their desires for them But is it so with the wicked Who dare affirme it while they are wicked they do not cannot desire to partake of all spirituall blessings A cursed Balaam Num. 23. 10. may desire to die the death of the righteous but no wicked man alive while such can desire to live the life of the righteous 1. They do not desire it Hear their own words Luke 19. 14. We will not have this man rule over us This was a very plain but yet a very rude and rebellious message and yet such dust-heaps are found in every corner such masterlesse monsters rise every where So that by their own confession they may be judged and condemned for being unwilling to live as the holy subjects of the King of Saints in this life 2. They cannot desire it Rom. 8. 7. The carnall mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither-indeed can be By these words we see plainly the best of an unregenerate person is not onely averse but utterly adverse to the rule of holinesse and the Will being guided by the Understanding If the carnall mind as the Apostle here plainly asserteth be enmity against the law of God the rule of holinesse the carnall will cannot possibly be for conformity to it 3. The Meritorious cause of all the good which the truly godly person chuseth is the precious bloud of the Sonne of God Spirituall Causa procalactica graces and comforts here and the eternall glory of the other world are no cheap things but most costly and accordingly ought to be valued and improved by us Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace Redemption is a very comprehensive word and many times is put for all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace So that every godly person may write this superscription upon his pardon assurance perseverance and all the other benefits he partakes of by Christ in this life These are the price of bloud and that the best bloud called precious 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. and that worthily because the bloud of God Act. 20. 28. And so being the bloud of an infinite person and consequently the price an infinite price This will much more hold true concerning the glory of the other world Heb. 10. 19. Having therefore brethren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus No getting to the shore of glory but by a sinners swimming upon the most precious stream of a Saviours bloud These things ought to be frequently the meditations of Christians to inflame their loves to a most lovely and loving Saviour and to quicken them to endeavour suitable praises for all their costly priviledges in both worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The Formall Act of this Choice is that whereby they preferre Christ and all his spiritual blessings before all worldly things whatever This is the inseparable property of all and onely truly godly persons That they esteem God and the things of God above all other things is evident in the example of godly David as appeares by those remarkable words recorded in the 119. Psal 30. I have chosen the way of truth and Vers 173. I have chosen thy precepts compared with Vers 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly farre more then any thing in the whole world Psal 119. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter then hony to my mouth And Vers 72. The law of thy mouth is better to me then thousands of gold and silver Those words of the 4. Psal v. 6 7. Many there be that say who will shew us any good The many in the Text are all the ungodly The good was temporall as is clear from the seventh Verse But now godly David prayes for the light of Gods countenance i. e. the manifestation of his favour to his soul and professeth that such a precious mercy being obtained would make him more glad then any worldling could possibly be when his corn and wine encreased Yea Psal 63. 3. He preferres Gods loving kindnesse before life it selfe And that as Satan truly is to be preferred before all other worldly things whatsoever Job 2. 4. Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life But no wicked person living doth set such an high value upon God and the things of God But if God be twelve with him some worldly Object to which he is inordinately affected is alwaies thirteen as appears by those words Luke 14. 14. when Christ was speaking of the priviledge of the righteous at the resurrection one that hears him cries out Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God as if he had said in other words that is a glorious and happy estate I choose that for my portion Christ presently to discover his hypocrisie propounds the parable of the guests who were invited to partake of that priviledge he seemed so much to admire vers 16 17. and then we read vers 18. they all with one consent made excuses They seemed much to esteem the priviledge of Christians at the resurrection but their Oxen Farmes Wives lay much nearer to their heares for which we read vers 21. That the Master of the house was very angry as he had great cause as shall be hereafter proved Causa proâ—gumena 5. The Fountain of all the good the godly person chooseth is the Free Grace and favour of God towards his precious people which they all do deservedly admire in this life and will upon further grounds more perfectly admire to all eternity in the life to come The shoutings of all the godly in both worlds are and ought to be Grace Grace T is not considerable what carnall Sophisters may object against this truth because it was asserted in the third branch of the description That all the godly persons priviledges in both worlds were dearly purchased for them by the most precious bloud of Christ the Son of God and thereupon as they conceive Gods conferring those priviledges upon the Elect seems rather if not onely an Act of Justice and not at all of Grace In this hast I shall say no more and I think more need not be said then to name that pregnant Text of the Apostle for the confounding of that carnall cavil Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace According to blessed Pauls divinity Christs bloud as the meritorious cause of Redemption and Remission is very well consistent with the grace yea the riches of the grace of God the Father T is very true they were exceedingly costly to Christ we are the greater debtours to his love for being willing by so great a price to purchase our peace t is as true they are not costly to us we have them without money and
