a Cottage in a strange Country so long as we dwell in the love of God nay though our dwelling be in a Prison a dungeon yet we still dwell in the love of God there and that will make a Prison a Pallace a Paradise a Garden of Joy 2. Probably thou hast a loving wife Husband beloved children and other dear friends and relations these are comforts choise comforts but uncertain thou maist be put to forsake Father and Mother Wife and Children to keep a good conscience But thou canst not be separated from Gods love A Prison and Wilderness a forraign Land may separate and sever thee from all these but all these cannot separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus thy Lord wherever thou art and whitherever thou goest God will be with thee and will be better and sweeter to thee than Wife or Children or any relations yea then all relations I will be with thee saith the Lord and will not leave thee nor forsake thee Isa 43. 2 4. Isa 43. 2 4. 3. Thou hast now sweet society with Gods people in his ordinances both publique and private communion with them this is a great comfort but thou maist be separated from these too where thou shalt scarce hear a Sermon injoy a Sabbath have liberty to read a Chapter or converse with any of Gods Children this is a sad separation indeed woe is me saith David because of this and yet this cannot separate thee from the love of God in Christ Jesus His love like wine will chear thee when thou wantest the water-brooks of Gods Ordinances to refresh thee as it did John Baptist in the Isle of Patmos Paul and Sylâ—s in Prison Daniel when Dan. 10. 11. he was in Babylon the Angel tells him he was a man greatly beloved Thus when thou art in a dry and desart Wilderness ready to dye for thirst after the waters of the sanctuary Gods love in Christ will then be a dew to thee and as Rivers of waters in a dry place it will be hid Manna to thee and bread to eat which the world knows not of 4. Possibly thou hast a fair estate in Land in money and movables this is a comsort but thou maist be separated and sequestred from that too and made as poor as Job was by the plundring Caldeans and Sabeans But still these cannot separate thee from Gods love which is better than riches than Silver and Gold than stock and Lands better then all this worlds goods and will put that joy into thy heart when thou art without them that they never could yeild to any man injoying them in the greatest fulness Psal 4. 6. Hab. 3. 17 18. Psal 4. 6. Hab. 3. 17 18. 5. Thou hast a precious life that men will give all they have for but bloody persecutors may take this away also principalitys and powers may separate Soul and body but neither Soul nor body from the love and favour of God which is better than life Psalm 63. 3. Psal 63. 3. 4. This doctrine affords the comfort against the loss of the sense and feeling of Gods love A child of God may loose the comfortable aprehension of his fathers affection as David did Psal 51. 11 12. and as Psal 51. 11 12. Cant. 5. the spouse did Cant. 5. for her remisness and carelesness her beloved departed from her and her bowels were troubled for him and hence a child of God is apt to conclude though by no good Logick that God loves him not But know for thy comfort that thy want of feeling and exercise of faith cannot separate thee from Gods love and though thy comfort be in the feeling yet thy happiness is in thy being in Gods love and thou always hast Gods love though not always the sense of it Yea God loves the as truely when he hides away his face from thee as when he kisseth thee with the kisses of his mouth Joh. 17. 23. thou hast loved them as Joh. 17. 23. thou hast loved me now God loved Christ as dearly and truely when he hung upon the Cross tormented in Soul and body crying out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me as he did when he said in a voyce from Heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well Mat. 3. 17. pleased The Sun shines as clearly in the darkest as in the brightest day the difference is not in the Sun but in some clouds that interposing hinder the manifestations thereof So Gods love is as hot and fervent to us when he clouds his face towards us as when he shines in the brightness of his countenance upon us And those cloudings Christians are but for a time not for ever nay but for a moment a little moment Isa 54. 7. for a small moment Isa 54. 7. have I hid my face from thee but with great mercies will I gather thee Though thou sittest in darkness yet the Lord will be a light to thee yea though thou fittest in darkness dyest under a cloud yet thou shalt be saved and received to glory because God loves thee not because thou perceivest he loves thee where thou shalt behold the beauty of his Holiness without clouds or darkness to all eternity 5. This doctrine yeilds thee great comfort against the world of divisions that in these days are amongst Christians Christians are divided and separated one from another both in judgment and affection and therefore in affection because in judgment not only their heads but their hearts are divided Well this may comfort us against this evil For all that fear God and are called according to his purpose though they may be divided and separated