our selves as men that are sick or in pain or opprest with a heavy burthen sigh out their sorrowes and griefs so the godly soul must labour to find this expectation in the sighing longing earnest desiring after Christ we sigh in our selves saith the Apostle this is an argument of true love to Christ indeed when we earnestly desire him in his absence As a true faithful Spouse enjoyeth not her self when she enjoyeth not her Husband so it is with the Spouse of Christ therefore the Apostle in the 2 Thess 3.5 joyneth them together The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient wayting for of Christ As if he should say there can be no love of Christ if there be no waiting for Christ and according to the vehemency of your love will be the vehemency of your sighing and longing after him That 's the first attendant of this expectation whereby we may examine our selves A second attendant is a comfortable sweet joy in the soul a fruit of the spirit not a fruit of presumption or of the flesh but a fruit of the spirit as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God where there is an earnest and certain expectation of Christ faith giving assurance to the soul of Christs return for the happiness of it it rejoyceth under the hope the 〈◊〉 resolveth it self into joy because it shall enjoy Christ That which the Apostle Saint Peter saith confirmeth this notably whom saith he having not seen and yet we love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and glorious Do we find this joy in our hearts this heavenly joy that which shall be perfected in the presence and full fruition of Christ But alas where shall we find this joy in the World Men joy in Corn and Wine and oyle in the encreasing of their Money and Stocks and Estates where is the joy the heart is resolved into to consider and remember the return of Christ to the full and perfect happiness of the soul Certainly my brethren this is a rare grace upon the earth and yet where it is not that man can have no sound argument in his own heart that he hath this expectation of the coming of Christ for with it there is a sound joy in the heart that the world breeds not nor cannot take away A third companion to try the truth of this expectation is an endeavour after purity of heart and life this must needs go with this expectation 1 John 3.3 Hethat hath this hope purgeth himself and is pure as he is pure He that hath this hope that expects Christ hopefully and joyfully he purgeth himself he that waiteth for Christ waiteth for him that he may be like him that he may be holy as Christ is holy still reserving the proportion of a member and be pure as Christ is pure What a number be there that profess they look for Christs return for their final salvation and yet this expectation doth not purge their hearts doth not cleanse those nasty and filthy corners that are there It purgeth not their mouth from falshood and lying and deceitful and cursed speeches nor their hands from injustice and oppression and the like they are no whit like Christ in their conversation and yet they hope for and expect Christ no he that hath this hope purgeth himself What shall we think of them that oppose that seek to oppress purity of heart and life that cast scorns upon purity and holiness what shall we think of those persons Shall we think that they have this expectation They will tell ye I and justifie it before any man and boldly stand upon the expectation of their Saviour as well as others but if thou hate purity in others then thon hatest it in thy self and he that purgeth not himself hath not this hope for he that hath this hope purgeth himself as he is pure A fourth companion and attendant of this expectation is Christian fortitude and valour and unweariedness in labouring and suffering for Christ Where this expectation is the soul is invinsible in labouring and sufferings He careth not what he endures what he sets on for the name of Christ This we shall see in the Apostle Saint Paul when he had the white in his eye when he had this aym set before him the high price of the high calling of GOD in Christ I forget the things saith he that are behind and press hard to the things that are before Though his labour and pains and sufferings were marvellous great he forgetteth all them and still pressed hard to the mark the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus So holy Moses because he looked for the recompence of the reward he chose to suffer affliction with the people of GOD rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Besides those faithful servants of GOD many other instances might be added to shew that when a man hath this expectation that Christ will come and give him the end and recompence of his labour and eternal joy and glory for his short sufferings which are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed he refuseth no pains no labour no passion no sufferings for Christ and a good conscience But what need we go further then the example of Christ himself the example of all examples who for the joy that was set before him indured the Cross and despised the shame and why was this but for our example that we should despise the crosses that are before us and go on unweariedly and unfaintingly through all crosses and persecutions if we meet with never so many oppositions with never so many Devils yet to go chearfully on in the wayes of God why because we have a hope and an expectation before us of Christ appearing Further another attendant of this expectation is this It bluntteh and abateth the siery edge of our affections to the things of this world He that hath this expectation is weaned from the world it looseneth the soul from the world every day more then other Whereas naturally we are rivitted to earthly things fastened to 〈◊〉 world this expectation wrought in the heart causeth us to walk more loosely and unjoynted it blunteth and abateth those eager desires that are in us to earthly things See it in the example of that worthy servant of God Moses because he looked for a City for the recompence of reward that was set before him he scorned the treasures of Egypt he despised them he cared not for honour or treasures or all that Egypt could afford he had rather suffer afflictions with Gods people why because he looked for therecompence of reward Be there not a number of persons that profess they expect Christ his return for their final salvation and yet notwithstanding they are so fixed to the world they gather the world as greedily grapling the things of this life together so
very nimbly too yet you do not say presently that that is a living creature No it moveth only by an external cause by an artificial contrivance it is so framed that when the wind setteth in such and such a corner it will move and so having but an external Moter and cause to move and no inward principle no soul 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 hear a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hasty to thrust himself and bid himself a guest to the Lords Table when God hath not bid him as any the Question is what principle sets him awork 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 be some wind that bloweth him on the wind of State the wind of Law the wind of danger of penalty the wind of fashion or custome to do as his neighbours do if these or such like be the things that draw him thither this is no argument of life at all it is a cheap thing it is counterfeit and poor ware Thirdly that which I have often said to be the principal and the most considerable thing that I know in all practical Divinity and which is the most Charactaristical of the truth of Grace and of the life of Piety in any one our spirits and souls and affections towards God must be advanced to this hieght to be carried toward God above all other things I beseech you seriously think of it I have often spoken of it but it may be there may be some room left for the mention of it now and some necessity of pondering it well It will be the Charactaristical thing by which a man may most certainly discern himself And I would desire to know wherein my defect of understanding is if I be mistaken but it seems to me as a clear 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 rational thing that if God be the best of Beings 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 excellency of the thing There is no man but apprehendeth this clearly 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 do another woman Is this the proof of conjugall love was this the covenant made between them hath he fulfilled it in this case to her or 〈◊〉 to him There is no man but seeth that there is more required there is a peculiarity and propriety of love required in this case It must certainly be so here for we contract and espouse our souls to Christ and upon those very terms 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 beautiful 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 conjugal knot was never tyed between Christ and the soul it is impossible therefore that such a one should have to plead the benefits that flow from a Conjugal union neither can he have title or right to any thing that issueth from a marriage with Christ whose soul did but equivocate and would never speak out the words and who never answered the interrogations of a good conscience as Saint Peter speaks in another case that when the soul 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 soul do not yeeld to this which it cannot do if it do not esteem him the best of all others and that all others are to be thrown away and to be forsaken in comparison of him This is the third 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 fulness the desire of our soul 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 universal love and so a universal 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 himself in subjection and resign himself in obedience to them all if he do but reserve and make choyce of any one sin to lye and wallow and tumble in he doth evacuate all the other good he throweth down all the other good with that one evil Will you come and plead with God that there is but one sin that you have defiled and polluted your soul with and wallowed and tumbled in all your life and I hope God will never refuse me or bar 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 aswel with one as if you had been in ten thousand slowghes one after another And as the Philosopher speaks a Cup or some such thing that hath a hole in it is no Cup 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 retain the divel but in one thing as we use to say in law one man in possession keeps possession and a man can never have true possession till he have voyded all so except all be rooted out and extirpated and a man cometh 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 pass them over It is not every affection that may seem to have some height and universality though I do acknowledg that they will in some measure characterise out the truth but yet there must be this addition as it was with the seed 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
