for so witnesseth the Wise-man Prov. 28. If we confesse and leave our sins we shall have mercy So David saith Psal 32.3 4. I said I will confesse my sins and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And Saint John telleth us in his 1. Epist 1.9 If we confesse our sins God is faithful and true to forgive us our sins So you see Confession as well as sorrow absolutely required to obtain remission A man must even Arraigne and as it were indite himself before God plead guilty acknowledg his trespass whatsoever it be and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them or else he repents not though he weep out his eyes with mourning and lamentation The third thing requisite is a firm purpose of amendment of life Whosoever will have God to accept his teares and bend a favourable care to his humiliation and acknowledgement he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done that he put on a stedfast purpose of doing so no more according to the direction that our Saviour Christ giveth to the man that he had healed Joh. 5. Goe thy way and sin no more and as Saint Paul speaks Let him that stole steal no more And therefore the Wise-man putteth on this part to the former in the before alledged place If we confesse our sins and leave them we shall find mercy There must be I say a settled purpose and a fixed flat determination in the soul of every man to cast off those transgressions that he hath confest and to return no more to commit them at least not to allow those sins that he hath acknowledged Lastly there must be added to the former three or else they will not availe neither an earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness through the mediation of his wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ which was wont to be craving mercy without this mentioning of Christ before he was offered and revealed to the world But now it must be so done as we must specially and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires to him in begging mercy at his Fathers hands for his sake alone So David after the numbring of the people I have done exceeding foolishly but Lord blot out for give the sin of thy servant So God commandeth Hos 14.2 Take to you words and say to the Lord receive us graciously So did David when he renewed his repentance and so must all men do when they begin to repent Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies and blot out my transgressions c. These are the parts of repentance And this is the first thing required at our hands as the condition of the Covenant of Grace without which we can never obtain life eternal And this repentance consisteth of sorrow for sin and acknowledgment of it to God with a firm purpose of amendment and earnest petition of pardon for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is such a Doctrine as the Covenant of works the Law never taught to the sons of men Nay verily it will not admit it the Law scorns as it were to admit repentance for it excludeth sin Repentance implieth sin in all the degrees and kinds therefore it is far from accepting Repentance if thou hast once broke the Law repent or not repent amend or nor amend be sorry or not sorry thou shalt never be pardoned or forgiven It is a rough and stern School-master that will whip and scourge offending children though they crave pardon never so much It is a rough Creditour that will throttle the Debtour and cast him into Prison though he confess the debt and be never so importunate in asking favour and patience But the Covenant of Grace it is a sweet Doctrine a comfortable Doctrine Thou hast sinned oh man and broken the Law and fallen from the favour of God and all possibility of salvation in thy self but come be sorry for thy sin acknowledg it to thy Maker resolve to run on in it no longer cry to him for pardon of it he will graciously pardon thee This is a sweet Doctrine you see full of comfort and consolation yet it is a Doctrine that tendeth to the honour of the Justice of God as well as to the honour of his grace and love the Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour but that we should repent What Judg would so abuse mercy as having past the sentence of death upon a Malefactour will yet pardon him and save him from the halter if he be not sorry for his crime and come and intreat for mercy and favour and confess that he hath offended and promise never to do so again there is no mercy and pardon for such a one because mercy must not oppose Justice though it may somewhat as we may say mitigate Justice The bloud of Christ if it were shed ten thousand times over it could never corrupt the Justice of God it may satisfie it but not corrupt it now the Justice of God were corrupted if it should admit an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour and bestow upon him remission of sins and life everlasting that would never leave it nor forsake it nor be sorry for it but still go on to offend God and trample under foot his authority this being coutrary to Justice in the very nature and essence of Justice it cannot possibly be effected no not by the shedding of the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ is of that vallue that it satisfieth the Justice of God and causeth him upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner to receive him to grace and favour You see now what is the first part of the Condition required on our side for the obtaining of life by Christ that is Repentance The next is Faith in Christ This we are taught every where If thou beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ saith the Apostle to the trembling Jaylour thou shalt be saved And saith our Saviour this is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent This beleeving on Christ is I suppose nothing else bnt a staying and resting and depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all good things promised in the New covenant at the hands of God He that goeth quite out of himself forgetteth all his own actions casteth behind him whatsoever seemed good in him and wholly claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him staies on him resteth on him for the remission of sins and for the favour of God and for grace and salvation this man beleeveth in the Lord Jesus Christ and this man performs that duty which makes him one with Christ that causeth him to become a member of that mystical body whereof Christ is the head and that causeth him to be one with the Father and to be the child of
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
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
before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcome the Lacedemonians by wrastling and then by fighting and Bilney first burnt his finger in the Candle that after he might the better endure the burning of his body at the stake So think with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light cross a small affliction do I murmur at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I bear the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meek and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so we may be better able to endure heavier strokes Many of us lay out a great deale of care how to live in the world we had more need take care how to die when we shall leave the world Study the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemy too strong Learn before so to dispose of our selves and order our affairs that when Death cometh we may have nothing to do but to die Get all differences reconciled all doubts settled all reckonings ordered sequester our selves from all other avocations that nothing may interrupt us when that work is to go inhand with Put thy house in order saith God to Hezekiah I say so to every one of you First your outward house that which concerneth your worldly estate put that house in order What wouldest thou make thy Will and testament and be troubled about that when thou hadst more need to have that Will and testament confirmed that Christ hath made And then set thy soul and conscience thy inner house in order let not conscience be to seek then of any thing that concerneth thee for thy peace toward God and man Die thus and die happily Though Death be an enemy yet thou shalt not be hurt of it because it is subdued and at last thou shalt get the victory over it when thou shalt see it uttery destroyed And now as I have exhorted you to do this by way of counsel so yet a little further I crave patience that I may encourage you to do it by way of example By the example of this blessed servant and Saint of God for whose occasion you have given this meeting and I have preached this Sermon Give me leave to do by her as Mary Magdelen did by our Saviour Christ to break a box of Spiknard and pour it on her that I may anoint her for her burial Concerning whom though I could say a great deal yet knowing how well she was known to you I should not be afraid to say too much Yet on the other side because the night is farr spent and because she was sufficiently known to you although I speak but a little I shall speak enough She dwelt among you who is he that can speak ill of her who knew her but reported well of her The Apostle Saint Paul reduceth all the practical parts of Christianity to three heads Living soberly and righteously and holily The grace of God saith he hath appeared and teachth us to do all this She had learned to live soberly She was a pattern of sobriety Sober in her countenance in her diet in her apparel in her speeth in all her behaviour And the grace of God taught her to live righteously both in those things that concern the works of justice and those things that concern the works of mercy both are referred to righteousness For her justice I am perswaded she was exceeding careful in all her wayes to keep a good Conscience I am sure she was a woman very diligent and painful in her Calling she was truly one of those good house-wives that Solomon describeth in Prov. 31. and had studied that Chapter well and attained the practise of it she could never endure idleness in any there was no plague she said to idleness and that diligence in our Callings sets open a door to many blessings and shuts up the door to many tentations I may call her a discreet woman that was a crown to her husband so Solomon said a vertuous woman is He had a rich portion when God gave him her Houses and lands come by inheritance but a Prudent wife cometh of the the Lord. She was an excellent guide to her family to her servants Children she had none She had such children as S. Austin speaks of and he saith they are those children that women are saved by What children saith he Good works and those children she was full of She did the part of a Mother in bringing up her servants that were with her insomuch as she would say sometimes though they were none of her own children Behold here am I and the children that God hath given me And for works of mercy aswell as justice she was most open-hearted and handed not only to do according but beyond her ability alwayes ready upon every occasion to distribnte and administer to the necessities of the