sorry for the affliction of Joseph should go into captivity with the first that went into captivity The Church hath a flood of persecution and mouths full of the venom of the old Serpent is spit out after them yet the Church is kept safe In the 25. of Matthew you have three famous parables of the ten Virgins of the Talents of the Sheep and Goats there you may see that the trial of the last day is according to the simpathizing with the Church Do but consider it seriously it is according as thou hast sympathized with the Church that thy tryal will then be You saw me in my Members in my poor afflicted Members you never looked after them and inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me Then shall they go into everlasting pains but the righteous into life eternal Pray remember this there will be a day of judgement and the Scripture is the rule by which all must be tryed that lives under it The love of the Brethren is the mark by which we shall be judged at the last day 1 John 3.14 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Those that are spiritual Brethren that have God for their Father Jesus Christ for their elder Brother new Jerusalem that is above for their Mother ought so to love one another as the Apostle saith in that 1 John 3.16 That they ought to lay down their lives for each other If God doth call for thy Estate thy Life thy Hearts Blood to be sacrificed for him thou oughtest to do it Brethren amongst other Arguments to sway with a true Son of the Church this should be one what shall I turn upon the Church of God now in affliction what a stumbling-block and cause of offence will it be to my weak Brother Brethren when God seems to call upon you saying Who is on the Lords side and who is not you are to love the Church so as if your lives did lie at stake to part with it every member should endeavour the preservation of the whole Fourthly wouldst thou behave thy self well in the day of Jacobs troubles give God no rest day nor night till he have mercy on his people until he take his rod from the back of the righteous until he make his Church a triumph and rejoycing over the whole earth Prayers and tears are the Churches weapons use no other for those are the weapons that will fell tall and stately Cedars those be the weapons that will scatter Kingdoms It is said of a Queen of the Scots that she was more afraid of John Knox then of an Army of twenty thousand men such was his prevalency in Prayer Are you living men or not do you breath or not if you are spiritually alive and living Members of the Church of Christ you cannot but lay close siege at the Throne of Grace in its behalf Dost thou pray to God and canst thou pray and forget the Israel of God Hast thou a mercenary care that thy own soul shall be saved and forgets the Church of God in misery never putting up a serious petition for Gods Israel nor mindest the afflictions of Joseph Oh! give God no rest day nor night until he hath mercy on Sion This is a successful war that you are commanded and encouraged unto in Isa 62. ver 6 7. I have set watch-men upon thy walls O Jerusalem that shall never hold their peace day nor night until he establish Jerusalem and make it the praise of the whole earth Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence Oh the Lord increase the number of such persons Oh! that you that are real Members of the Church would stand upon the walls and give God no rest day nor night until he hath established Sion and made Jerusalem the praise of the earth Oh! bless God for the success of Prayer when poor weak impotent crasie prayers engageth All-sufficiency and Omnipotency to do this Read Psalm 137. and the 6. first verses By the Rivers of Babylon we sate down yea we wept when we remembred thee O Zion we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof it was no time to hear the sound of them we were not so merry They that wasted us required of us mirth saying Sing us one of the Songs of Zion Come let us have some of your zealous mirth Come let us hear you now pray in the Spirit and preach ex tempore then it becomes us to hang our harps on the willows and say How shall we sing the Lords Song in a strange Land Now we have lost our Ordinances and are given up to the hands of Heathens that reigns over us If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Oh pathetical expression he did not shrink from the Church of God but see with what affection he speaks If I forget thee c. I must forget that which I am used to do If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Oh Brethren get this spirit of affection towards the Church Really Brethren I am afraid few of you are real Members of the Church were you you would be more importunate at the Throne of Grace for the Churches establishment see what you may do by importunity in that 18. Chapter of Luke from the first verse to the 8. Brethren you must pardon me because it is my last and although I am so long a taking leave of you yet will it be no obstruction unto you in your journey but a furtherance See what an encouragement there is in that 18. of Luke And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Oh! faint not in your prayers for if the unjust judge that feared not God nor regarded man yet was wrought upon to avenge the poor widow because of her importunity and shall not God avenge his own Elect that cries day and night to him although he bear long I tell you he will avenge them speedily The cloud over the Church may be so thick and the estate of the Church so desperate that when the Son of Man comes he shall hardly finde faith on the earth Do you think that God will not hear his own Elect but suffer their enemies to make such deep furrows over them although he do seem long to thy carnal sense yet when his time is come he will come and not tarry therefore bear a sense upon thy spirit of the Churches misery for he that can be quiet in the Churches misery hath removed himself from the Churches light and society he hath cashier'd himself out of the mystical Body however he may seem to be in outward society Oh! therefore feel and simpathize with the Church in her misery I
