome In respect either of the time past present to come Sometimes God doth it in respect of the time past and so hee doth it by way of correction First to correct his children for their former wantonnesse they have abused the expressions of love and now as a Father takes away the light from his child when hee sees hee makes no better use of it then to play with it So God sometimes takes away the light of his countenance that is he casts cloudes before himselfe he doth not manifest himselfe in that loving favour when his servants neglect that reverence and feare that hee expects from them in the midst of his mercies Secondly this hee doth sometimes as a correction of their negligence when God hath called on them from time to time and they have neglected calling on God hee hath called upon them for dutie and for the leaving of such particular evils and they have neglected it Now God withdrawes himselfe to make them know what it is to doe so And because they will not know what it is to heare his voyce when hee calls hee will make them feele it by his not hearing their voyce when they pray Sometimes hee calls to them as hee did to the Church in the Canticles Open to mee my sister my Spouse my love c. The Church is negligent and carelesse I have put off my cloathes how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now hee withdrawes himselfe from the soule and what is the end of it The Keepers strike her and the watch-men take away her vaile and now shee is left to trouble and perplexitie because Christ had absented himselfe whom shee would not entertaine when hee offered himselfe Thus God doth to correct that that is past And farther God doth it sometimes to correct that carnall confidence and securitie whereunto men are wondrous prone when they goe on in a cleare way with much comfort with wind and tide I said in my prosperitie saith David I shall never bee mooved thou Lord hast made my mountain so strong but what followeth upon it saith he Lord thou hidest thy face and I was troubled now trouble came upon him trouble of Spirit because he rested too much in that outward mountaine in that outward condition whereunto God had exalted him and he placed his hope too much on this and thought it should be alwaies thus now God turnes his hand then David is troubled and that is the first particular in the first cause But Secondly God hath a further ayme and that is for the time present and that is First to informe all his servants where their strength lies where all their good lies it lies not in themselves it lies not in any creature And therefore God will have them seeke it in him that they may do it he drawes them to it by sence they shall be deprived of comfort in respect sometime of outward conveniences and in respect sometime of the light of his countenance shining upon their soules How doe wee know that the Moone shines on the earth by a borrowed light but because wee see it is not alwayes alike in its light we see sometimes it hath a full light and sometimes it is enlightned but by the halfe and sometimes by some little part where wee see this disproportion that it is not alwayes alike wee know by this that the light of the Moone is borrowed from somewhat else from the Sunne Now how doe wee know that the heart of man is fed and releeved and supported with comfort from without it selfe with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spirituall quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwayes alike but sometimes they have aboundance of joy that they seeme to bee as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefes that they seeme to be cast
certainly the soule that hath recourse to Christ shall not returne emptie therefore see how Christ is exprest in heaven Matth. 25. Come yee blessed c. for what you have done to these you have done to me hee is in heaven and so Saul why dost thou persecute me hee is in heaven yet in respect of his Church hee is below therefore be assured that Christ hath not put off the bowels of love to his people he will bee the same if thou receive him as a Lord and Saviour as ever he was to his Disciples But it may be objected wee are exposed to many uncertainties though wee beleeve in Christ and wee finde not the comfort of it here Therefore Christ saith rest not upon things present here you are in Tents but you shall come to your fathers house there is a place provided for you betweene which and this there is as much difference as is betweene a House and a Tent betweene a mans owne mansion and an Inne And though you have hard entertainement in the world yet you shall have an abiding place after But you will say indeede there are mansions but there are aboundance to receive them what shall we doe There are many mansions therefore looke as there are many children to be brought to glory so there are many places to receive them in glory and to settle them there wee see what a vast body the Sunne is and the Starres are yet they seeme but little sparkes in comparison of the heavens above us but what is the heaven of heavens that containe all these infinitly beyond in its owne compasse