will be 't will certainly be intollerable Rev. 6. 15 16 17. And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man hid themselves in the Dens and in the rocks of the mountaines and said to the mountaines and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. This was a poor shelter for the mountains melt and the rocks rend at his angry presence for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Oh woful and miserable miscreants who can neither abide nor avoid the fearful wrath of God! It would be very sad news to a wicked man if one should come and tell him that that person who hateth him most of all others in the world hath power over him and is devising all the horrid torments that the wit of man can imagine which shall shortly be inflicted upon him But alas all this is but a very small thing I had almost said a very nothing in point of terrour If it be compared with what terrible and true tidings I am now from God to acquaint all Christlesse persons with Although you who are wicked do often pretend as those liars the Prophet Ezekiel speakes of much love to your God with your lips yet I am sure he doth not believe you But he who knoweth your hearts better then your selves saith Zech. 11. 8. that his soul loathes you and your soules abhorre him And if you die in this condition the misery which you shall endure in the other world shall be not what the finite understanding of one no nor ten thousand angry malicious men laying their heads together can devise to execute upon you but what the infinite understanding of that God who loathes you hath prepared to render your condition most exquisitely unspeakably and unconceivably miserable Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels There is the doleful emphasis of the misery of damned persons in the other world Their misery was prepared by the infinite wisdom of God who best knowes what ingredients are most torturing and his infinite hatred of their sinful persons will not suffer him to leave out the least of them They have vexed Isa 63. 10. Ezek. 16. 43. and 32. 9. and fretted Gods soul by their sins here and God will vex every vein of their hearts and be revenged on them to the utmost hereafter Histories mention many waies of torment which the heathenish and antichristian factions have invented to discover their cursed rage against the precious people of God As plates of iron burning hot which they have laid upon their naked flesh pincers red hot with which they have pulled off the flesh from the bones bodkins with which they have pricked their bodies all over casting them into Lime-kilns and into Caldrons of scalding lead their skins were flead off alive and their raw flesh rubbed with salt and vineger they were laid upon Gridirons rosted and basted with salt and vineger their bodies were rent asunder by fastning them to boughs of trees they were tossed upon the horns of Bulls with their bowels hanging out they were tortured on the rack on the wheel and on the gibbet with flaming fire under them These were very grievous waies of torment But alas these and many more such devises were no more then the inventions and executions of finite men which God permitted to be used upon the bodies of the people who were dearly beloved of his soul and therefore are but as bug-bears to scare children if they be compared with that most fearful vengeance which an infinite God hath decreed to execute upon all Christlesse persons in the other world Because of the infinite hatred that is in his soul against them In short The happines of heaven will be much more sweet then the people of God can conceive while they are here and the misery of hell will be much more dreadful then the wicked in this life either did or could possibly imagine 3. The Godly in the life to come shall have onely such company as they would have Man is a sociable creature therefore suitable society is a delight c. This will be a very considerable ingredient in that happinesse Here they cry out or have cause continually to cry out in the words of the Psalmist Psal 120. 5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar Little doth the wicked ones of the world know and consider what an heart-breake they are to their godly neighbours and nearest relations because of the wicked courses which they take It is with them as it was with Lot 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. Their righteous soules are vexed from day to day with seeing and hearing of their unlawful deeds But hereafter they shall be in that place where no such persons shall have leave to appear Revel 21. 27. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither that worketh abomination or maketh a lie No dirty Dog shall set footing on that pavement of Glory In heaven thou shalt enjoy highest communion with God the Father who elected thee God the Son who redeemed thee and God the holy Ghost who sanctified and comforted thee Then shalt thou be in the company of innumerable Angels who have done thee more good offices then ever thou tookest notice of and the spirits of just men made perfect Here it is sweet yea very sweet to enjoy the company of one or two godly persons what will it be then to be in the company of all the righteous that ever were are or shall be Here the best of Christians are imperfect in their knowledge love and all other graces and yet wise and holy Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with them then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 25 26. But sure the company of Gods people when there is no ignorance envy frowardnesse or any other corruption will be much more desirable But on the other side the company of those that make not this choice will be a very great part of their torment they must depart into the place where the devil and his angels are Mat. 25. 41. Here if men do but fancy the apparition of one devil to them they look pale their hair stands up they shriek terribly and are ready to drop down dead What will their woful case be in the midst of the devils really abiding with them Here wicked ones have many persons as husbands wives children friends that are the delight of their eyes and the joy of their hearts But in the other world it would be a very great abatement of their misery