before your eyes and provide for it there are none wise but those and all such are truly wise that keeps death before their eyes most people in the world are looking the other way they are providing for long life not for their death Put your hearts into a serious meditation of death and seriously consider that although troubles here comes thick upon you and temptations daily assault you death when it comes will put you out of the reach thereof and make you happy for ever and ever Ninthly Conform solemnly to the terms of salvation to wit impartial dependance and affiance upon the Lord Jesus Christ if ever thou wouldst be truly wise here and eternally happy hereafter do this until thou hast done this thou wilt never be happy depend wholly on Christ exercising faith upon Jesus Christ alone for life and salvation And lastly Be resolved never to depart from faith and holiness let the issue and event be what it will never depart from it faith and holiness are the pillars that fail not heaven and earth shall fail us e're these shall go away therefore if God doth scourge thee and chastise thee keep fast faith and holiness whatever would keep thee from faith and holiness is not of God live therefore in the exercise of it here and thou shalt live in the reward of it for ever hereafter Pray consider these ten things and dwell upon them take my last counsel be truly wise Oh that they may stick upon your hearts and dwell there until your hearts come to dwell with God for ever which I wish from my soul may be your portion Give me leave to take my leave of you now I have endeavoured to give you the whole counsel of God and to nurse you up that you may grow stronger and stronger thereby My time approacheth that I must leave you stay but until I bid you farewel and then we will part here and I hope to meet you again at our journeyes end where we will rejoyce in the Lord our righteousnesse and our joy shall no man take from us The providence of God brought me hither at first in a way and by a means which many of you were pleased to acknowledge had much of the hand of God in it I was destinated from all eternity to be your Minister For you was I ordained you have I loved you have I taught with you have I lived and with you could I have continued nothing but the keeping of a good conscience could have hindered it on my part I came not hither on my own head neither do I go away upon a whimsie of my own making Great proffers of preferment formerly moved me not but the terrors of the Almighty now makes me afraid my heart could not be strong nor my hands endure in the day of the Lord should I against my conscience have continued amongst you This I can say Brethren in the presence of the Lord that although in much weakness and infirmity and much slightness and little seriousness I have laboured amongst you to the salvation of your souls for which I have prayed and waited for I desire this day to humble my self before God and you and beg the mercy of God in our Lord Jesus Christ for all my miscarriages and neglects and failings amongst you for the want of so good an example as I should have been before you that I have not melted in pitty and compassion over your souls nor have been so zealous in private admonition as I should yet let the good you have seen and heard of me abide with you let the spiritual rules and motives you have abundantly heard dwell richly in you take heed of hypocrisie be sincere watch and examine your hearts look into eternity and live by faith upon Jesus Christ I heartily bless God for my continuance hitherto amongst you for your willing reception of me for all your courtesies and civil deportments towards me for all your chearful and hearty hearing the word of God by me preached and most of all I bless God for any good that any of you have received by me I thank you for all the entertainments of my requests I thank every particular person that hath done me any good the Lord reward them I have endeavoured to live affectionately in the midst of you and pray if any person have any thing against me I desire to make it known unto me before my departure and I will give him satisfaction let no man lay any thing to my charge when I am gone that will not make it known before I go I thank you all for your desire of me to stay the Lord knows how loath I am to leave you might I continue amongst you with a good conscience Oh! that the Sermons you have heard of me may be practised we shall one day meet at the bar of Christ and then I wish I may not be a witness against any soul here present If any of you have been my spiritual children do so much in requital as to pray for your spiritual Father if I have been only a waterer and no planter yet let me reap the fruits of your Prayers and let my name live in your private prayers when it is dead in publick send tokens for me to Heaven when you shall see my face no more on earth let us meet at the Throne of Grace though we shall not meet in this house no more let your Prayers to Almighty God for me be continued that my whole soul and body may be ever present as a living sacrifice unto God holy and acceptable in his sight that I may live onely to Jesus that he would use me so as is best to his own glory in doing and suffering and enable me to be faithful to what he hath called me to and that himself would be my exceeding great reward and that he would not deny himself unto me for whom I have desired to have been stripped of all things Neither shall your prayers be without the answer of mine the Road where I travel on the Bed that I lie on the Room that I shall lie in shall testifie how much I bear you that have been my hearers in my bosom And my prayers continually shall be for you that you may fare well and the God of love and peace be with you that shall ascend from my heart and lips when you are asleep at work standing or sitting in your Shops or abroad in the Fields Oh may you fare well in all Estates in the day of your temptations and trials and the God of love and peace be with you Oh! may you fare well in the dayes of your sorrows and afflictions and the God of love and peace be with you in the fire and in the water that you may come out seven times refined and give you the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness May you fare well in your joyes and comforts and the God of love and peace be with