the spirit Earnestness that is one A second thing is Patience If quoth the Apostle we hope for that we see â—…ot then do we with patience wait for it There is patientia spei The Thessalonians are commended for it in 1 Thes 1.3 The patience of hope And as the Apostle saith Heb. 10.36 Opus est vobis patientia you have need of patience in this looking for considering First of all that the time is not known to us when this Lord will appear It is not for you to know the times and the seasons that the Father hath kept in his own power And considering secondly that that time either longer or shorter may seem to be long omnes celeritas in desiderio All hast that can be made is but delay to a man that languisheth in desire hence comes those often usque quo how long Lord how long Thirdly considering as the very heathen man could call them those wondrous workings of God It is many times seen that Gods working seems to go against his word And then fourthly considering how busie the Divel is to discredit the truth of Gods promise and to weaken our faith I say again with the Apostle you have need of patience There is the second thing There is a third thing necessary that is Joy to think of this same day Saith the Apostle there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me and not for me only but for all them that love that appearing and where love is there will be joy joy is a sweet motion of Gods spirit spiritual joy I speak of that either upon the fruition of some good thing present or the expectation of future there is rejoycing under the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 And faith the Apostle Peter whom you have not seen and yet love whom though you see not you beleeve and beleeving you rejoyce with a joy unspeakable and glorious It is such a joy as the world cannot give us and such a joy as the world cannot take from us Lastly this looking hath also with it a care and diligence to prepare our selves against that coming Mark the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.14 faith the Apostle Seeing we look for these things let us use all diligence that we may be found of him in peace You know how the wise Virgins because they looked for the Bridegroom they had trimmed their lamps and made all things ready to meet him So then where this excellent looking for this blessed hope is there will be all these An earnestness first And then a Patience And then a Joy And then a diligence to meet him to make our selves ready for him Dost thou not look earnestly And dost thou not look with patience And dost thou not joy to think of this coming Then thou dost not look as thou shouldest do But the next word is Looking for what The blessed Hope Hope is put for the thing hoped for the blessed hope is the hoped for blessedness and this consists in two things A freedome from all ill both of soul and body And a fruition of all good both in soul and body in the whole man First this blessed hope consists in this in a freedom from all ill First that there shall be no more blindness in our understandings no more rebellion in our wills no more terrour in our consciences no more weakness in our memory no more sin no more power to sin here is a non posse pecari No more temptations of Satan no more allurements of the world no more frailties of the flesh no more hunger no more thirst no more weariness no more sickness no more megrome in the head no more palsie in the hand no more gout in the feet no more diseases and no more death For if we shall be freed from corruption how much more shall we be freed from vexation and infirmity and deformity Here is freedome from ill Well here is not all it is not enough to be freed from ill but here is the second part of this blessed hope to enjoy all good First this is our blessed hope that the Image of God shall be wondrously perfected in our fouls and all the faculties of it This is our hope that God shall be to our understandings fulness of light that he shall be to our wills abundane of peace to our memories a continuation of eternity In a word God shall be All in all This is our blessed hope that this vile body of ours as vile as it is as the Apostle calls it a body of vileness it shall be raised up again and made like the glorious body of Christ by that mighty working that this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this very mortal shall pus on immortality I and this is the blessed hope that both in soul and body being blessed we shall be gathered together to the Congregation of the first born Where we are sure never to find any enemy and we are sure never to lose a friend Where we shall have the society and company of Gods Saints and of the blessed Angels And in the beatifical vision and fruition and communion of God we shall have such joy as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor tongue can express such joy as cannot be conceived and shall never be ended Oh blessed be that God that is the author of this hope and blessed is the man that is partakers of this hope But when will this be for quoth the Apostle If our hope were only in this life of all men living we were most miserable Why but when must we look for it then At the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ At the glorious appearing The word is at the Epiphany at the appearance of glory at the glorious appearing There is a twofold Epiphany of Christ an Epiphany of grace that was his appearing in our flesh to work the work of our redemption And then there is an Epiphany of glory here spoken of There was no glory in the first Epiphany and appearing of Christ It was no glory for the Creator to become a creature for the Lord to become a servant for the Word to become an Infant He was our joy and yet he sorrowed he was our strength and yet he was weakned he was our confidence and yet he seared he was our Saviour and yet he suffered he was our life and yet he died There was no glory in that He came to be minor Patre less then his Father but that is not all yet he might have become a glorious creature as the Angels are glorious creatures No it was less then thus he was a little lower then the Angels in that he was made man But in that he suffered he was a great deal less then a man he was a little less then an Angel in that he was made man but in that he suffered he was a great
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
if it be possible to sever them the world hath more miss of mercyful men then of righteous men every man should mourn for their departure and miss them though piety and righteousness may go unmourned for But these were come to that stupidity that they had no sight nor sense of their own good being a mercyful man it is likely there were many naked that he had clothed many starved souls that he had sed there were parched bowels that he had simpathyzed with he used to mourn with those that mourn to lament with those that lament Many Interpreters would have it spoken that Isaiah said this of himself in regard of the persecution that he suffered he was taken away by the Saw but whether it were of one merciful man or of all a man would think that mercyful men should not go out of the world without mourners there are Orphans and Widows that will mourn for mercyful men that have been relieved by them Yet this stupidity so benumned them in their own senses they were so frozen that they had no simpathy at all neither respect to piety or mercy Righteous men were taken away and they looked not on that side merciful men were taken away and they looked not on that side neither So it is an aggravation of their stupidity Secondly another reason why he varieth the word Righteous men first and merciful men after is this To shew how much God honoureth the works of mercy Though it be a glorious title A righteous man yet the Spirit of God will not let him go without another title A mercyful man Righteousness is best known to God but mercifulness to men Mercifulness is an evidence of piety and godliness Mercy is that grace that honoureth God most and God honoureth it most All the high Elogies that are given to piety in the Scripture are specially stated on mercy God honoureth it with large and ample promises Blessed are the mercyful for they shall obtain mercy It hath not the least beatitude set to it as Basil of Seuleucia well observeth God honoureth it likewise with an approbation When I was hungry ye fed me when I was thirsty ye gave me drink and with a publike approbation at the last day in the presence of Angels and men it is mercy that God then magnifieth Come ye blessed when I was hungry ye fed me c. God honoureth it likewise with an excellent memorial he alwayes mentioneth it with honour see it in Cornelius see it in Job see it in other Saints they were noted for mercifulness in the Scripture here in this place the spirit of God because the righteous man shall not go without an Epitaph he makes on this righteous man a memorial Merciful men are taken away That is the second reason that they might understand how farre God honoureth the works of Charity and mercy Thirdly that the Prophet might instruct them and us now who are to be reputed and accounted true righteous men Those that God accounteth so And those are merciful men These two righteousness and mercy they meet in God so they must in every Christian They are the two wayes of God saith David all his wayes are mercy and righteousness They are the two wayes that Christ takes in the world the first way at his first coming a coming of mercy to call men to mercy the second at his second coming a coming of judgement to judge the quick and the dead So they are two wayes of God so saith Saint Bernard They are the two feet of God by which he walketh through the world God visiteth men upon one of these two feet either in mercy or righteousness as they are the feet upon which God walketh to us so they must be the two feet that we walk on toward God Righteousness that is one by which we tread the way of the first Table in works of piety to God and mercy is the other by which we tread the way of the second Table in mercy towards men So that as the two Tables kiss each other they are infolded one in another the love we owe to our brethren it hangs and depends on our love to God the love that we shew to God is to be testified by our love to our brethren So these two are to embrace one another we must not sever them that God severeth not according to this others will judge of us that we are truly righteons according to this scantling we take of our selves Deceive not your selves if their be not works of Charity and mercy slatter not your selves with an oppinion of righteousness it is an empty name where mercy is not So the Apostle makes the argument He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen So likewise here is it possible that there should be righteousness toward God when there is not mercy toward men It is the first of those pious instructions that I will commend to this place Ostentation of righteousness there is a great deal in the world men desire to be accounted godly men because they can be reserved to themselves They can get pretences of piety and zealous they will seem to be for works of the first Table Did God give only one Table No but we shall be tried by the works of the second Table When I was hungry yee fed me not when I was thirsty ye gave me no drink Why do we make boast of piety to God that men cannot judge of For there is one little grain of hypocrisie that spoileth all We may act mercy to men but we cannot act piety piety will shew it self here Here is the touch-stone to give proof of the piety in our hearts if it bud out in mercy the righteous man is mereiful in every kind Where there is piety there will not be reviling and disgracing and quarrelling and contention it is impossible that piety in the heart should be contentious that pure and untainted liquor should pass through a filthy kennel if there be grace in the heart it will shew it self in the hand in the lip in the words in the actions in all It is but a touch that I give you I know you easily ghess where I am I come not to put you in mind of what you know or rather to put you in mind I am not conscious to your courses but I will tell ye what the world faith It is a great deal of wrong done to this parish and this place if there be not much contention in it and it is not upon this occasion that I heard it for before now I never knew any one in the parish but as the Apostle faith of the good works of one of these Churches It is spoken of in all the world so the strife of this place is spoken of in all the City Here is the fruit whereby you must examine you selves mercy to men If we be not those that nourish brotherly love