Saints and provoked and stirred others to the doing of the like Among her neighbours she lived unblameably A woman of a meek and quiet spirit and Saint Peter saith Such of God are much set by She was no tatler nor busie medler in other folks matters For Piety she was remarkable She shewed it both in her health and sickness In her health both publikely and privately In publike She was a religious frequenter of the ordinances on the Lords day and on the week dayes a diligent hearer and attender an exceilent rememberer one of the best Remembrancers that I have heard of And in private she was excellent for duties there both for the discharge of her own duty by giving ensample to others and many times by good and godly exhortations and instructions and daily by private reading and prayer she set apart some time for her self for private meditation In her sickness she was a spectacle for thousands to look on It pleased God to lay a long and heavy affliction upon her She had a Cancer in her breast that had been on her three years in the two last years she suffered a great deal of extremity as you may imagine by one thing that I shall say She was fain to endure a great deal of dressing with Corrasives and sharp medicines a great deal of cutting and searing and burning she was above fifty times burnt with hot Irons but Lord with what patience did she still endure it She would say It was no matter sanctified afflictions were better then unsanctified prosperity Apelles said when the picture of a beautiful woman was to be compleatly drawn he must borrow one part from one and another from another and put all together She had learned this She had looked on many good patterns in the Scripture and had drawn to her self an imitation of them all so that she was a perfect and
singular comfort if we take them as a commination and they afford us much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victory and full of mirth and jollity he leaps and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercy and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gasp of whom he thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to break I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very Jaws of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithful man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Jerome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmical Treatises against hereticks Quot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunderbolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts striking Death dead by the light whereof we may discern three parts 1. The menaced or party threatned Death 2. The menacer or party threatning I. 3. The judgment menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 4. The judgment most dreadful pestes plagues 1. First of the party menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an enemy and so the Apostle termeth it the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death For albeit Death by accident is an advantage as oftentimes an enemie doth a man a good turn which occasioned that excellent Treatise of Plutarch wherein he sheweth us how to make an Antidote of poyson and a good use of other mens malice yet is it in it self an enemy alwayes to Nature and to grace also it sets upon the elect and the reprobate the believer and the Infidel the penitent and the obstinate but with this difference it flyes at the one with a deadly sting but at the other without a sting the one it wounds to death the other it terrifieth and paineth but cannot hurt But there being divers kinds of death which of them is here meant Death is a privation and privations cannot be defined but by their habits that is such positive qualities as they bereave us of for instance sickness cannot be perfectly defined but by health which it impaireth nor blindness but by sight which it destroyeth nor darkness but by light which it excludeth nor death but by life which it depriveth us of Now if there be a four-sold life spoken of in Scripture viz. 1. Of nature 2. Of sin 3. Of grace 4. Of glory There must needs be a four-fold death answerable thereunto 1. The death of Nature is the privition of the life of nature by parting soul and body 2. The death of sin is the privation of the life of sin by mortifying grace 3. The death of Grace is the privation of the life of grace by reigning sin 4. The death of Glory is the privation of the life of Glory by a total and final exclusion from the glorious presence of God and the kingdome of heaven and a casting into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the devil and his angels Of Death in the first sense David demandeth who is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell of Death in the second sence Saint Paul enquireth how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Of Death in the third sense Saint Paul must be meant where he rebuketh wanton Widdows Shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth Of Death in the fourth sense Saint John is to be understood blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power Saint Austin joyneth all these significations and maketh one sentence of divers senses he is dead to death that is Death cannot kill burt or affright him who is dead to sin And another of the Ancients makes a sweet cord of them like so many strings struck at once he that dyeth before he dies shall never die he that dyeth to sin before he dyeth to nature shall never die to God neither in this world by final deprivation of grace neither in the world to come of