you and bring you to his right hand where are joyes unspeakable and pleasures for evermore May you fare well in your Shops and in your Fields at Sea and ashore in your going out and in your coming in shall be the hearty prayers of your dying friend May you be blessed in your basket and in your store and in all things you put your hands unto and the God of love and peace be with you May you be blessed in your Yoak-fellows in your Children and Servants in your Ministers and all your relations and the God of love and peace be with you May you be blessed in the exercises of your graces and duties and Ordinances and the God of love and peace be with you and make them easie fruitful and delightful May you fare well in the hour of death the God of love and peace then speak peace unto you and shew his reconciled face unto you in Jesus Christ May you fare well at the great day of Judgement and the God of love and peace then set you at his right hand smile upon you acquit and dissolve you May you fare well in the day of eternity and the God of love and peace then lead you to the fountain of living waters to the enjoyment of himself that sorrow and sighing may then flie away that you may live in praising and singing Hallelujah in the Quire of Angels to all eternity May none of you here present know what Hell means so as to feel the Torments thereof but that you may enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven where the God of love and peace shall be with you May mine enemies do well though I know but of few except those who were once my friends those that are the God of love and peace be with them and bless them for ever Those that have spoken ill of me the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush be with them and pardon all their sins enrich them with Grace and bring them to his heavenly Kingdom I do from my soul forgive them and earnestly desire of God that I may know what it is to live in their company to all eternity whose favour here I could not gain This I can say there is none I have more heartily loved then my enemies to do good for evil to pass by provocations hath been my endeavour let them enjoy the love of God whose company here I could not enjoy May my friends be rewarded let them be reaping in the day of eternity for every good thought word and work towards me however so unworthy seeing it was done in the name of a Prophet let them receive a Prophets reward the upper and the nether springs be their portion all the graces and priviledges of the Gospel be bestowed on them and the God of Grace and Glory be with them I cannot say more the Sun is even down my civil life is near an end my strength is almost spent but the remainder shall be spent for your good Let all the treasures of Divine Love be the reward of all those who have shewed love unto me May every particular Family in this place be blessed Let every House wherein I have been and every person therein be blessed especially those Families wherein I have been particularly engaged Let every one of them be the heir of Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Glory the Lord binde up their souls in the bundle of Life Now as to my Administrations Farewel Sermons and farewel Sabbaths farewel Fasting and farewel Exhortations farewel this House and farewel this Seat for ever farewel my Preaching farewel your Hearing and farewel your Faces in this place and farewel this world when we shall arrive at eternity both old and young My Brethren and Sisters all farewel and God give us himself which is all in all And now to conclude with the farewel in my Text and so to commend you all to God by Prayer which is my last work Finally my Brethren farewel Be perfect be ye of one minde be of good comfort live in peace and the God of love and peace be with you all Amen Mr. Edward Hancock's Prayer before his Farewel Sermon at St. PHILIPS in Bristol August 24. 1662. Holy Lord God Thou who art the Spring of Being the Root of the World the Foundation of all the Centre of Immortal Souls unto thee shall all Flesh come Souls must have vent they have not a competent happiness at home to live upon they must look out and seek abroad and it is vanity to give vent to the Soul any way except upwards Prayer is the greatest vent and hearts ease in all the world unto immortal Souls Lord at this time lift up our Hearts by Prayer unto thee in and through the Lord Jesus Christ O Lord we are unworthy to come into thy presence at this time truly we do confess it being considered in our state of Nature Oh how were we by the transgression of our first Parents born Children of Wrath and Heirs of eternal Damnation and our whole Life ever since hath been a life of Sin and actual Rebellion against thy Majesty Alas we are unworthy to pour out our desires before thee we are Dogs yet truth Lord the Dogs may eat of the crumbs that fall from thy Table O Lord are there so many now about thy House and shall none of them be filled with good things that they be not sent empty away O Lord thou art a bountiful House-keeper that deals out a large deal of spiritual gifts for every poor soul that is poor and hungry and empty in his own apprehension Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Thou hast bid us open our mouths wide and thou wilt fill them Oh open our mouths abroad our hearts do thou open at this time that they may be filled O Lord time would fail us strength would fail us and memory would fail us to make a particular recapitulation of all our Sins and Transgressions committed against thee We carry bad hearts about us hearts that are never weary of offending a good God that waits that he may be gracious O Lord we would fain lay open the desires of our souls before thee it is pardoning mercy and healing mercy we would beg of thee for Jesus Christ his sake pardon all our Sins original and actual and wash our souls in that fountain opened for the house of Judah and Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness Change our natures chain up our corruptions Oh subdue our iniquities and give us thy Holy Spirit For by nature we are prone to all wickedness we have not a rag to cover our nakedness Lord cover us with the Robes of Christs Righteousnesse O Lord we pray thee bring us into the bond of the Covenant sanctifie our hearts and lives for ever to the honour of thy great Name Take this opportunity of working upon us deal with us mightily by thy Spirit who knows what a day may bring