there are many mansions But how shall we come to heaven Saith Christ I goe to prepare a place for you as if he should say all that I have done is for your sakes I die and ascend and sit at the right hand of God for your sakes I will come at the day of judgement to bring you to glory all that Christ doth now as God-man as Mediator betweene good and us all is for our sake But when Christ is taken from us how shall wee get thither Saith he I will come and bring you with me I will come in glory at the day of Iudgement in the clouds and inable you to meete me and thence bring you to those heavenly mansions in my fathers house never doubt how these things shall bee done I will doe them all Thus Christ would confirme their faith there is the greatest happinesse and comfort in this wherein he would have them setled this should stir us up to settle our hearts this way But the time is past this shall be sufficient for this time FINIS FAITHS TRIUMPH OVER THE GREATEST TRYALLS 1 JOH 5. 4. This is the victory that overcommeth the world even our Faith ROM 8. 37. Nay in all these things wee are more then Conquerours LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. FAITHS TRIVMPH OVER THE GREATEST TRYALLS SERMON XXXII HEB. 11. 17. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up his sonne Isaac and hee that had received the promise offered up his onely begotten sonne THis Chapter doth speake in the commendation of the Faith of many of the Patriarchs and Abraham among the rest is brought in with a manifest testimony of his Faith there be two things observable which Abrahams faith strengthened him to act one was to give up his Countrey the other was to give up his Sonne to give up his Countrey in the 8. verse by faith Abraham when hee was called of God to goe out in a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and hee went out not knowing whether hee went To leave our friends our parents to take our journey wee know not whither to live among wee know not whom and all this upon a bare word this was not an easie thing to part with good land for some good words this was a hard matter sence derides it and reason contemnes it and will not hearken to it but Faith can see more in Gods promise then sence can find Abraham will leave his Countrey when God calls him to it but never shall lose his Inheritance by beleeving and obeying no man did ever yet hazard his estate who could part with it upon obedient tearmes A second thing that hee is to part with is with his Sonne his only sonne his first begotten sonne in this Act of faith Abraham sayles against wind and tyde where hee breakes through the contentments of the world not only of sence and reason but of naturall affection The story in a word is this God after many yeares patience at length gave Abraham a sonne in his old age he was the child of many prayers and of many teares the parents delight and to Abrahams thinking an heire of life because a child of the Promise hee had not long spent his gray haires in a strange land but God on a sudden calls upon Abraham to give backe his sonne his very sonne Isaac as we may reade in the 22 of Genesis Now what doth Abraham doe how doth hee behave himselfe doth he expostulate with God Any thing Lord but spare my sonne Isaac Nay the Text saith hee offered up his sonne Doth hee murmure and grumble against God in this manner Lord why dost thou single out this delight of mine why dost thou seeme to envie this blessing of mine No hee offered up his Isaac as if the Text had expressed Abrahams language thus O Lord my God what is it that thou callest for whom is it that thou callest for is it for my only sonne Isaac the sonne of my love the sonne of thy promise the sonne of my age verely Lord thou shalt have him it is true I love him dearely well but I love thee better I got him by beleeving and I shall never lose him by obeying if Isaac were a thousand sonnes thou shouldest have them all though I am a father yet Lord thou art a God if I give him he is a sacrifice acceptable and though I kill him yet thou canst quicken him and raise him againe I shall never lose my Isaac though I part with my sonne for thou hast said in Isaac shall thy seed bee called Now the parts of these words are two First we have Abrahams great tryall Secondly we have Abrahams acquitment First his tryall Abraham was tried when hee offered up his sonne Secondly his acquitment by Faith Abraham offered up his sonne In the former we may observe three particulars First the person that is tryed Abraham Secondly the Person that tried him God Thirdly the thing wherein hee war tried it was no ordinary thing it was to part with a part of himselfe to offer up his deare sonne Isaac In the latter part two things are observable First his quickening up himselfe in his obedientiall act hee offered up Isaac saith the Text. Secondly the powerfull cause which did inable Abraham to so