glory Of these four significations of Death the first and last sort with this Text for that the first is to be meant it is evident by the consequence here O grave I will be thy destruction And by the antecedents in Saint Paul When this corruptible shall put on incorruption c And that the second is included may be gathered both from the words of Saint John And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire and of our Saviour I was dead and I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and of Death And so I fall upon my second Observation viz. the person menacing J the second person in Trinity our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The word here used Ehi is the same with that we read Exod. 3. Ehi Ashur Ehi I am that I am and if the observation of the Ancients be current that wheresoever God speaketh unto man in the old Testament in the shape of man of Angel we are to understand Christ for that all those apparitions were but a kind of preludia of his incarnation then the Person here threatning can be no other then he besides the word Egilam in the former part of this vers being derived from Gaal signifying propinquus fuit or redemit jure propinquitatis pointeth to our Saviour who by assuming our nature became our Alie by blood and performed this office of a kins-man by redeeming the inheritance which we had lost But we have stronger arguments then Grammatical observations that he who here promised life to the dead and threatneth plagues to Death was the Son of God the Lord of quick and dead for the same who promiseth to redeem from the Grave threatneth to plague Death but we all know that Redeemer is the peculiar stile of the Son as Creator is of the Father and Sanctifier of the Holy Ghost tu redemisti nos thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation To the redemption of a slave that is not able to ransome himself three at least concur the Scrivener who writeth the Conditions and sealed the Bonds the party who soliciteth the business and mediateth for the captive and layeth down
the world that desireth not that every Saint should be gathered in and the whole body of Christ perfected in the whole members of it before Christ come to judgment None must be neglected every beleever must frame his will to the will of God God hath revealed that the number must be gathered in and when it is so Christ will come and gather all together under his wing Now the Saints of God think not much that the number should be gathered in they are well contented with it So likewise God hath revealed his will that though he be exceeding patient to wicked men yet he is not forgetful of his promise God will be contented though he be provoked every day infinitely by the highest sins of the world patiently to endure all this and to offer conditions of peace and mercy even to the worst to shew himself rich in mercy and so full of goodness that he makes offer even of goodness to the worst Now the Saints of God here frame their will to Gods and are content still to wait because God still putteth forth his patience and still offereth Conditions of mercy and peace to those that are wicked and out of the way whereby some are converted and others convinced and prepared for the work of Gods justice So this question need not trouble men or hold them off from a chearful and fruitfull expectation of Christ though he come not in our age as he hath not in others before The use of the Point is this First if this be the property of the godly to wait and earnestly to expect the coming of Christ then we may observe the general ungodliness of the World by the general want of this expectation And if ye say but who is there that doth not expect the second coming of Christ and who doth not beleeve that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I answer notwithstanding that every man confesse this Article of faith with his mouth yet every man beleeveth it not with his heart for every man frameth not himself according to the faith of it Very few are those faithful servants that wait and prepare for their Masters coming Christ when he cometh he shall scarce find faith on the earth What a number of Men and Women are there though they hear these things and they are beaten upon them upon many occasions and they are in their judgments convinced that it must be so yet notwithstanding the faith of their hearts apprehend it not they do not beleeve it they do not listen and frame to it We like Caleb tell them of the good Land and the fat of the Land and the fruit of the Land and the fulness of the Land of Canaan but generally men like the unthankful Israelites murmure and repine and rebel and scarce hear us or if they do they do not beleeve it For if men did beleeve it it could not be that men should live like Saduces as they do that neither beleeve the soul nor immortality neither that there are spirits nor Devils nor resurrection nor nothing the lives and conversations of men plainly bewray that they beleeve not this Doctrine though they can profess with the mouth that Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead but like the Cardinal of whom we read that profest he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise so men live as if they would not give their part here on earth for a Childs part in Heaven Like that wicked Pope that we read of when he was about to die now saith he I shall know that which I never beleeved whether there be a Heaven or Hell an immoatality of the soul or no. So men live as if they never meant to know those things or beleeve them till they