there will be no mercy there is no mercy where there are the fruits of uncharitableness and if there be no mercy there will be no piety Let this therefore be the touch-stone of piety love and peace with men as the Apostle speaks As much as is possible have peace with all men I will speak no more of the meaning of the first part Marciful men are taken away It is the Commentary upon the former The second is the Predicate of the Proposition they are taken away that hath reference to this they perish It is great wisdom in the Spirit of God thus to expound one word by another That as in the body of a man those parts that are of most use God in wisdom hath made them double hath made them pairs two eyes two hands two ears c. because these are parts of great use that if one part fall away and miscarry the other part may supply if one eye be out a man loseth not his sight he hath another and so in other parts so it is in the Scripture if we mistake one word here is another that is more plain to lead us right in the meaning of the Scripture for else men would have been offended Godly men perish That is more then to die that that perisheth is lost But it is plain they are not lost in death Perishing is one step beyond death If it had been predicated of merciless impenitent unrighteous men it might have been said so they perish they not only die But what hath the righteous done who ever perished being innocent Who ever suspected and dreamed that it was possible for merciful men to perish Here cometh in the interpretation No be not deceived It is a word frequently used in the world carnall men think so but they perish not they are but took away Ye see how one word helpeth the other so this word giveth us assurance of the meaning of this Scripture and of the state and condition of a merciful man he perisheth not though the Atheists of the world think so he perisheth not to himself for then beginneth his happiness when death cometh though they perish to mens memorial and remembrance there is no remembrance of the wise man more then of the fool saith Sollomon that is worldly men that mind the world and their bellies they take no more to consideration when a righteous man a wise man dieth then a fool that is an impenitent man though I say they perish to the memorial of the world they perish not to God not to the fruition of his happiness for Death is but a porter a bridge to everlasting life then beginneth their glory Heaven that was begun before in a mistery then it is set open to them literally and personally They perish not because they are taken away there is the proof of it A man that is removed only from an Inn no man will say that he is lost That that is transplanted from one soil to another doth not perish A grast or syens though it be cut off and it is to have a more noble plantation It is so far from perishing that it is more perfect it is stablished in its nature it is set into a better There are but one of these two interpretations of perishing and neither of them can befal a godly merciful man Either it is a passage from a beeing to a not beeing and so the Beasts when they die perish because their souls are mortal as well as their bodies it is no more a living creature there is no more life it it it resolveth to its first principles the soul it is nourshed as well as the body there was a beeing before but now there is a nullity of beeing in respect of a living creature there is nothing liveth Here is a perishing from a beeing to a not beeing Again perishing may be a passage from a beeing to a worse beeing so an impenitent man when he dieth he passeth from life to death yea to an eternal death to a worse beeing that is a perishing and a proper perishing that is worse then to be lost It is better to have no beeing then to have either of these But in neither of these senses the righteous man perisheth he hath a beeing and a well-beeing after death His soul hath a eral beeing with God in happiness his body hath a beeing of hope though it be in the grave Nay it hath a real beeing of happiness as it is a member of Christ in regard of the mystical union So in no sense he perisheth he is but took away he is but removed it is but Exodus but transitus his death is not a going out of the Candle it is but a translation a removing of it to a better frame it is set upon a more glorious table to shine more bright The word is well expounded in Heb. 11. concerning Enoch whereas in the fifth of Genesis the Scripture saith Enoch walked with God and God took him in the Hebrews it is said he was translated In the one he was took away that is in respect of the world In the other he was translated that is in respect of heaven They are tock away that is from the place of misery the Dungeon the prison to a place of glory and happiness They are took away from the house of clay to the house Eternal not made with hands in the heavens they are translated upward that is meant in this So that there are two observations in this First That Piety and Mercy excuseth not from death Godliness it self freeth not a man from death Death it is that end that is propounded to all men The bodies of godly men are of the same mould and temper of the same frame and constitution as other men their flesh is as frail their humours as cholerick their spirit as sading their breath as vanishing they owe the same debt to nature to sin to God to themselves and their own happiness They are bound under the weight of the same Law the statute law is It is appointed to all men to die once It is well said to die once for the impenitent man dieth twice he dieth here by the separation of his soul from his body that is the first death and there is the second death that succeedeth that the death of the soul by a separation of it from God which is far worse But righteous and merciful men die once the first death seizeth upon them It is appointed to all It is the end of all flesh In one place It is the end of all the earth in another place It is the end of all living the end of all men even merciful and godly men are brought within the compass of this law of Nature to yeeld up this debt and due Righteousness excuses not it frees not It is a law that bindeth one as well as another As Basil of Seuleucia observeth though Adam was the first that finned
Zacheus his offer was but half of his goods Lord half of my goods I give to the poor For ought I can perceive and understand above half of her estate she hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These works of her will praise her in the gates She died in the Country And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sickness I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercy in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed She that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and she is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Good Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom and grant that as we grow in years we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when we come to the end of our dayes we may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortal and only wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continual praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that hear the word of God depart from iniquity Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14.7 For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords THese words contain an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weak Christian should be born withal and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them He sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keep themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weakness The strong should bear with the weak and the weak should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one general end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walk in one way and in one path and therefore they should in these things agree together The general end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord He that eateth faith he eateth to the Lord he that eateth not to the Lord he 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 general reason where to every particular of their lives may be reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whet her they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this general reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us living to himself and no man dieth to himself Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their duty to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their duty to God if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. Gods acceptance of them Whether we live or die we are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposal of this general reason none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Now when the A postle 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 duty belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speaks generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universality a generality with a restraint He saith none of us he 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 we rank our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speak in this question none of us live to our selves Life in general is nothing else but that power whereby we act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul 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 donble life there are two sorts of actions of life there are natural actions of a natural life and there are spiritual actions of a spiritual life When the Apostle speaks of living he intends both these We live not that is we do not the actions of life whether natural or spiritual to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himself he meaneth not only a mans person either soul 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 we do not make our own well-being or well-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 seek himself only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may be objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seek himself in the things that he doth When they do good things that which God commandeth that