the restoring of the body to life and the restoring the soule to life Secondly in regard of the certaine inseparable connexion betweene these two First I say in regard of the Analogie and proportion betweene these two the resurrection of the body and of the soule now the proportion and analogie consists especially in these foure things First as in the resurrection of the body the living soule must first returne to the dead body and quicken it before it can rise againe so here in the Resurrection of the soule the Spirit of grace must returne to the soule that is dead in sinnes and quicken it befor it can rise againe so that there is a similitude in regard of the first beginning and principle of this Resurrection Againe secondly there is an analogie and proportion in regard of the point and terme the state from which the Resurrection is for as in the resurrection of the body the body riseth from the state of corruption from the bondage of the Grave so here in this resurrection of the soule the soule and the whole man riseth from the state of spirituall corruption from the bondage of sinne The third proportion is in regard of the estate to which a man riseth for as in the resurrection of the body a man shall rise againe without those infirmities that the body had before he shall rise to lead another kind of life a glorified life so in this resurrection of the soule the sinner riseth and is raised up to lead a new kind of life a spirituall life and therefore it is called Newnesse of life Rom. 6. 4. that we should walke in newnesse of life both in regard of the new principle and fountaine of it the spring of grace in the soule And in regard of the new effects and new operations which are answerable to the new roote Fourthly there is a proportion also in regard of the perpetuitie of both for as in the Resurrection of the body the body shall rise an immortall body not subject to death any more so here in the resurrection of the soule when the sinner is restored to spirituall life he is raised up to a durable immutable estate hee shall continue to live this life of grace and the immortall seed that is put into him it shall never die so Christ saith verse 26. Hee that beleeveth in mee saith he and so liveth hee shall never die he is raised to an immutable estate to such a life as shall never be subject to spirituall death againe Thus you see the analogie and proportion between these two and in this respect they may both be comprehended fitly under one terme Secondly in regard of the infallible connexion betweene these two for wheresoever the resurrection of the soule to the life of grace goes before there the resurrection of the body to the life of glorie will certainly follow after for as the spirituall death of the soule did necessarily draw after it the mortalitie and death of the body so the spirituall life of the soule doth necessarily draw with it the immortalitie and the resurrection of the body therefore as in the Sacrament the name of the thing signified is given to the signe in regard of the neere conjunction and relation betweene them so here in regard of the neere conjunction betweene these two that they are never separate therefore they may both fitly be comprehended under one terme Thus wee have endevoured to expound the general doctrine in these three particulars Wee have shewed you that Christ is the Author and fountaine of the Resurrection of the body hee hath the quickning power in him whereby he is able to raise those bodyes that are dead in the grave Then he is the Author of the Resurrection of the soule too he is able to quicken those soules that are dead in sinnes And then we have shewed the reasons why these two the Resurrection of the body and of the soule are both comprehended under one phrase of speech I am the Resurrection Now I come to the Use and Application of that that hath beene delivered And the Use of the point is First for comfort Secondly for tryall and examination Thirdly for exhortation and direction First the Use of the point may be for comfort here here is matter of sound comfort to all those that are the faithfull members of Christ Jesus if thou be united to Christ by faith Christ is the Fountaine of life he will be the Fountaine of spirituall life therefore here is comfort against Death against the death of the soule and against the death of the body Comfort first against the death of the Soule comfort against sinne thatis the ill of all ills and is the death of the soule If thou be united to Christ Christ by his divine power he is able to free thee from the power and dominion of sinne from the bondage of sinne Dost thou complaine that thy understanding is darke and blinde remember Christ is able to give thee more light Ephes. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Dost thou complaine that thy heart is hard and stonie remember that Christ is able to soften thy hard heart and to give thee a heart of flesh as he hath promised Ezek. 36. 36. I will take away their stonie heart and give them an heart of flesh Dost thou complaine that thy affections are unruly and set upon wrong objects remember to thy comfort that Christ is able to rectifie these affections hee is able to plant in thee the true love and feare of God as he hath promised Deut. 30. 