come to the tryal and experience of them And besides what a number of men and women are there that can profess these things with their mouth but they cast themselves into a fast sleep in sin and security and sleep on both sides Gods Messengers and Ministers cannot awake them but as though their souls were to sleep everlastingly so they sleep on in their lusts and sins and will not be awakened And my brethren who doth not observe that it is not the fashion of men even of those that profess themselves Christians to say come Lord Jesus till they be on their death-beds and till they be scarce able to speak or breath out a word they never say come Lord Jesus till they know not what to do with themselves till they can enjoy their lusts and the World and their sins no longer they cannot tell how to bequeath themselves longer to the service of sin and unrighteousness till then they never call after the Lord Jesus to come to them and when they do it is not out of love and affection to Christ but out of self-love to help them out of the hands of death that is too strong for them and to fetch them out of that misery they are too weak to sustain Therefore they call Lord Jesus but as I said it is far from the love of him in their hearts for were these men to live over their lives again and to be restored to health again it would be the last breath of their lives still to call the Lord Jesus My brethren where these things are and we find them too general every man that looks into his own heart may find himself in some measure touched therein certainly it cannot be that this same lively desire of a Christian can be there and these persons can have little comfort in themselves they have few arguments to prove themselves Elect of God having the Spirit of God or to be those that hear the promises with faith or those that thirst after Christ there is no argument in them that they are Christs because they long not and desire after him But therefore in the second place since this desire is so rare let us try our selves a little even those that profess better things and hope well that they are indeed the Spouse of Christ Let us try and search our selves whether this expectation be with us or no that we may find comfort in our estate and in our union and conjunction with Christ For tryal of this Point first we must know that a necessary attendant and companion of this expectation of Christ and waiting for him is sighing and longing and a vehement desire after him It is no slight no superficial desire but an inward vehement desire a sighing and panting after Christ as those that see the need of him And therefore as the Wise man saith hope deferred paines the heart the godly desires of the soul bring pains to the soul for want of Christ in the absence of Christ And as the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. the 8. We sigh in our selves saith he wayting for the redemption of our bodies We sigh in
dispose themselves for their dusty dissolution David saith Psal 19.7 I will bless the Lord who hath given me warning my reins also instruct me in the night season He speaketh this in relation to his mortality it following soon after my flesh also shall rest in hope God gave David warning that death should not surprize him of his mortal condition his reins that is some inward wastings and secret weakness of nature minded him that he must return to his first original God in like manner gives us warning and may we have wisdome to take it some years before our eye-strings break our eyes are blind as to small prints our ears deaf as to love sounds evident monitors that our bodies are ungiving to return to dust God of his goodness sanctifie unto us all decayes in nature that they may effectually mind us of our mortality it is said of Sampson when his hair was cut off Jud. 1.6.20 He awoke out of his sleep said I will go out as at other times before and shake my self but he quickly found the case was altered with him Thus we in our declining age think to rise as early go as late run as fast travel as far do all things as actively as twenty years ago when we were young but it will not be age hath clipt our strength God make us sensible thereof that we may remember our end and apply our hearts unto wisdome AMEN THE PATRIARCHAL FUNERAL GEN. L. 10. And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes THere are two great names concealed in this Text but express'd by the Prophet David in a peculiar and eminent manner Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the Sons of Jacob and Joseph Great was the name of Abraham but all his Sons were not accepted only Isaac was in the Cevenant Great was the name of Isaac but his Son Esau was rejected Great then must the name of Jacob be who had twelve Sons and all accepted The whole people of God descended from him and were called Israelites and the Sons of Jacob as his by generation from his loins One of these twelve was Joseph and the rest did equally descend from him and might be called his Sons by preservation from his care and power Howsoever he is exempted from the number of his Brethren and that he might be styl'd a Father two Sons of his are numbred with his Fathers Sons and ranked with the Patriarchs Thus were all the people of God the Sons of Jacob and Joseph and Joseph while the Son of Jacob the Father of the Sons of Jacob. These are the two concealed in the Text Jacob the Father and that Father dead Joseph the Son and that a mourning Son for he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes These words contain a brief relation of a