testimony that you Heb. 12. 8. are bastards not sons When was Jerusalems condition so desperate as when God said My fury shall depart from thee I will be quiet Hîe ure hîc seca modo in aeternum Parcas August and no more angry Ezek. 16. 42. Fieri Domine fieri cried Luther strike Lord strike and spare not ferre minora volo ne graviora feram I am willing to bear lesser that I may not bear greater evils Bernard cals it misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem a most cruel and killing curtesie Job accounted it a great favour to sorry man that God accounts him worth melting although it be every morning and trying though it be every moment Job 7. 17. 18. Thirdly When the same kind and measure of outward evils do befal both the godly and ungodly the condition of the Lords people is abundantly more comfortable as in many other respects so more eminently in these three if we consider 1. The motive of their troubles 2. The measure 3. The issue 1. What moves God to afflict his people I answer the same precious love which moved him to bestow Jesus Christ upon them to save them from wrath to come Heb. Rev. 3. 19. 12. 6. For whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth v. 7. If you endure chastning God dealeth with you as with sons So that it is not common but Fatherly love which moves God to afflict his children But if the Question be Why doth God afflict wicked ones another answer must be given to wit because he beares ill will to them Zech. 11. 8. My soul loathed them and their soul abhorred me Mark what followes immediately upon Gods abhorring them v. 11. Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another What moves God to bring poverty upon wicked men because God hates them and cares not although they starve Why doth God send abundance of vexations into their Families because God abhors them and grudges them Family-comforts Wherefore doth he smite them with sicknesse because he loaths them and so values nor their lives They may die and drop into hell as suddenly as may be it shall be no trouble unto his heart Here we see a most remarkable difference between those who chuse the waies of God and those who choose the waies of sin John 18. 11. The cup that my Father giveth me shall I not drink it This cup was the most bitter cup that ever was or shall be mingled yet the love of a Father did sufficiently sweeten it But the hatred of God doth much more imbitter the afflictions of the wicked which are of themselves very bitter 2. As to the measure of the afflictions of the godly and ungodly there is likewise a very wide difference Jer. 30. 10. God bids Jacob not fear or be dismayed v. 11. The reason that is rendred is this I will correct thee in measure Es 27. 8. In the day of his east-wind he will stay his rough wind Although God for his own Glory and his peoples great good in both worlds often tries his people to the top of their strength yet he never did or will try any of them above their strength 1 Cor. 10. 13. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it This is wonderfully comfortable to the people of God but as for the wicked God takes no such care about them If God at any time suffer them as it were to scramble from under the weight of some heavy affliction before they have well breath'd themselves Gods angry hand laies a heavier burden on them that they cannot stand under it but must utterly sink God deales with wicked men in this case as enemies in war do when one enemy hath stricken another down to the ground for the present he lies like a dead man and stirs neither hand nor foot and so he leaves him but if afterwards he passe by and observe the least stirring he lifts up his arm presently and fetches an harder blow and tels him he will make him that he shall never stir more So when God hath made a great breach upon the estate health or any other comforts of the wicked for the present they are cast down but after a while God observes they can make a sorry shift to live under those stroaks then God lifts up his angry arm higher the next time and sinks them that they never joy more in any worldly comfort This is notably illustrated by a similitude the Prophet Amos useth Amos 5. speaking of the wicked in time of afflictions v. 18. he saith The day of the Lord to them is darknesse and not light not the least mixture of mercy vers 19. T is as if one flee from a Lyon and a Bear did meet him or went into the house to lean on the wall and a serpent bit him Here we see the last affliction the worst Deut. 28. 20. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thy hand for to do untill thou be destroyed and till thou perish quickly because of the wickednesse of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me 3. The difference between the afflictions of the godly and ungodly in the issue is as remarkable as any of the former differences The issue of the Saints affliction as we have already shewed is exceeding comfortable in respect of the improvement of their graces and enlargement of their spiritual comforts here and the richer crown of Glory prepared for them in the other world But as for the wicked mans Afflictions his corruptions are not purged away but enraged by them as the wicked Jewes Esa 8. 21. In the time of their extreamity they cursed their King and God but could such wickednesse help them alas no they must pay dear for it v. 22. They shall look unto the earth and behold trouble darknesse and dimnesse of anguish and they shall be driven to darknesse Still worse and worse A great many wicked persons that never rightly studied or understood either the great evil of sinne or severity of divine justice where satisfaction cannot be made when they feel painful extremities use to say they hope they have all their hell here but Christs words Mat. 24. 8. may in this case fitly be used Their torments here are but the beginnings of sorrows The wicked in this life do but sip as it were of the top of the cup of Gods wrath the bottom which is the most bitter they must be drinking off throughout the eternity of the other world By this which hath been spoken it appears clearly that the best nay onely way either to prevent afflictions or else to procure comfort under them