6. I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou shalt love mee with all thy heart and with all thy soule And in Ier. 32. 40. I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall never depart from mee Dost thou complaine that thou canst not beare afflictions patiently remember that Christ thy head he is able to strengthen thee and hee will doe it as he did the Apostle Phil. 4. 13. saith he I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth me But here the weake Christian will bee ready to object but I have so many strong corruptions in me that I am afaid that I am not yet raised out of the grave of sinne that I am not yet raised out of my naturall estate To which I answer remember this to thy comfort that the first Resurrection is unlike to the second in this regard in regard of the measure and degree of it as soone as ever the soule quickens the dead body the dead body leaves the Grave and the state of corruption wholly and all at once but it is not so in the Resurrection of the soule When the spirit quickens the soule the soule begins to rise againe from the grave of sinne but yet the bands and fetters of
I remember a policie of Saint Paul in his Epistle hee wrote to Philemon he writes to him for the re-entertainment of a runnagate servant that hee had begotten to God in his bonds and for the better effecting of it in his inscription he not only writes to Philemon but joynes with him Philemons wife To Philemon our dearely beloved and to our beloved Appia Philem. 1. 2. Wherefore was this For nothing else I beleeve but to warne her of her dutie that when the receiving of Onesimus was manifested to her Husband as a needfull dutie and a thing pleasing to Almightie God she should not put in her spoke to withstand the motion but further it by all the meanes wee could It was to this end that the woman was created that shee might be a helpe to her Hueband in all honest offices to joyne with him to incourage him to provoke him and assist him in the performance of them Fourthly and lastly to omit many other things recorded of her that I might here relate to you and to come to that that more neerely concernes this present occasion it is said of Rachel shee died in travell God had commanded Iacob to rise and goe up to Bethel and dwell there hee obeyed and erected a Pillar in the place where God talked with him thence hee journeyed a little further to Ephrath and there Rachel travelled and had hard labour in the sufferance of which which might be some ease shee received a great deale of comfort from her Midwife who bade her not feare for shee should have this sonne also but it came to passe as her soule was departing for shee died that her sonnes name was called Benoni that is a sonne of sorrow as we see verse 18. Who can expresse the woe of that day and the bitternesse of that losse to Iacob who was now bereft of his dearely-beloved Wife by the fruit of whose wombe hee had reaped such increase of blessing before the children had the care of two watching over them now only of one and that such a one as was not accustomed to interest himselfe in training up young Children but left it to her and shee tooke it from him O death voide of mercy and respect of persons that shee should die it was some grieâ—…e to him but that shee died in travell that did most trouble him and increase his griefe And well might hee style their sonne Benoni the sonne of sorrow for it was indeed a sorrow to them all to her to him to their issue to their friends and acquaintance to their servants to all that knew them or had any relation to them But Iacob will not exceed the bounds of Christianitie hee was at the last comforted he referres himselfe his children his infinite and almost insupportable losse to God Almighties pleasure from him she was received and to him he is content againe to returne all The mourning and lamenting that he made on her behalfe it could not recall her againe all the teares he could shed for her were of no force or power at all to make her alive too much sorrow might happily indanger his owne life and then he should highly offend against Almightie God Patience and Christian fortitude were the only remedies left him and these he resolves on Let us learne hence as long as the world lasts to know that worldly comforts whatsoever they be and howsoever wee may esteeme of them they are subject to change Love with unfeignednesse what may be so loved but take heed you love not too much for feare the taking of that away from you that was so dearely loved of you make you fall into impatience and sinne against God Let us so love that we may thinke of losse if it stand with Gods pleasure but yet let us so love that wee esteeme it no losse if hee please Let his good will and pleasure ever-more moderate our affections so happily we shall enjoy the thing beloved a great deale longer But if wee exceed in lamenting were we as just and righteous as Iacob God will be angrie with us for it Not only thy dearest Wife but thy dearest Child thy dearest friend whatsoever is most deare to thee shall then feele the stroake of mortalitie that the heart may bee taught to wish for eternitie crying