one from another for a time as Paul and Barnabas were and many among the Corinthians were one saying I am of Paul another I am of Appollo and a third I am of Cephas yet they can never be separated nor divided from the love of God Devils and Tyrants and Romish Achitophels bad events and their own pride and passions may separate them one from another but none of these can separate them from the love of God And God continuing to love his people will in time heal these divisions and make all those that are his to be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind His love to them will set his wisdom on work to find out a way to doe this As his love set him on work to find out a way to reconcile the world of his Elect to himself by Jesus Christ so also to reconcile them one to another and he hath many ways to doe this and if nothing else will doe it his rod shall for whom he loves he corrects and his rod shall scourge them into union as it did some of the martyrs in Q. Mary's days as Riddly and Hooper though they could not agree in Edward 6. days yet in Q. Mary's time they agreed very well saith Mr. Fox they agree in black in
assured of Gods love thou art assured to be saved for nothing can separate thee from this love nor deprive thee of this salvation And so I pass to the second doctrine where I must be more brief The doctrine is this Doct. 2. There is nothing in Heaven Earth or Hell nothing that now is or shall be hereafter can possibly seperate the faithful from the love and favour of God which he bears to them in Christ Jesus their Lord. Having loved his own he loves them to the end Joh. 13. 1. but with Joh. 13. 1. what love with an everlasting love Jer. 31. 3. with a love of antiquity Jer. 31 3. and perpetuity to eternity my love is the same And it must needs be that nothing can devide betwixt God and the faithful or separate them from his love because he hath made a covenat with them to be their God Jer. 31. 33. Jer. 31. 33. which he hath promised shall not fail He hath betrothed and married them to himself as his spouse and that not for a day or for years and Ages but for ever Hos 2. 19. Hos 2. 19. now God is not a man that he should lye he is not subject to change no change in the world can make a change in him Mal. 3. 6. I am Mal. 3. 6. the Lord I change not He cannot be unfaithful in his promise now he hath promised love to his Children he will never take it from them the mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Isa 54. 10. Nor is there any imbecility Isa 54. 10. or weakness in God his power is infinite therefore no creature in Heaven Earth or Hell can pluck us from the love of God Joh. 10. 29. Joh. 10. 29. The freeness of Gods love speaks the perpetuity of it he loves not upon external motives not for any thing in the creature but freely and as nothing could move him to love so nothing in the creature can move him to break off his love His love is free when we were enemies he loved us and 't is fervent a vehement flame love as strong as death many waters cannot quench it nor floods of water drown it invincible love Cant. 8 Cant. 8. 6 7. 6 7. Se what our Saviour saith of the fervency of Gods love to the faithful Joh. 17. 23. and hast loved Joh. 17. 23. them as thou hast loved me God loves the faithful his Children by adoption as he loves Christ his Son by Eternal generation with the same love though not with the same degrees of love now nothing can hinder or break of Gods love from Christ his Son he and his Father being one Joh. 10. 30. and Joh. 10. 30. if not from Him then not from them for they also are one in him Joh. 17. 21. and thou hast loved them Joh. 17. 21. as thou hast loved me saith our Saviour This may serve for the proof of the point now let me improve it briefly Use 1. If there be nothing in Heaven Earth or Hell that can possibly separate the faithful c. then this Doctrine affords matter of consutation of those who hold that a Child of God may utterly fall away from Gods love may to day be loved of God and to morrow out of his love and favour a most uncomfortable Doctrine directly opposite to Gods word and the truth now delivered It is granted that true believers may fall from or loose the sense of Gods love as the spouse did Cant. 5. and Cant. 5. David oft complains of Gods hideing his face and the Church of Gods forsaking her Psal 77. 9. Psal Psal 77. 9. Psal 88. 14. Psal 60. 1. 88. 14. and Psal 60. 1. but they were not separated from the love of God though the sense and feeling of Gods love was separated from them Gods love is an everlasting unchangable invincible love it is founded upon Christ in Christ you are Elected in Christ you are beloved and in Christ all Gods promises are yea and amen and 't is Christ that makes intercession for you continually Can any thing separate Christ from his Fathers love then something may separate Gods Children from the love of their Father no God must cease to be himself if he cease to love his Children Object 1. Though persons cannot though things cannot though creatures cannot seperate c. yet Sin may and doth Isa 59. 2. Your iniquities Isa 59. 