comfort if he have carried it well and much sorrow and griefe if he have carried it ill Thus a religious heart carrieth it self in this duty Now a worldly man doth the duty too but how as if not that is he hath none of this care before he cometh to it he hath none of this trouble when he is at it he hath none of this perplexity when he hath done if he have miscarried in it if he be able to come off it is well enough though it be performed in never so ill a manner Why his mind is after other things he intends greater matters as he thinks The Minister hath taught him to pray and he can say his prayers and so he doth the duty but still as if not Or again suppose a man whose heart is set upon Mammon put this man to recreation he may perhaps find time to play at Bowles or Cards or Tables with a friend but how he cares not whether he wins or loses he whiles away the time but this is not the thing his heart is set upon that giveth him contentment but that which his mind is on is his commodities his trade his merchandize his business in the world Just thus beloved it must be with every true beleever in the using of all the things of this life that is without care without fear without perplexity without distraction and if they come on so if they go so he must be pleased if he have them and content if he want them and howsoever his thoughts must be carried higher and better To think thus I am the servant of God I have a Calling here I will follow it in obedience to God I have a Wife I will use her as a wife should be used I have children I will have a care of their education But I must not come to be distracted about my calling about my wife and children and servants and good name or any thing that is here below I am here to day it may please God I may be gone to morrow my hearts desire must be to be content with this that God is my all-sufficient portion if I be in prosperity to be as if not if in affliction to carry my self so that in the middest of sorrow and trouble to be as if God freed me from all remembring still that my portion is in another life Thus you have seen both the lesson arising from the Text and what that is that in it is required of 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 plain out of the Scripture That a true beleever that would have comfort of it that he is a true believer must be as if not in all the things of this world There is one eminent place for this purpose viz. 1 John 4.10 Saith the Apostle there Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Hence I argue thus He that must so use wife children credit freinds good name prosperity without loving of them it is likely he useth them as if not for love is the great wheel that setteth all the faculties awork Now the Spirit of God doth directly forbid all Christians to love the world or the things of the world as they do 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 do any thing that his affections are not upon that he doth not love and joy and delight in that he 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 be straitned Two or three arguments I will add to make it plain 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 empty poor 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 known to be but empty things I need give you no better proof to make this evident then that which followeth in the Text For the fashion af 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 world signisieth such a fashion as is in a Comedy or stage-play where all things are but for a while to please the eye A man it may be 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 marvel 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 meer 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 he 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 bargain for Christ For when we come to be Christs we must sell all to buy that Pearl and in selling all we sell not only our corruptions and lusts but wives and children and pleasures and credit and all we have them not now to have and to hold to do what we will with them but now that we have Christ we return all to him and have them as Coppy-hold to be tenants at will to that great Land-lord we have only a little time in them And if it be so that every beleever hath no more to do in this world but thus that he is meetly at the pleasure of God and can properly call nothing his own but God and Christ then certainly he must use all these things as if not Conceive it thus A Traveller goeth a long journey hee cometh at night to his Inn when he is there he is woundrous glad of his table of his bed of his fire of his meat and drink and every thing and he is woundrous welcome but he doth not so delight in them as the
Election God hath elected them to it Secondly in respect of vocation they are begotten again to a lively hope They have now the Word which giveth them a promise of heaven They have now the spirit which is the seal of their inheritance you are sealed by the spirit of Promise to the day of redemption Eph. 1.13 Secondly in regard of possession they are now already in present possession not in full possession but in present possession A possession not in themselves but in Christ by vertue of the union and communion they have in him By the union and contract that is between Christ and the soul Christ is become the Husband the Christian the Spouse So that as a Wife if her Husband should travel into a far Countrey and in her name should take possession of those lands that were left her by her Father the Wife now is possest of those lands in her Husband who in her name hath taken possession of them so Christ entring into heaven hath took possession of heaven which is given to us by the will of God It is your Father pleasures to give you a kingdom Christ hath possessed it in our name I go faith he to prepare a place for you and it is my will that they be where I am I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God All that Christ hath in heaven He hath it for us He is gone before that we may follow after we cannot possibly lay claime to heaven we cannot hope hereafter fully and personally to possesse it if Christ had not first taken possession of heaven for us The Use of this in a word shall be to stir up every one to look to his hope of heaven It is usual for men to profess their hope to be saved and scarse any but they will say they hope if they die they shall go to heaven Yea but thou must now possesse it if ever hereafter thou mean to enjoy it and thou must possesse it first in Christ thou must be united to him by faith and love those are the bonds whereby the Spirit of God tyeth us unto Christ therefore Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith Which shewes the horrible presumption of many and how they add to their other sins this that they presume that they have right and title to heaven and yet are not united to Christ by faith as if a man should give out that he were the heir apparant to a Crown or the son of a King and yet nevertheless should indeed be the son of a Beggar and have nothing to shew for his pretended title to the Crown and Kingdom what would this be accounted but high treason against the King What a height of sin is this that is in many men which to their other sins add a presumptuous claim to heaven when they have no right to it I Remember that in the time of Ezra we shall read of many that laid title and claim to the Priest-hood but Ezra searched the book of the Genealogies and finding none of their names Registred there he presently concluded that they were none of the Priest-hood therefore they were accounted polluted and put from the Priest-hood If any man lay claim to heaven God will search his book of Genealogies as it were he will search the Register of heaven and if he find that his name be not inrolled there if he be not found to have interest in Jesus Christ all will be nothing he shall be cast out to his greater confusion This should therefore stir up every one to make good his claim to heaven now either now to be possest of heaven now to sit in heavenly places with Christ ore lse look not to come to heaven afterward But to leave this and to come to that I mainly intend namely the Argument or reason or ground of the Apostles heavenly conversation Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostle observeth here a kind of speech and that which seems not so Gramaticall that he may thereupon build a sound and substantial truth in Divinity He had said before Our conversation is in the heavens in the Plural number but now when he speaks of Christs coming thence he speaks of it in the Singular number Our conversation is in the heaven from whence from which particular place We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Of purpose to shew us thus much that though Christ in respect of his Deity and divine nature he be in all places filling heaven and earth yet in respect of his bodily presence he remaineth now and so will till his second coming which the Saints look for in heaven Against those Ubiquitaries that will have the body of Christ to be every where In Heaven say they visible in this place invisible The Papists hence build the Doctrine of Transubstantiation they will have the body of Christ even that very body that was born of the Virgin to be now Bread and the bread turned into it The Lutherans will have the same Body about the bread No faith the Apostle there is no such matter from thence from that very place that very individual particular single place from the third heavens where the body of Christ is We look for the Saviour he remaineth there and so will continue till his coming to Judgement So again in another place Collos 3.1 Set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Above that is in heaven where Christ sitteth and continueth and will remain till his second coming Our Saviour told his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh that the poor they should have alwayes with them but me faith he you shall not have alwayes If this be true that they say then Christ hath not said true for he is still in respect of his bodily presence and hath been alwayes with us But I let pass that The thing I note hence is this That that which most soundly and effectually settleth the heart of a man in a heavenly conversation upon earth is the looking for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from thence I say there is nothing that so settleth the heart of a man in a heavenly conversation upon earth nothing that makes him so heavenly minded nothing that ordereth him in so heavenly a course as this if he rightly look for Christ to come from thence That you may conceive this the better you may please to take notice that there are two things included in this point First that all the Saints of God while they are on earth their continual expectation is for Christ to come from heaven Secondly that nothing is so effectual to settle a man in a holy course while he liveth on earth as this expectation These two things I will open to you at this time The
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus 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 continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming 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 faith Jacob 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 impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph 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 coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general 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 be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear 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 infalible 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 look 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 me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick 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 faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming 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 here 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 evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming 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 look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion
he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helps them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. He takes much delight in their sweet holy calm deaths and resignations of their souls 3. He takes care of their very bodies too to lay them up sweetly to rest in Repositories or Dormitories as the Ancients were wont to call Church-yards and Graves 4. Lastly he entertains their souls immediately when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahoe in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possess present joy and quietness And no wonder that he doth all this because he hath bought them and redeemed them unto himself with so great a price as his Suns bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as Co-heirs with Christ so great and large benefits We may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our belief of him and our waiting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are dear unto him That word in the Text which is Death and which by the Seventy is ordinarily turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is taken in the Scripture sometimes for sickness or any affliction Exo. 10.17 For infection 2 King 4.40 For wounds Prov. 26.18 and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soul The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefs of his holy ones are dear unto God But especially their souls their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caveat for the safety as of Kings most particularly so also of all that fear him and that trust in his mercy I have hastned over these points that I might come to the testimony that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master John Moulson which I may not omit nor to be particular in it having never such a subject of discourse before such an exemplary man I would not be bought to flatter a prophane and wicked great one but here Gods glory in this his Servant and the edification of you that are present require of me that I speak fully for he was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura He copied out in his life the old way of Christianity and writ so fair after those Primitives that few now can imitate his hand And truly as in a garden in which there are variety of flowers we know not where to pick so in those many commendable parts of his I know not which to choose to present unto you or in what method But you may take notice I. Of his moral parts where I commend four things 1. His Calmness and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an oequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisdome in this age of talk and pratling 3. His affable carriage and easiness of access by which like another Poplicola he gained reputation and the love of the neighbour-hood where ever he dwelt Some are so hairy and rough like Esau that they may be discerned by their handling and some so churlish as Nabal that a man cannot speak unto them Which sourness and clowdiness of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetness and affalibility 4. His grave deportment and carriage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray head and wrinkled cheeks accompanied with sage gravity commands respect from the beholders as that old grave Bishop Paphnutius though he had lost an eye did from the Emperour Constantine Gravity dwelt in the face of this man and his very presence was such as would discountenance the rude and prophane But all these are but mean commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holiness Where I will observe and commend unto you 1. His unoffensive youth of which they that can remember him since that time are confident to say of him as the Emperour said of Piso Hujus vita composita à pueritia His life was composed and settled even from his very child-hood and then began to sort himself with the gravest company chiesly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incombent in this Church to whom he was dear He was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that he was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where he was very watchful and careful of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to bear the Lords yoak from his youth 2. His unmarried estate which was chast and modest He lived above fifty years unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisdome not to be rash and his care to keep his vessel clean 3. His married estate course of hous-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to marriage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children he nurtured them and his Family in Gods fear 1. He prayed four times a-day 2. He read three chapters in the old Testament and three in the New every day 3. After dinner he called not for game for digestion but read a Chapter before he rose from table 4. He catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plain form 5. He usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember of the Sermon he usally repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meekness and peaceableness of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimony of inward holiness according as it runs Jam. 3.17 pure then peaceable He was not apt to quarrel in matters that concerned him not never being observed to bear a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suit known unto many here 2. Though he were meek in his own cause yet he was zealous in Gods He could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compass of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good works 3. Yet his Zeal did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisdome as the heart is by the brain and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neer it His wisdome appeared first in his disscreetness in his undertakings and all affairs an argument of which some take to be this That he was never troubled not so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in
partly out of love to God and partly out of fear of punishment this is acceptable to God For a man must love himself in subordination to the love of God and therefore he may look to the avoiding of evil and to the getting of good eternal to soul and body Now these fears we may consider of them thus The natural fear may be accompanied with the Spirit but it comes not from the Spirit that must be ordered by the word of God Secondly carnal fear comes not from the spirit nor is accompanied with it this is ever to be mortified this we must take heed of and this fear Abraham is exhorted against here Thirdly the fear that is servile it comes from the spirit but it is not accompanied with the spirit As the dawning of the day the Sun is the cause of it yet the Sun is not present when the day dawns but some glimps goes before him this we must cherish so as we bring it to filial fear and then we deal aright in that Lastly for filial fear we must cherish that at all times we must labour to get still a more reverent respect of the Majesty of God So I have briefly shewed you what fear is And what fear we must labour to be freed from all slavish and carnal fear 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 fear that is carnal Fear not them that can kill the body And in Isaiah 8.12 Fear not their fear What is the ground of this I will tell you briefly Christ came into the world to deliver us from all our enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Luke 1.47 So then the ground is this that man that hath no enemies that man that cannot possibly be molested with any evil what need he fear For there is no evil in the world that can surprize a man that is in covenant with God that labours to keep his covenant but by the power of the Spirit he may conquer it For only evil and evil future is the object of fear Now if there be no evil that can befall a child of God but such as may be conquered he should contemn it and not fear it Now all the enemies of a Christian are either reconciled or conquered and foyled and what then need he fear them For God that is an enemy to every man naturally he is reconciled Christ hath made our peace with God he hath made our attonement we need not fear him slavishly though we may and must fear him with a filial fear we must not be afraid of him with horrour as to run from him but we must so love him as to reverence before his foot-stool Again in regard of the evils of the world they are enemies too but how Christ hath been pleased to sweeten these to us all things in the world saith the Apostle speaking of afflictions Rom. 8. they work for good to them that fear God Shall a man be afraid of his own good Nay there is nothing in the world that more works our good then afflictions and losses and crosses we might spare any thing better then them shall we be afraid of that that works our good Death it is reconciled and made our friend It was the greatest enemy Christ hath pulled out the sting and changed the nature of it he hath made it the birth-day of eternity a sweet passage to a better life Death brings not evil to a man that is in covenant with God but rather terminates all evil that he is molested with in the world So then some enemies are reconciled and made our friends and these we have no reason to fear Again there are some that are irreconcileable and they are conquered and overcome The Divel will never be friends with us therefore Christ hath spoyled principalities and powers and trampled Satan under-feet and now if he walk about yet he is in his chain he can bite but he can hurt none but those that willingly betray themselves into his hands For sin it is of a condemning nature but those that are in covenant with God and walk with him it is removed as far from them as the East is from the West it is thrown into the bottomeless sea of Gods mercy so that it shall never anger God or hurt us any more then if we had not committed it Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Nay more God hath bestowed his Spirit whereby he hath freed our hearts and whereby if a man labour to stir up the grace of God in him and to walk comfortably as he might in the presence of God he might through the power of God free his heart from these horrours and fears for faith the Apostle ye have not received the Spirit of bondage to fear again but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit of bondage casts down the soul mith horrour and fear but we have the Spirit of God to assure us that we have God for our Father reconciled in Christ and so by consequent that our sins are pardoned that death is overcome that Principalities and powers are spoyled and all things in the world though contrary in themselves yet they shall work for our good So you see the ground of it a Christian hath no enemies some enemies are reconciled and others are trampled under foot that they cannot hurt him And we receive this freedome by the Spirit of God that if we would stir it up and labour to walk as becometh Christians we may make our lives very comfortable Briefly for Application First let us all take notice of the command that God gives to Abraham of this incouragement and make use of it to our selves and know that the power of grace and Religion must reflect upon a mans self He beloved shall be accounted the best Christian before God and in the sight of judicious men whose Religion is practicall and reflects upon himself Now there are many busie ones in the world that meddle with the conversations of others and are still talking and complaining of things without themselves but surely he is a happy man that reformes himself and that sets in tune his own affections and passions as this in particular to labour to be without slavish and inordinate fear Alas we may complain of many that find fault with many things but if they look within there is a combustion of a great many unruly affections and passions and these are the things we never complain of we find not fault with our selves as we should we should take notice of the Law of God that it is spiritual to set in order our hearts and minds and souls as well as our tongues and hands The law of man reacheth but