heavily and sighing with a mournfull voyce with those words of the Preacher Vanitie of vanities all is but vanitie There is a threefold punishment inflicted upon all women kind in answer to the three sinnes committed by our Grandmother Eve First because shee gave too much credit to the words of the Serpent telling her that both Adam and she shovld bee as Gods knowing good and evill therefore it was pronounced presently upon her that her sorrowes and conceptions should bee multiplied Secondly because against the expresse command of Almightie God she did eate the forbidden fruit therefore it was pronounced against her that in sorrow she should bring forth Children every time her houre was at hand shee should hardly escape death I need not inlarge my selfe you all know it to be too true nay sometimes and that oft-times too it costs your lives an example wee have here in the Text in Rachel and in our deceased Sister here before us and many others Thirdly and lastly because she was a seducer of her Husband therefore for a punishment all your desires ought to be subject to your Husbands and by the warrant of the Scripture they must rule over you Death is a debt to nature and must be paid there is no avoyding of it no putting it off when GOD thinkes it fit it is infallible to all in respect of the matter and end though in respect of the time and manner many times it be divers Some die when they are young some in the middle of their age and some live till they be very old That for the time Some die of Convulsions some of Dropsies some of Feavers and to be short some in Child-bed as Rachel here did and our departed Sister But of what disease soever they die that is nothing die they must sooner or later of this infirmitie or that it is no matter which when it pleaseth God Let a man make what shew hee can with all his glorious adornations Let him have rich apparell and disguised linnen and searecloth and balme and spices let him be inwrapped in lead and let stone immure him when hee is dead yet the earth his originall Mother will againe owne him for her naturall Child and triumph over him with these or the like insultings he is in my bowells returned to his earth This bodie returnes not immediatly to heaven but to the earth nor to the earth neither as a stranger and altogether unknowne to him but to his earth appropriate to him as his owne his familiar friend and old acquaintance To conclude wee are sinfull and therefore wee must die we are full of evill and therefore we must goe to the grave
naturall appetite and desire after all meanes that may preserve that life Wheresoever God gives life to any creature he gives also a desire to that creature to preserve that life it hath which is the best state of being Now it is so with a Christian all his desires are to preserve spirituall life and to increase it he rests not in what hee hath but labours to be more yet and to doe more yet to know God more to love God more to serve God better to live more fruitfully more profitably among men Hee delights in the actions of spirituall life therefore hee would strengthen those habites by all actions and industrie and indevour As new-borne babes saith the Apostle desire the sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby No sooner is there life in a new-borne babe but there is a desire to nourish that life You see there is a naturall appetite even in the very trees that thrust their rootes downe into the ground to draw moysture below from the earth by an instinct to preserve that life they have in the stocke and in the branches So it is in every man that hath a spirituall life he puts forth with all industrie for all spirituall helpes according to that strength hee hath for the preservation of his spirituall life That is the reason why they are not content in the abundance of all outward things when they want spirituall helpes and that is the reason that they are not satisfied nor solace themselves in dead worldly company that is the reason their hearts rest not in things below because these are not the food of their spirituall life these are not the things that preserve that life that is in them Secondly as there is a desire of the preservation of life so there is a desire of propagation and transfusion of it to others as much as may be So you see those things that have but a metaphoricall life as we may say that are said to live by way of allusion and metaphor as the fire in the coale when it is said to liue in the coale it is for this reason because it is apt to kindle another It is so in a Christian wheresoever there is spirituall life there is a desire to communicate it with as many as it can And this you see in all the servants of God Philip calls Nathaniel Ioh. 1. 