2. have separated between you and your God Answ What separation is there meant the following words declare your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear this as I said before is only a separation from the sense of Gods love not from his love it self If raigning sins could not hinder Gods love at first Ezek 16. 8. when thou Ezek. 16. 8. layest in thy blood I looked upon thee and said behold thy time is a time of love then the sins and failings and infirmities of Gods Children when they are in the Estate of Gods love and favour cannot break of Gods love and favour from them as we may see in the spouse David St. Peter so Rom. 5. 10. Rom. 5. 10. Object 2. This doctrine breeds presumption leaves no place for fear for this doctrine being true there is no cause of fear at all Answ 1. whom God loves thus with an immutable love them he makes fearful to offend him and this fear is a principal means to preserve them from falling into sin Jer. 32. 40. Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 2. The belief and assurance of this that nothing can separate us from Gods love breeds in a Child of God love to God again we love him for loving us first and an high esteem of his love that is so sure and certain and this causeth fear in the heart a filial fear to offend so loving and so everloving a Father which fear in Scripture is opposed to Carnal security and presumption 3. It is false that such as are beloved of God and know it have no cause of fear for though those whom God loves he loves to the end and will never disinherit them or utterly cast them of yet if they be not fearful to offend him though he love them yet because he loves them he will chasten them as the Apostle speaks Heb. 12. 6. and in Heb. 12. 6. what kind he will scourge them and how long his rod shall lye upon them and how deeply he will wound them with lashes that the Lord only knows therefore one beloved of God and assured of his love hath somewhat to fear besides eternal damnation he hath
cause to fear with an Holy fear lest by sin he displease God his loving Father and so provoke him to scourge him not only in his body but in his Soul and conscience as he did David whose sin put him to more grief and anguish in his Soul than ever man felt that was wracked in his body to the breaking of his bones it put him to such a torture terror and anguish that he would have given his Kingdom to have been eased of it Psal 51. 8. Psal 51. 8. Object 3. But doth not the Scripture say Prov. 8. 17. I love them Prov. 8. 17. that love me God continues his love to us if we continue our love to him but if we cease to love him he may cease to love us Answ 1. For answer to this place the meaning is this It is Gods love to us that makes us love him and doubtless he that loves us so as to make us love him cannot but love us when we doe love him 2. It is denyed that a Child of God can cease to love God he may fall from some degrees of this love he may loose his first love and loose the exercise of this grace of love but he cannot fall totally or finally from his love to God much water cannot quench his love to God nor can floods drown it therefore some Interpreters make the words of my text to bear this sense nothing shall separate us from the love we bear to God in Christ Jesus as well as the former 3. It is an idle dream that Gods love to us doth depend upon our love to him and the continuance of it upon the constancy of our love to him for so the love of God should be variable and changable according to the change and alteration that is in us which is contrary to the Scripture 1 Jam. 17. 1 Jam. 17. and to the text when the Apostle speaks not conditionally but possitively and Absolutely that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus 4. Such is the nature of Gods love that as it is constant to his Children so it is effectual in them to keep them continually in their love to him so as it cannot be quite extinct shaken out of their hearts or quenched in them Cant. 8. 6 7. Cant. 8. 6 7. Object 4. But why are the faithful exhorted to continue in the love of God Joh. 15. 9. Joh. 15. 9. Jude 21. so Jude 21. keep your selves in the love of God if there were no possibility of falling from the love of God Answ Some understand these places of Scripture to speak of the love of God and Christ to us then they are exhortations to us to take heed of doing any thing whereby we provoke God to hide his face to withold the sense of his love from and to frown upon us for if we fall into sin as negligence and security 't is the high way to loose the sense and fealing of the love of God and to feel his anger and displeasure against us in so much that we may be brought to question his love towards us Or if you understand them of our love to God and Christ then they are only incitations to quicken us to a growth and perseverance in that grace of love Thus much for this first use Use 2. Is it so that nothing can separate the faithful from the love which God bears to them in Christ Jesus their Lord this then is ground of abundant comfort of firm lasting and everlasting consolation to all the faithful who are interested in the special love of God in Christ Jesus that are in the Estate of Gods love in the state of grace as divines call it I call it the Estates of Gods love in opposition to the Estate of Gods wrath wherein we are all by nature I say this is matter of unspeakable comfort to all such and that first 1. Against the fear of all enemies and evils whatever none of them can separate from Gods love Poverty may take away thy wealth sickness thy health disgrace thy good name death thy life but none of these can take away Gods love from thee that is unchangable inseparable love 2. It affords you comfort against the mutability of mens love the love of great men of Princes is mutable Joseph and Haman are east out of the Kings favour The love of friends is changable they may love to day and hate to morrow yea more friends and familiars who were wont to shew much love may shew much hatred of which David complaines Psal 38. 