thing or other and therefore it was thus with him Nay Christ himself the censure of all men was thus much concerning Christ himself We did esleem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted The intent of the phrase is as one smitten for his own ill as if God had now manifested that he did not acknowledge him to be so holy and righteous So thus you see the inclination in the heart of man to uncharitable jndging of those that God hath cast down and suffers to be exercised under many afflictions and troubles Let us learn then spiritual wisdome let us learn love and spiritual mercy to judge more favourably of the state of those whom we see troubled in spirit Many times God infeebleth and distresseth the spirits of his best servants to abate the pride of men that none might exalt himself before God Nay in the very thing wherein they have excelled in the same thing he sometimes abaseth them you see Abraham he is called the Father of the faithful his excellency was his faith yet faithful Abraham is detected in Scripture of much unbelief in some particulars Who would think that he should expose Sara as he did to save himself that he should do it that was called the Father of the faithful you have heard saith the Apostle James of the patience of Job the very excellency of Job was his patience who would think that ever patient Job should utter such things as he did sometime even cursing the very day of his birth David a man of a chearful spirit a man full of the praises of God a man wonderous large when he comes to speak of the glory of God at several times A man would have thought him of an invincible fortitude and courage yet nevertheless you shall have David so cast down as that he thinks the Lord had forgotten him and that the Lord would shew no mercy upon him that the Lord had hid himself from him and that he would never regard him more who would think that ever David that abounded so in the comforts of the spirit sometimes should be so dejected at such times as those were when he was in such a conflict Why doth God do this To shew thus much that the very best of his servants in the chief of their excellencies are dependant on him still they have nothing of themselves or from themselves Therefore they shall sometimes seem to want that they have that the very having and using of it may be ascribed to his glory Then let us now reason thus when we see the servants of God in trouble exercised under disquiet Let us conclude now God is glorifying himself This the Apostle infers He will rejoyce in his infirmities because the power of Christ is manifested by it For our selves it should teach us according to the intent of this place above all things to labour that our hearts may be kept in that blessed plight of spiritual joy that we may be strengthened with freeness of heart to serve God in our inward man Let not your hearts be troubled How should this be done The Text tells us here and so I come briefly to the second thing observable in the Text the means you beleeve in God saith he beleeve also in me As the words are read in the translation they seem to be uttered by way of concession as much as if Christ had said since yon already beleeve in God now beleeve in me The Syriack seems to express it otherwise and so render it by way of command and to make here an intimation of two duties as a help of quieting the heart and so it reads it Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God beleeve also in me propounding a twofold object where-about faith should be exercised that the heart may be quieted in the time of any trouble The first is God considered in the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence The second is Christ Mediator God and Man Now saith he beleeve in God that is the first rest upon God Then the second is beleeve in me also as one that is the Mediator between God and you now making your peace with God So the second part seems to be the prevention of an objection For when he saith Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God they might say Alas shall we beleeve in God that are sinful men The sinners in Sion cry out Who shall dwell with consuming fire c. Therefore saith Christ beleeve also in me that is know that God will be your God in and for my sake he is reconciled and well pleased with you Therefore in all your approaches to God take me with you look up to God pray to him depend upon God through me still keep me as a Mediatour between God and you and this will preserve your hearts in peace The time would not serve if I should go over things particularly and in a full way Therefore I will touch the heads of things and it shall be thus much that A special means to preserve the heart of man from excessive sorrow and fear from trouble and disquiet of spirit is faith Let not your hearts be troubled But how shall we help it Beleeve in God beleeve also in me And this we shall see through the Scriptures David found it thus Psal 40. he speaks to his disquieted soul Trust in God I will wait on him he is my God Jehoshaphat in that excellent speech to his Souldiers that were now troubled for the multitude of their enemies against them Beleeve in God and you shall prosper beleeve his Prophets and you shall be established that is the way to stablish the heart to beleeve in God revealing himself in his Word It is noted of Moses in Heb. 11.27 He therefore endured all that he did because he looked on him that is invisible And those three companions of Daniel Dan. 3. Our God say they whom we serve is able to help us but if he will not we will not worship thy golden Image There was matter of trouble and disquiet in the heart to be put to such a plung that they must either worship or be cast into the Furnace heated seven times hotter Well this eased them of all trouble and disquiet they knew whom they have trusted and he was able to keep that that was committed to him to the coming of Christ As Saint Paul expresseth it with which he also rested abundantly satisfied On the other side the want of this hath been the cause of that perplexity and disquiet that hath been upon the hearts of Gods servants at all times That was the reason that Abraham was so disturbed and disquieted in that fear of what should be done to him in Egypt certainly he failed in this in resting upon God Moses was wondrously troubled when the Lord bad him go to Pharaoh and deliver Israel out of Egypt saith he Lord send by him whom thou shouldest send I am a
means and sanctifieth all these means Therefore well saith the poor man God is my help and the sick man God is my health and the weak man God is my strength and the blind man Christ is my light and even the dead man the distrest man God is my life and the good man Christ is my Hope and the happy man Christ is my love And so it is to Christ that the wings of a mans Hope doth lift him up This is the first It sheweth us that the wings of Hope that is in the faithful soul lifteth him up above all means No more of that Secondly observe in this object the very Crown of a Christians comfort I say the Crown of all his comfort and that cometh only from this object of his hope For what is there in all the World that can comfort a man indeed besides this much less compared with this Begin where you will when you have gone round about you will conclude with that of the Apostle I count all things but loss and dung in comparison of Christ and all things to be vanity and vexation of spirit as the preacher saith Put the case thou art a sick man or a sick woman and I find thee much affected afflicted dejected cast down in thy self I would fain give thee some comfort now I tell thee of the vanity of this present life therefore being content I tell thee of the hope of of a better life I tell thee of the joyes that are to be revealed I tell thee of the promises of God which he will make good to thee if thou wilt trust in his mercy I tell thee of all the sure mercies of David as they are called and all this while I have told thee nothing at all to comfort thee till I come to this the object of this Hope which I have in hand and that is Jesus Christ in whom all Gods promises are Yea and Amen and till thou canst learn this lesson of life concerning the Lord Jesus thou hast learned nothing come and learn this and my life for thine thou art then happy He is the Way the Truth and the Life the Way and Truth and life it self and whither shall I go from thee Lord thou hast the words of eternal life I have done with that point and so pass on to the third We have Hope we have Hope in Christ we have Hope in Christ in this life This life-time then is our hope-time that is it you learn hence Here we have the seed of Hope but the harvest of Hope that is hereaster when we shall have in re what now we have in spe as ordinarily we speak when we shall have in possession what now we have in expectation then there will be no more use of this Grace there hope shall cease Now it is indeed in this life time that we sow the seeds of Prayer that we plant the roots of Faith that we water all of them with our hope when our joy shall spring up when the end and fruit of our faith shall come when the possession of our hope shall appear then we have done with hope hope serveth no longer then therefore it is now in this life Hope shall end for the action of it understand that aright as Faith shall but it shall never end for the object of it that end shall last still and rest ever Now then in the interim this is the Prophets and this is the Princes and this is the Peoples posse I wait and I wait too and I trust the Lord over all Now is your posse time as I may call it now is the seed time wherein we sow the seeds of love of joy of hope wherein we sow the seeds of sobriety and innocency and chastity and charity and all manner of vertues whatsoever now is the time Is this so then here is the issue of this plea It is this that therefore now if ever now or never we must seek to see whether we have these seeds of Grace in us yea or no We must get them and we must set them and we must see to them both that they come up and how they come up and how they come on Now is the time when the special care must be taken concerning these seeds of Grace If we will believe we must believe now for hereafter there will be no time to believe any more If we will be children of Grace we must be it now for hereafter there will be no space for Grace therefore faith the Lord now while he will be found and he will be found of those that seek him and seek him now for now is the acceptable time now is the day of salvation when the date of this day when the day of this life of salvation is down is past then there is no more seeking then there is no more finding therefore if thou wilt be faithful be it now if thou wilt be fruitful be it now now we are the Sons of God as if he should say if we be not the Sons of God now we shall never be Is this so add a further degree to this duty in the next place and that is when you have gotten these seeds in you to examine and prove your selves whether they be there not only so but whether they abide there not only so but whether they live there and not only so but whether they grow and live there they must not only be but they must continue there and abide and they must not only be and abide but they must be alive there and not dead and they must not only be alive but they must thrive too and not be idle for if these things be in you they will make you neither idle nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord. Hast thou Faith be sure thou hast it and then shew me thy faith by the fruits of it shew me that it is not a dead faith that faith cannot save thee do not think it shall for Saint James explodeth it for a Jest that any Christian should think so Hast thou love look thou hast it and let thy love abound let thy love be love unfeigned for as there is a work of faith so there is a labour of love Hast thou hope let it be stedfast entring into that within the vail as an Anchor firm and stable so the Apostle faith Hast thou knowledge Look it be saving knowledg sanctifying knowledge such as will savour and season all the rest of thy knowledge And let not thy knowledge be only so but let it be growing too let it thrive and prosper get more to it or else thou dost not husband the business well thou must go according to the phrase of the Holy Ghost in the Psalm from strength to strength as a good Souldier and Commander goeth from one watch-tower to another to see if all be well Go from strength to strength