15 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say to them Depart in peace be you warmed and silled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit One little handful were much better then many such mouth-fuls Her charity was constant she did not content her self once in a year to drop a small alms and then all the year after live like an hard-hearted and close-fisted Mammonist She was daily begging and receiving spiritual alms from Heaven and expressed her thankfulness to God for it by giving out freely and frequently for the supply of those who were in want Very many here and elsewhere might have deservedly prayed for her when living using such words as Paul for Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 1. 16. The Lord give mercy to the house of Mistress Petter for she often refreshed me and mine 3. Her unfeigned fervent love to those of the houshold of Faith Gal. 6. 10. was very manifest partly 1. By her bountiful gifts bestowed on thē she was not as many are affraid to see or hear of such objects but as the Prophet speaketh Es 32. 8. The liberal person deviseth liberal things and so did she if at any time she by information offered by others or enquiry made by her self came to the notice of any godly person in distress she opened her purse without any motives besides what her own inflamed heart furnished her with and sent liberal tokens to those whose faces she never did or shall see till she behold them in the Kingdome of Glory 2. And by admitting them before others into familiar society with her self although never so mean in the world herein very like the man after Gods own heart Psalm 16. 2. O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord Thou art my Lord my goodnesse extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight She would be almost frighted when she saw any come within her doors that she knew could not speak and were unwilling to hear of the things of God but a poor Christian was a very acceptable guest to her at any time 4. She was one of a vey peaceable temper and upon that account Mat. 5. 9. Rom. 12. 19. worthy to be called a Child of God If money would purchase it she was content nay very glad to buy it with the loss of right she was in this respect eminently God-like that when others have been manifestly guilty of the breach of peace and had not humility enough to offer reconciliation she was willing to be the first in seeking reconciliation And when arguments with men prevailed not she wept in secret and poured forth prayers before God to obtain it and rejoyced wonderfully Rom. 12. 18 19 in the good success of any means that could be used to procure and preserve it 5. She was one of a healing spirit which appears by her discourses wherein she was very careful to avoid names of division and declared the great grief of her soul for the unhappy differences among Gods precious people and if any spake to her of any that differed from her in judgement as if they wondred how she could be familiar with them she would ordinarily make this Answer I am verily perswaded they truly fear God and so long I can heartily close with them and over-looking what I conceive to be their infirmities honour them for the image of Jesus Christ that shines in them Poor divided England hath great cause bitterly to lament the loss of such a Christian who excelled in this kind Also like Christ she was much in prayer for this needful union John 17. 11. 6. She was exceeding careful of the souls of those that were under her charge which was evidenced by the great pains she took to instruct them besides her holy example before them and daily prayers for them she was wont to hear her servants repeat over their Catechismes once a week especially before their receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Oh that her example herein might provoke others to greater care as to the souls of their servants They might consider that God might have made them servants but seeing God hath been so indulgent towards them and hath provided for their ease by giving them estates so that they can keep servants it would be but an equal and ingenuous discovery of their thankfulness to God for that mercy by taking care that their servants might find some time to do Gods work as well as their work And indeed who ever came near her to receive corporal alms she could not send them away empty if fit objects of charity and her alms was usually double for the soul as well as the body She would call upon elder persons to attend upon the publick Ordinances and to bring up their children to read and the children she would exhort to dutifulness to their parents diligence in their work and care to learn their Catechismes Secondly As to her affection and carriage towards God c. 1. She was one that evidenced abundance of love to Jesus Christ She was not like those mentioned Ezek. 33. 31. who profess much love with their lips but little or no evidence of it in their lives whereby their hearts are discovered John 14. 21. He that hath his Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth him Now as to the Evangelical keeping of Gods Commandments 't is very rare to meet with any that was so willingly and chearfully industrious at all times to comply with them in a holy conformity as she was She was so far from scanting God in point of manifest duty that sometimes she was ready in some cases not so manifest to over-do and out of the abundance of her heart would her mouth speak often and much of the precious love of Jesus Christ She was wont to say that no divine argument did more deeply affect her then that of the love of Christ Before the manifestation of Christs love to her soul she was to admiration importunate for the obtaining of it and afterwards as careful to preserve it as the Church in Cant. 3. 5. She held him and was not willing for so much as one day or hour to let him go 2. She was very zealous in the worship of God in private as well as in publick She was daily exercised if health permitted in the reading of the holy Scriptures and for many years together read over the whole Bible once in each year Besides also she read much in the approved Treatises of our most eminent practical Divines by which means she attained to a very great measure of knowledge and was very sound in the faith I could not observe in more then twelve years acquaintance with her that she was in the least infected with any one of the errours of the times Oh that in these exercises