11. and Psal 38. 11. Psal 55. 12 13. Psal 55. 12 13. that his equal his Guide and acquaintance with whom he took sweet council he did reproach him and magnifie himself against him And Job saith that his former friends did abhor him and did not spare to spit in his face Job 30. 10. And Job 30. 10. have not we seen this in our days friends not only ceasing to be friends but turning mortal killing enemies now that which hath befallen others may befal us and if it doth if thou art a Child of God one whom God loves thou hast this to comfort thee Gods love is not mutable as mans is Though thou mayst be cast out of the love and favour of men yet thou canst not be cast out of the love and favour of God though they separate their love from thee and hate thee yet they cannot separate the love of God from thee nor cause him to hate thee his love to thee as it was from everlasting so it is to everlasting Psalm 103. 17. So that it is better to love Psal 103 17. the love of God than the love of all the world for the worlds love is mutable but Gods love is Eternal 3. It affords you comfort against the separability of all beloved and desired comforts here below 1. Happily thou hast a pleasant habitation and with it many desirable accommodations this is a comfort but thou maist be separated from it thou maist be driven from house and home as those worthys were in Heb. 11. who were driven in Heb. 11. to dens and desarts and caves of the Earth But yet you cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus when thou hast not an house to put thy head in thou hast this love of God to warm thy heart in thou canst not be put out of Gods love wherein thou dwellest Psal 90. 1. Lord saith Psal 90. 1. the Church thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations that is in all our sojournings and wandrings thy love and favour hath been our Harbour shelter and protection 1 Joh. 4. 16. We have 1 Joh. 4 16. known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him No matter where our dwelling be in a Wood in a Wilderness in a Cave in
the Prison in red in the fire in white in the Kingdom of Heaven Thus you see what comfort this doctrine affords to the faithful in all conditions and Estates Oh how should this make you prize and esteem the love of God above all things in the world above riches friends favour of men life it self which are all uncertain Oh how should this unchangable and eternal love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord make us grow out of love yea into a loathing of all other things in comparison of it as St. Paul did Phil. 3. 8. Phil. 3. 8. Oh prize this love of God above ten thousand worlds Take heed that you doe not abuse it by carnal security and wantonness but let it make you more diligent in your work and more studious of his glory more careful to please him more fearful to offend him and let the frequent thoughts of it augment and increase your love to him whom you can never love enough nor fear enough nor serve nor honour enough for this great love of his to you which made him send his own Son to dye in thy stead to reconcile thee and bring thee into favour with himself and so into a better and surer Estate of happiness than Adam had in innocency from which wonderful invincible and eternal love nothing shall be able to separate thee no not death it self I am perswaded that neither death shall separate us so I pass to the third and last point which is this Doct. 3. The death of the body cannot separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus In the handling of this I shall be short also I say death it self cannot separate by death here understand not only death it self but also all those sicknesses and deseases that goe before it all the pains terrors and tortures that accompany it or what ever may befall Gods Children at their death cannot separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus 1. Nothing that goes before death 2. Nothing that accompanys death 1. Nothing that goes before death can separate them from Gods love 1. Sickness cannot those whom God loves have sickness yea mortal sickness as well as others but this doth not separate them from Gods love Joh. 11. 3. He whom thou Joh. 11. 3. lovest is sick Not their Souls for he knows their Soul in adversity Psal 31. 7. not their bodies Psalm Psal 31. 7. Psal 41. 3. 41. 3. for God will strengthen them upon their bed of languishing and make their bed in their sickness 2. Nothing that accompanies death can separate them from his love 1. The terrors and horrors of death cannot Psal 23. 