because he will not have his creature worn out with a tedious misery and transitory vanity a vanity of misery that is in this vain miserable life of mortality I have done with the fourth A fifth thing that followeth in the Text that I may hast on we have Hope we have Hope in Christ we have Hope in Christ in this life our hope in this life is not upon the things of this life for if it were in this life only it were miserable Our life is a misery There is the fifth And this is a certain truth and it will plainly appear to us in many passages if we will believe either the Spirit of God or the experience of the godly I shall not need to stand to proveit You will ask me how it will be raised from this place Thus We are of all men the most miserable because that we are mentioned amongst the number of those that are the more miserable it implieth that all the rest are miserable more or less the very comparison that is used doth manifestly declare unto us that there is a measure of misery to every man living so then there is misery 2. It appeareth out of the Text because here and else-where you shall have man and misery made terms convertible Man is named Enoch and Enoch is misery Man and misery so joyned together that there is no pulling them asunder till death parts them for then there is no more misery 3. Because that misery here our being miserable in this life is mentioned even with the very best things of this life the very best things that are in this life and of this life so long as they look to this life I say they are stiled miserable but the best things even Christ himself our Hope it self say what you can here is Hope and here is Christ in the Text and yet not withstanding here is misery too Now then we reason thus that if the best things in this life be miserable then the rest are no better then so that the best are no better it is plain because let us have what we would have in all the World yet so long as we are here it is misery If this be so then we must come to the conclusion we have made and that is Jacobs conclusion Gen. 47.9 Few and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been it is Jobs conclusion too Mans life is full of misery It is Davids in the Psalms Mans life is full of labour and sorrow it is soon cut off and we fly away our dayes come to an end as a tale that is told they pass away as a shadow and the beauty the best of them withereth as grass It is Solomons he was the Preacher and here is his Text all is vain and vanity Vanity of vanities all is vanity one thing and other every thing under the Sun our life it self our selves so long as we are here we are under the Sun he calleth all vanity And faith the Apostle This I say Brethren the time of our life is short And what is our life saith Saint James But a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away it is a vapour that vanisheth a meoter of misery What shall we say of this now to speak it in few words home to our selves somewhat may concern our selves and somewhat as we respect and reflect upon others In regard of our selves it may have this double Vse First to wean us from the World Secondly to win us to the Lord. 1. To wean us from the World The World considered in it self is so full of misery that there is nothing to be delighted in there is so much bitterness that I warrant it will wean any Child from it that is not a worldling for he indeed is at his own breasts with his own Mother But consider the World as it is in it self and there is nothing in it but true bitterness and false sweetness certain pain and uncertain pleasure tedious labour and timerors rest nothing in the World but vanity and misery for saith Saint John Love not the World he that makes himself the friend of God makes himself an enemy to the World O you lovers of the World saith Saint Austin I wonder at you O foolish men who hath bewitched you for what wrestle why do you strive and contend so much what thing is there in the World that is worthy your labour there is saith he nothing in the World but that which is foolish and frothy and frayl and false and vain and full of danger full of disaster suffer your selves therefore to be weaned from the World And yet notwithstanding all that we can say we know there are some persons that will not be taken off from the Worlds breasts they have a better opinion of it than so Let such enjoy their own errour till they run to ruin and till their own overthrow take them off Yet not withstanding we know that which an Ancient hath that to whom God is once sweet the World must needs be bitter 2. On the other side the knowledge of this serveth to win us to the Lord that as the one draweth us off so the other may drive us on When I consider the mercies of the Lord and the goodness of God in the land of the living when I consider how infinite he is in his love I am ravished in spirit I am taken up in the mind and taken off in the flesh I have set my heart and affections on Heaven and on heavenly things And now when I think on the Lord there is my hope and there is my help and there where my help is there is my love and there is my life and there is my Lord there is Christ at the right hand of God He is the life of them that beleeve he is the resurrection from the dead he is the right hand where there is pleasure for evermore for there shall be no more pain no more death for the first things are past away saith Saint John in the Revelation and all things are become new Oh he that did but know the joyes that are reserved for such as are received to the Lord would soon be taken up from all conceits of the things of this life Think you but of that great convocation house of Heaven that high Court of Parliament that great place of Majesty and honour where all the spirits of just men made perfect are where all the Saints departed live where there are all the blessed Patriarchs godly Prophets the glorious Apostles the blessed Kings and the godly fellowship of Martyrs and Confessors where there are the holy Angels and Arch Angels Thrones and Dominions Seraphims and Cherubins in those glorious Orbs Where there is God the blessed Trinity the King of Glory whose Glory is more then can be seen be said conceived to be where the joy of the Saints is such as eye
Christ for all Cui c. VICTORIS BRABAEUM OR THE CONQUERORS PRIZE A SERMON Preached at Rotheriffe at the Funeral of M ris Dorothy Gataker Wife to the Worthy and Reverend Divine Master Thomas Gataker B. D. SERMON XLVI Apoc. 14.13 So faith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them THe longer a man enjoyeth the benefit of life the more cause he hath to desire death for cares grow with years and sins with cares and sorrows with sins and fears with sorrows which trouble the quiet and confound the musick and blend the mirth and damp the whole joy of our life so that he who spinneth the thred of his life to the greatest length gaineth nothing thereby but this that he can give a fuller and clearer evidence of the vanity of the world and yeild a more ample testimony to the misery of man during his abode in the flesh whom if we take at the best advantage of his Worldly happiness he must needs confess that he hath nothing of all that is past but a sad remembrance nor of that which is to come but a solicitous fear As after a great feast at which a man hath glutted his appetite nothing remaineth but loathsome and stinking fumes ascending from the stomack to the head and offending the brain so of all the pleasures of sin past nothing remaineth but a bitter tast in the conscience or rather to use Saint Bernards Metaphor amar a foeda vestigia foul and stinking prints left in the floar where he danced after the Devils pipe sorrow and shame for what he hath been and fear for what he shall be mingles and sours all the joy and delight in that he is And what is he at the best a poor tennent at will of a ruinous cottage of loam or house of clay ready to fall about his ears with a Grashoppers leap in a spot of ground His apparel is but stoln raggs his wealth the excrements of the earth his dyet bread of carefulness got with the sweat of his brows and all his comforts and recreations rather as Saint Austin tearms them solatia miserorum quam gaudia beatorum sauces of misery then dishes of happiness For albeit a good conscience be a continual feast and the testimony of the Spirit an everlasting Jubilee in the soul yet the most righteous man that breaths mortal ayr either by frailty or negligence or diffidence or impatience or love of this present life or suttlety of perswasions or violence of temptations so woundeth his conscience and grieveth the Spirit of grace that this feast is turned for a time into a fast and the Jubilee into an ejulate or howling All things therefore laid together the scorns of the World assaults from the flesh temptations from the Devil rebukes from God checks from conscience sensible failing of Grace spiritual dissertions with many a bitter agony and conflict with despair I cannot but perfectly accord with the Poet in his doleful note Foelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta jam sua they are but too hapyy whose glass is well run out and with the Evangelist in my Text beati mortui blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours and their works follow them they rest from those labours which tie us that live and the works which we are to follow follow them A three-fold cable faith the wise man is not easily broken and such is this here in my Text on which the anchour of our hope hangeth 1 The testimony of Saint John Yea. 2 The testimony of the Spirit so saith the Spirit 3 A strong reason drawn from their rest and recompence they rest from their labours and they receive the reward of their labours they are discharged of their work and for their work If they were discharged for their work and not discharged of their work they could not be said blessed because their tedious and painful works were to return And much less happy could they be termed if they were discharged of their work but not for it for then they should lose all their labour under the Sun they should have done and suffered all in vain but now because they are both discharged of their work for they rest from their labour and discharged for their work for their works follow them they are most blessed The Spirit here taketh the ground of this heavenly musick ravishing the souls of the living and able to revive the very dead either from the labourers pay or the racers prize If the ground be the labourers joy for their rest and pay the descant must be this our life is a day our calling a labour the evening when we give over our death the pay our penny If the ground be the racers joy for their prize the descant may be this the Church is the field Christianity is the race death is the last post and a garland of glory the wager let us all so run that we may obtain Yea faith the Spirit We read in the Law and the Prophets Thus faith Jehovah the Lord in the Gospel Thus spake Jesus But in the Epistles and especially in the Revelation thus faith the Spirit now the Spirit speaketh evidently hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches and the Spirit and the Bride faith come While Christ abode in the flesh he taught with his own mouth the Word of life but now since his Ascention and sitting in state at the right hand of his Father he speaketh and doth all by his Spirit By the Spirit he ordaineth Pastours furnisheth them with gifts enlightneth the understanding of the hearers and enclineth their wills and affections and so leadeth the Church into all truth In which regard Tertullian elegantly tearmeth the Spirit Christi Vicarium Christ his Vicar preaching in his stead and discharging the Cure of the whole World Secondly so faith the Spirit not the flesh the earth denies it but Heaven avereth it when a man removeth out of this World the flesh beholdeth nothing but a corps brought to the Church and a Coffin laid in the Grave but the spirit discerneth an Angel carrying the soul up to Heaven and leaving it in Abrahams bosome till the Father of spirits shall give her again to the body arrayed in glorious apparel There is no Doctrine the Devil the flesh and the World more oppose then this here delivered by the Spirit concerning the blessedness of the dead for all Atheists all Heathen all carnal men all Saduces and sundry sorts of Hereticks deny the Resurrection of the body and the greater part of them also the immortality of the soul A wicked and ungodly person believeth not his soul to be immortal because he would not have it so he would not that their should be another World because he can have hope of no good there having carried himself so