44. when he had gained the knowledge of Christ. And the woman of Samaria goes to call in the Citie when shee had gained the knowledge of Christ. When a man himselfe is united with the principle of life when he lives in Christ he desires that others may live in Christ too and this desire and indeavour to gaine many to Christ it appeares in their place and relation A Christian master that lives a spirituall life will labour that his servants under him may live the life of grace with him too A Christian Father will labour that his children may live to God as well as himselfe a Husband will labour to draw his Wife to Christ as himselfe is drawne and every one father and friend and acquaintance as much as in them lies by any advantage and opportunitie that is put into their hands they will draw others to Christ because there is life in them And this is not done out of faction out of a desire to make their partie strong as many in the world desire to strengthen their partie but as in living things there is a naturall desire to convey that life to others Parents beget not children out of faction to increase the partie but out of a naturall affection to convey the naturall life they have to others so Christians that they doe is out of spirituall affection out of simple love to the salvation of others out of a naturalnesse in their disposition to indevour that all may belike them As the Apostle Saint Paul wisheth that all that heard him were like him except those bonds So much for that you see how fitly the Apostle useth these termes of life and death to expresse the change of one that is in Christ when he turnes from sin to God Now we come to see the order wherein the Apostle expresseth them make account of this conclude of this that you were dead but are alive First you were dead to sinne and then alive to God These certainly are knit together but they are done in order so wee joyne both those points in one and that is thus much that All that are in Christ hee workes in them by his spirit in this order they first die to sinne and after live to God These two are inseparable but yet they are joyned in order that first men die to sinne and secondly live to God The Scripture expresseth this in fit similitudes Ephes. 4. 22. 24. saith the Apostle there Seeing you have put off the old man that is corrupt through deceivable lusts and put on the new man that after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Here is the order there is not only an effectuall change but this is wrought in a method first putting off and then putting on Hee seemes to allude to apparell there that as a man that is cloathed with ragges hee puts not on ornaments and robes till he have put off his ragges as it is Zach. 3. when Iehoshua came before the Angell of the Lord with filthie garments with vile rayment saith the Lord take away those ragges and put upon him change of rayment Just thus God deales in the conversion of a man in the change of a man that is in Christ he takes away his filthy ragges first his love to sinne he is no more cloathed with them as he was wont he accounts them not ornaments as they were wont to doe but filthy clouts to which he saith Get yee hence he detests them and then hee is clothed with rayment then he expresseth the fruit of holinesse and righteousnesse Another expression there is Ephes. 5. 8. Yee were darknesse but now yee are light in the Lord walke as children of light There is not only a change of apparell that is from ragges to robes but of your state and condition you were in darknesse now yee are light Marke the order from darknesse to light That looke as it was in the Creation first darknesse covered the face of the deepe Gen. 1. all was without forme and voyd and then God said Let there bee light so now first there is a removing of the darknesse the soule was held in and now yee are light in the Lord so they come to walke as children of light Well this is is the expression of it in Scripture let us see the ground of it in reason It must bee so that in this order God proceedes in this effectuall change first to turne men from sinne and then to GOD first to die to â—…inne and then to live to God The first reason shall bee
remaineth unchangeable yet the sentence according to the externall expression seemeth altered to us so the change is in us and not in God Hence let us note something briefly for our selves and that is this First how to understand all those threatnings in Scripture that seeme peremptory and absolute by this rule A judgement is threatned against a nation against a person or family c. Yea and it is absolutely threatned in divers places because thou hast done such and such evils therefore such and such things shall come upon thee All such as these are to be understood conditionally though they seem to be expressed absolutely And the rule God himselfe giveth At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up and to pull downe and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them Whatsoever I threatned in my Word if they turne to me by true repentance I will turne all that evill from them that I have threatned against them and would certainly have brought upon them if they have not returned I say thus we are to understand all these and upon this ground we may build some further uses that I will but touch First to take off those discouragements that lie upon the hearts of many When they find themselves guiltie of a sin against God when they see that sinne threatned with