4. thou art Psal 23 4. with me and thy rod and thy staffe comfort me so when David walked in the Valley of the shaddow of death he would not fear when he was upon the borders of death and walked side by side with this King of terrours yet David would not be daunted but be confident because thou Lord art with me Then terrours of death which are able to distract a man and separate him from himself could not separate David from his God thou art with me 2. The pains of death cannot the faithful who not only dyed but suffered painful deaths Heb. 11. were stoned to death sawn assunder were yet the Lords worthys dear and pretious in his sight Yea pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints whether it be a natural or violent death an easy or a painful death 3. Death it self cannot which is a separation of the Soul and body yet neither of Soul or body from the Lords love as living so dying they are the Lords both in their Souls and bodys Rom. 14. 8. Rom. 14. 8. that death it self cannot separate the faithful from Gods love is evident 1 For first the death of the body cannot break Gods covenant with his people which is that he will not take away his love from them Isa Isa 54. 10. Psal 89. 33. 54. 10. Psal 89. 33. the reason is because the covenant is made with their whole persons God is in covenant with Soul and body too therefore when death severs these it separates neither the one nor the other from Gods love God is the God of Abraham of Abrahams dust of a believers dust God loves the very dust of his Saints By this argument Christ proves the resurrection of the body Mat. 22. 32. that God was the Mat. 22. 32. God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the ground of the argument is that God made his covenant not only with the Souls of the Partriarcks but with their whole persons 2. Death cannot separate the faithful from Gods love because they are in Christ Jesus loved in Christ knit unto Christ as members to the head and this union is an inseparable union it remains for ever nothing can violate it no not death therefore when they dye they are said to dye in the Lord. Rev. 14. 13. and when they are in their Rev. 14. 13. graves they are said to be dead in Christ and to rest and sleep in him 3. Death cannot do this for death is ours our friend on our side at our service for us not against us all the passages of it are ours 1 Cor. 1. 22. Nay death in so 1 Cor. 1. 22. far from separating the faithful from the Lord and his love that it brings them home to the Lord and to your full fruition of him and his love in Heaven it brings them to the injoyment of him who is love it self not only to kiss him through the lattice but to lye in the bosom of his love to be infolded in the everlasting armes of his love to be pertakers of all his love and to be filled will all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 19. Eph. 3. 19. Death is so far from casting a believing Soul out of Gods love that it lancheth him into the bottomless Sea of Gods love the bredth and depth whereof passeth knowledge and one drop whereof is more worth then all the Gold of Ophir yea surpasseth all the glory of the world 4. Death cannot separate the faithful from the sense and feeling of Gods love therefore much less from his love it self but usually they have then the greatest manifestations of his love to their Souls 't is then most stird abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost When they are to drink this bitter Cup God sweetens it with the Wine of his love which is better and sweeter then life Thus St. Stephen when he was dying saw Heaven open beheld the glory of God and Christ standing at Gods right hand Act. 7. 55 56. How fully Act. 7. 55 56. hath God manifested his love to some of his servants at their death of which I could give many instances Mr. John Holland a memorable Saint and a godly man an eminent Minister of Christ the day before he dyed did
earnestly call for a Bible with these words come come death approcheth let us gather some flowers to comfort this heart in this hour and turning with his own hand to the 8. Chapt. to the Romans he gave it to a Minister present and bad him read and at the end of every Verse Mr. Holland made a Pause gave the sense of it and so continued his meditation and exposition for two hours On the suddain he said to the Minister that was reading to him O stay your reading what brightness is that I see have you lighted any Candles to whom was answered no it is the Sun shine Sun shine saith he nay my Saviours shine now farewel world welcome Heaven the Day-star from on high hath visited my heart O speak it when I am gone and Preach it at my funeral God dealeth familiarly with men I see his mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell but God knows I see things unutterable And a little before he dyed ravished in Spirit he raised himself up and shut up his blessed life with these blessed words Oh what an happy change shall I make from darkness to light from night to day from death to life from sorrow to sollace from a sinful world to an heavenly Being O my dear Brethren Sisters and Friends iâ— pittys me