ill in this fain he would stisle the light in his conscience which if he would open his eyes would clearly discover unto him a future tribunal yet sometimes he cannot smother it and therefore as Tully who saw a glimering of this truth observeth he is wonderfully tormented out of a fear that endless pains attend him after this life Well let the flesh and fleshly minded men deem or speak what they list concerning the state of the dead the Spirit of truth faith that all that die in the Lord are blessed But where faith the Spirtt so In the Scriptures of the old and new Testament and in this vision and in the heart and conscience of every true believer First in the Scriptures let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like unto his refrain thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy works shall be rewarded and there is hope in thine end faith the Lord precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the Righteous shall wash his foot in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous Christ is in life and death advantage for I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Secondly in this vision for Saint John heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write it as it were with a Pen of Iron upon the Tomb of all that are departed in the Lord for so faith the Spirit Lastly the Spirit speaketh it in the heart and soul of every true believer lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibber or on the saggot did not the Spirit seal this truth above all other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortaility they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jaws of it When Job was in the depth of all his misery the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shal I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my rains be consumed within me offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O death where is thy sting Mors nonest stimulus fed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feel none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himself spake in him He is come he is come You have heard where the spirit faith so give ear now to a voyce from heaven de claring why the Spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well pain as pains broyls as toyls as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek so pain and pains in english are of kin for labour is pain to the body and pain is labour to the spirit and therefore what we say to be punished and tormented with a diseafe the latine say laborare morâ—…o and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing we call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortality granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from pain and pains taking What then may some object do the dead sleep out all their time from the breathing out their last gasp to the blowing the last trump as they suffer nothing so do they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a room and filled up a blank in the Roman fasti Nam bibulo factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuam without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect act or as Tullie renders the word a continual motion as the word is taken in that old proverbial verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more be and not work then the wind can be and not blow the fire and not burn a diamond and not sparkle the sun and not shine therefore it is not said here simply that they rest from all kind of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toilsome labours sore travels and again from their own labours or works not the Lords They keep an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their own works but Gods they rest from sinful and painful travels but not from the works of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soul is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it self with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soul unto return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Bodies rest in thier proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continual work and their work is their life and their life is their happiness which the Divines fitly express in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifyeth them God glorifieth them bycasting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light back again and casting their crowns before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having born the heat of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatory for blessedness cannot stand with misery nor
this sum Namely to comfort Timothy about the night approach of Saint Pauls Martyrdeme mentioned ver 6. The arguments of consolation are two each depending on the other The first taken from his Holy course of life constantly continued comfortably finished ver 7.2 The second from the certainty of his Blessed estate assured to him after this Life ver 8. And indeed the Apostle seems to put on him the effection of a dying Father willing to inhibit or at least to moderate the passions which like Ambergreese may do well in a compound of grace of his indeared children encompassing as Jacobs Sons his Death-bed as if he had thus drropt his words upon them What do yethus weeping and breaking my Heart God my own Conscience your selves are witnesses how holily and without crime I have passed the time of my sojourning here God by his grace hath according to his promise preserved me blameless unto the end You know what happy things he hath prepared for them that love him in the Beginnings whereof my Soul shall enter at my Dissolution the fulness and consummation I expect at that great and notable day of the general Resurrection and Retribution Right so the Apostle here to the same effect to comfort Timothy whom having begotten him spiritually through the Gospel to the Faith of Christ he found even as a Natural Son with his Father most affectionately tender obedient and observant unto his very last expiration I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand yet nevertheless be comforted for I have fought a good fight c. and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness c. This for the Context and scope of this Scripture I have fought a good fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the expression is borrowed from those who strive for masteryes and after a sharpe incounter or heat of Contention do at last prove Conquerors I have finished my Course 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Cursum certaminis qualis est eorum qui in stadio currunt as Estius expounds it The speech being taken from such as run in a race who give not out till the prize be obtained see 1 Cor. 6.24 25 26. I have kept the Faith That is That Fidelity or trust and faithfulness which he had constantly made good in the discharge of his Apostleship and Ministery in preaching the Gospel far and neer throughout many Regions from the time of the first Commission of the same unto his Dispensation The Apostle in his own practise accomplishing that which he required in all other the Stewards of like sacred Mysteries 1 Cor. 4.2 for this also he gave God thanks for counting him faithful in putting him into the Ministery committing the glorious Gospel unto his trust 1 Tim. 1.11 12. upon which he was assured of his Euge Bone serve fidelis Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy Ere I come to the more particular elucidation of the parts I may not omit to mention those quaeries and resolutions which some of the antient Fathers have not unprofitably raised given upon these words The first whereof is this Whether Saint Paul did not under this profession boast in a kind of vaunting ostentation Answ To this St. Chrysostome makes answer thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He doth not magnifie himself or boast in any way of vain-glorious Ostentation a sin which else where he extreamly cautions against Phil. 2.3 Gal. 2.16 but they are the words of a Saint uttered in a modest meek and humble protestation whereby he owneth the graces of God within him and gives all the glory in their vigorous exercise to God the Original Fountaine and bestower of them Quaest Whether Saint Paul did well to Commemorate and make mention of his gracious Actions and good Deeds Answ To which Saint Gregory makes answer thus Fas est viris fanctis in morte recordari imo recolere virtutes vitae actae c. It is lawful for Holy men and Saints of God in Death to recollect and to recount the vertuous deeds of their former lives past Not indeed as an occasion of exaltation in themselves for the same But Ut fiduciam prâ—beant desporantem timorem premant for the suppression of fear and Desperation in the last Houre in as much as good works are the fruit of a saving Faith that as Faith justifies the person in a Correlation to Christs merits it as an hand receiving apprehending and applying them as all-sufficient to the soul so good works being the way to eternal life Eph. 2.10 Declaratively and Praesentially justifie the Faith shewing it not to be Counterfeit or dead but Real and living It being the innate property of such a Faith to be vivacious manifesting it self in its godly Operations Hence was the saying of the Schoole Divines that Charitas was forma virtutum Charity which is the sum of the Law confisting in love towards God for his own sake and towards our Neighbour for Gods sake it was the Form of the Theological Vertues Not but that Faith and Hope and other graces of the Spirit have their own several and particular Formes which do specifically form them to their own Identical Natures and diversifie them from others so that Faith is not Hope nor Hope is not Charity but for that love doth as it were form them to acceptability before God to this purpose may be applicable that practise of zealous Nehemiah Chap. 13.14 Remember me O my God saith he concerning this and wipenot out my good Deeds that I have done for the House of my God and for the Offices thereof and the like is that we also read of good King Hezekiah upon a Summons to Death Isa 38.3 And he said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight A third Quaerie is Whether Saint Paul spake all this as out of a self-confidence without having an eye to Gods Divine assistance therein Answ To which saith venerable Bede Absit ut tantus Doctor ignoraverit legem Dei Deut. 8.17 God forbid that so great a Doctor should be unacquainted with the word of God which teacheth utterly to declaim all self-power though it were but to become wealthy or potent even in things Temporal yea himself seriously acknowledgeth all spiritual sufficiency to be of God 2 Cor. 3.5 evermore ascribing the total of his supernaturals to the free grace of Christ 1 Cor. 15.10 through whose strength alone it was that he discharged his Trust in the Gospel and went through with all other gracious performances Phil. 4.13 The fourth and last Querie is How Saint Paul came to know so