severe punishment and judgement in the word of God now they conclude their case to be desperate it is in vaine to seeke further to use the meanes the Lord will proceed in judgement and there is no stopping of him This is an addition to a mans other sinnes to conclude thus Marke how the Lord expresseth himselfe in the 33. Ezekiel The people were much troubled about such things there say they Our transgressions and our sinnes bee upon us and wee pine away in them how should wee then live The Prophet had incouraged them notwithstanding their great sinnes to returne by true repentance and they should not perish neverthelesse they are muttering discouraged with feare breaking their spirits withdrawing themselves from God the judgements of God are begun upon us the hand of wrath is gone out against us wee are pining away in them though we are not wasted yet yet we are like a man in a consumption that wasteth by degrees how shall we live certainly wee shall die Saith the Lord say not thus among your selves but know if yee turne yee shall live As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way and live turne yee turne yee from your evill wayes for why will yee die oh house of Israel Beware of discouragements therefore it is Sathans devise that when once he hath drawne men from God by a path of sinne to hold them under discouragements that so hee may ever after keepe them from turning to God againe It was his devise whereby he would have kept Adam from turning to God after he had committed that great sinne in eating of the forbidden tree Hee thought of nothing but hiding himselfe from God and so he did hide himselfe amongst the bushes of the Garden I heard thy voyce and was afraid and I hid my selfe Marke here was a feare of discouragement in Adam that whereas he should have come and fell downe before the Lord and have begged mercy and said as David here Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee He ranne cleane away from God There is a feare of reverence that keepeth a man with God and there is a feare that draweth a man to God but this feare of discouragement driveth a man from God and that is the temptation of Sathan to keepe a man from God when once he hath turned aside from him Therefore that is the first thing take heed of such inward discouragements as may drive you quite off Secondly Take incouragement then to seeke the face of God in his owne meanes and way He hath threatned judgements against others for the same sinnes that yee find your selves guiltie of when they have returned to him they have found mercie Returne yee to him in truth and seeke his face aright and yee shall find the same mercie In the prophesie of Ioel yee shall see there that though God had threatned judgements nay though he had begun judgement for that was the case of those times judgement was begun upon them yet neverthelesse the Prophet calleth them to fasting and weeping and telleth them that the Lord is gracious and mercifull and ready to forgive and who knoweth if he will returne and repent and leave ablessing behind him Therefore let us doe our parts and seeke God in truth amend our lives and then no question of this but that God will returne It is an old device of Sathan to draw men in stead of Gods revealed will to looke to Gods secret will whether I be absolutely rejected or cast off or not But this is not the thought wherein a Christian should exercise himselfe his maine businesse is this to make his calling and election sure by all the â—…vidences of it by a holy life walke obediently to Gods revealed will and be certaine thou shalt not be rejected by Gods secret will He never rejecteth those by his secret will and purpose and decree to whom he giveth a heart to walke obediently to his revealed will So much for that Who knoweth that the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live The incouragement is this That the child may live But marke his expression Whether the Lord will bee gracious to me that the child may live If he had said no more but this Who knoweth whether the childe may live A man would have thought this would fully enough have expressed his mind but there is more in it that could not be expressed without this addition Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me that the child may live The life of a child is a mercy to the father David expresseth herein both his Pitty and his Pietie His Pittie He accounteth all the good or ill that befalleth his childe as his owne if death befalleth it he accounteth it as a miserie that befalleth himselfe if sicknesse befalleth his child hee accounteth it as an affliction upon himselfe This is his naturall pittie that same naturall affection of a Father to his Child See such an expression of the woman of Canaan Have mercie on mee thou sonne of David my daughter is miserably vexed of a divell The Daughter was miserably vexed and the mother cryeth out Have mercie on me There is such a simpathy ariseth hence from the naturall and free course that love hath in descending from the Father to the Child There are not only morall perswasions that may invite and draw on