to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feel I hope you shall feel ere you dye that God doth and will deal familiarly with men And now ye blessed Angels bear me O bear me into the bosome of my best beloved Amen Amen come Lord Jesus come quickly and so fell asleep in the Lord. So Mr. Bolton boasted at his death to a friend what he felt in his Soul I am said he by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be So Mrs. Catherine Britterge a Holly woman said at her death O my sweet Saviour dost thou so love me who am but dust and ashes O how wonderful how wonderful is thy love O thee joyes the joyes that I feel in my Soul they be wonderful they be wonderful Many like examples might be given of Saints dying as full of the sense of Gods love as heart could hold and more then their tongues could express I shall instance but in one more and it is in this pretious servant of Jesus Christ whose funerals we solemnize this day her death did not separate her from the sense and feeling of Gods love how sweetly did shee apply the promises for her comfort and in her greatest weakness by the shength of her faith drow those brests of consolation which are then sweetest when death is nearest How comfortably did she speak to her Relations and friends weeping about her desiring them not to mourn for her but to rejoyce rather because the time of her redemption was at hand redemption from sin from sorrow from sickness and pain which she had long suffered What a plerophory and full perswasion she had of her salvation and future happiness appears by her words to my self which were these I know in whom I have believed and will not cast away my confidence And also by her last and remarkable words to her dear and disconsolate Husband which she uttered a little before she breathed out her Soul into the bosom of her best beloved alluding to the words of her Saviour she said I goe to my Father and thy Father to my God and thy God By all these instances you may see death cannot separate a believer from the sense of Gods love much less from his love Thus you have the doctrinal part a few words by way of Application Use 1. If death cannot separate the faithful from the love of God thâ—s then is a sweet comfort to Gods Children against the fear of death of what sort soever in what manner soever Though there be many separaâ—â—ons in death terrible to flesh and blood dreadful to nature as 1. It is a separation from our dear friends and relations from husband wife and children from Father and Mother death plucks us from all these at once this is dreadful to nature but yet no separation from Gods love It only takes us from friends on Earth to friends in Heaven it brings us to the general assembly of the first born to Jesus the mediaâ—our to Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect So that by this separation we doe but change our place not our company and our faithful friends which we leave behind us shall shortly follow after us co 〈…〉 to us and we and them shall ever be with the Lord. 2. The death of the body is a separation from all our Earthly comforts from all our worldly injoyments and accommodations and this is uncomfortable to nature too He that hath House and Land Money and Stock flocks and heards riches and honours high dignities and great preferments in the world must take a final farewel of all these when death comes The Fool and his full Barns rich stores and goods for many years must suddenly and ever lastingly part when death aproacheth and this is sad to him that hath nothing in store in another world But such a separation is not terrible or uncomfortable to a Child of God because he is assured though these things leave him yet God loves him which is better to him then all the comforts of life and will bring him ever by death to better comforts to a building an house in Heaven to inherit all things to a rich and glorious purchase to an everlasting Kingdom to joyes unspeakable felicity inconcevable and to Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore 3. The death of the body is the separation of the Soul from thee body which is most terrible to nature that the body and Soul these old friends must now part the body to return to the dust as it was and the Soul to God that gave it and Oh with what bitterness with what throbs and groans with what sighs and tears with what pangs and pains do these long and intimate acquaintance usually part But though death part Soul and body yet neither the Soul nor the body of a Saint from the love of God Psal 116. 15. Pretious Psal 116. 15. in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints A poor Child of God lying upon his death bed bemoans himself his friends also grieve and mourn for him and in the sight of the world he is in a grievous and miserable Estate but in the sight and estimation of God his death is very pretious and dear the Lord loves him loves his Soul in its separation from the body and receives it as a pretious Jewel into the very besome of his love He loves his dead body yea his very dust and will raise it again out
adorned with those graces wherewith the holy women of old were adorned of which St. Peter speaks in 1 Pet. 3. from the v. 1. 1 Pet. 3. 1. ad 7. to 7. Recount those worthy women recorded in sacred story Obedient Sara modest Rebecca Devout Hanna lovely Elizabeth and Dorcas full of good works and she was all these she was excellent in all those vertues and graces commendable in them what Saint do you read of in all the book of God which in some grace or other she did not resemble she lived and dyed a daughter of Abraham and is now no doubt at rest in Abrahams bosome 2. But more particularly Consider her both in her relative and personal capacity 1. In her relative capacity and here you might behold her 1 a most Chaste Loyal loving and according to her matrimonial ingagement and duty an obedient wife as her loving husband survives to testifie 2 Consider her as a Mother and a Mistress and she was exemplary in these relations Her government was made up of sweetness and gravity sweetness without levity or remisness and gravity without bitterness or severity There was no severity in her disciplines save what was in the pattern she Proposed to them in her conversation and indeed she was severely good Her care was that her family might know God and Jesus Christ whom to know Joh. 17. 3d is life eternal She was of a Joshuah like resolution as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. She thought it not enough to go to Heaven alone but laboured to carry as many as she could with her especially those of her own house By Catechising and instructing them she indeavoured their conversion and to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as well knowing that her Childrens and Servants Souls were as pretious to God as her own and cost Jesus Christ as much blood to redeem You that are Governours of families labour to imitate her in this 3. As a friend and neighbour she was of a most sweet obliging Converse beloved of all that knew her her large bounty and charity and offices of love in that kind made her highly esteemed of all the poor in the place where she lived which they testified by their bitter lamentation for her when she dyed what company soever she was in she retained her Christian modesty and gravity and would never talk vainly or frothily nor shew her self sometimes holly and sometimes prophane to please the company but her words were as those present were fit to receive them savoury and tending to edification I might inlarge in these her relative excellencys but a word or two of her 2. In her personal capacity because I hasten and her all that knew her might observe her holiness meekness love faith and patience were eminent She made Religion her business the common Sanctity of the world would not serve her turn which is only Civility and Morality She out went the Scribes and Phariseessin righteousness and walked according to the pattern her Saviour had set before her She wore the comely garment of an holy profession without any visible spot forgetting the things that were behind and pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus In her meekness she resembled Moses this ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit rendred her amiable in the eyes of God and man Her love was transcendent to God whom she loved suparlatively to Christ whom she loved for his Person as well as portion for what he was as well as for what he had she beheld him with the spouses eye fairer then the Children of men the chiefest of ten thousand altogether lovely and pretious to her Soul Her love was great to the publique Ordinances to all Gods Ministers and to all others in whom she beheld any thing of Christ she dare not but love them for his sake Her faith and patience were always visible in their fruits but more especially in the time of her last sickness keeping her Spirit quiet and steddy amidst all those billows that beat upon her in her passage from Earth to Heaven so that all her afflictions were but the trials and triumph of her patience and faith by the exercise of which graces she at last came off a conquerour through Christ that loved her and hath her faith and patience rewarded with a full and joyful fruition of her beloved in his Kingdom and Glory I might inlarge farther but I forbear this is she whom we have lost and Oh what a loss do we all sustain One hath lost a loving comfort others a tender Mother and all of us a choise and faithful friend and Neighbour and what shall we doe shall we now give up our selves to sorrow No or shall we make it our work to forget her whom we cannot recal No neither but let us remember her so as to imitate her and be followers of her O that all that hear of her would imitate her that all you that knew her would follow her in that pattern she hath given you Especially you that are her near and dear relations do you remember her so as to be followers of her wherein she was a follower of Christ Methinks I hear her calling to you out of Heaven where her triumphant Soul is placed amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect as sometimes her Lord and ours bespake his Desciples saying I have given you an example that you should doe as I have done Now the Lord grant that you and all of us may be followers of her and all other the Saints of God who were followers of Christ that we at last with them and her may also inherit the promises FINIS