Patriarchal Funeral in which two general parts are presented to our view The Solemnization of the Obsequies and The Continuation of the Solemnities In the description of the Solemnization there are four particulars observable The Connexion The Person The Action The Occasion The Connexion in the conjunctive particle And the Person understood in the following pronoun He the Action represented what He that is Joseph did he made a mourning The Occasion expressed for whom he mourned for his Father The Connexion of the Text is double in reference to the Person and in relation to the Action The Connexion of the Person And he the Connexion of the Action with the precedent actions of that person And he made a mourning I shall begin with the Connexion of the Person and in my whole discourse exactly prosecute the method of the Text. When aged Jacob yeelded up the Ghost and was gathered unto his people the Physitians embalmed Israel and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They were not as yet the apparent enemies of God they had their tears for Jacob who afterward would have drowned all his Sons they preserved and prolonged the dayes of his life and when those were cut off they continued the dayes of his weeping But there is a difference between a formal and a real sorrow between a solemn and a serious grief between a popular and a filial sadness Wherefore Joseph is not contented with the Egyptian mourning he hath a nearer relation then those strangers had and therefore more of affection is expected from him his filial sympathy must go beyond their accustomed civility the Egyptians mournned and he made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion in respect of the Person that of the action followeth When Jacob was near the time of his dissolution Joseph put his hand under his thigh and sware unto him that he would deal kindly and truly with him that he would bury him in the burying place of his Fathers When he gathered up his feet into the bed and dyed Joseph fell on his Fathers face and wept upon him and kissed him and so paid the first fruits of a Funeral with his eyes and with his lips After this be commanded the Physitians to follow with Spices and embalm him desirous to preserve that body to the utmost possibility from corruption from which he had received his generation Then he entreated and obtained leave of Pharaoh to perform his Oath which he sware unto Jacob he went up to the Land of Canaan to take possession with his Fathers body and laid him in the field which Abraham bought There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried I saac and Rebekah his wife there Jacob buried Leah and there Joseph buried Jacob. And having thus fulfilled all the duties belonging to a Son there remaining but this one fitter to be performed then required he made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion of the Action The Person or chief mourner then is Joseph he which once was dead in the thoughts of Jacob and desires of his brethren survives his Father to attend his Funeral and to preserve his Brethren alive His coming into Egypt cost aged Jacob many a tear and he must pass into Canaan to demonstrate his gratitude and pay that debt unto his Father there This eminent Person is proposed for an example unto all ages of the world what he here performed was no legal Ceremony he was a Patriarch and long before the Law he was a singular and signal type of Christ and hath done nothing which may misbecome the most retired and sublimed Christian And this will readily appear if we joyn the Action to the Person He made a mourning I call 't an Action which may as well be term'd a Passion as a mourning so a Passion as he made it so an Action a passionate Action or an active passion The internal grief of his mind and sorrow of his heart as an inward passion of his Soul was voluntarily rais'd within him by resolved and continued thoughts of his Fathers death and at the same time the expression of
the reverse or back part thereof was dark toward the Egyptians In the best men there is such a mixture of light and darkness who with their vertues have may fanlts failings and infirmities Well let the Egyptian walk by his dark side follow his faults whilest the Israel of God all pious people endeavour to imitate his virtues directed in their conversations by the lustre of his godly examples That so as Herod hearing of the same of Christ conceived that John Baptist was risen again from the dead so let us labour that our vertuous lives may give just cause for others to conceive that those righteous men which have perished in their righteousness those champions of Christianity and worthy Heroes of holiness long since deceased are revived again and have in us a miraculous resurrection THE RIGHTEOUS MANS SERVICE TO HIS GENERATION SERMON LII ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own generation after the will of God fell asleep c. IN this Chapter Saint Paul doth demonstrate the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour by three several places of Scripture foretold and now fulfilled The Law saith in the mouth of two or three witnesses the truth shall be established Two may Three must do the dâ—…ed Two make full measure Three make measure pressed down and running over And such doth the Apostle give us in the proof of this point The first place he citeth Psalm 2.7 Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee The second Isaiah 55.3 I will give you the sure mercies of David The last Psalm 16.11 Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption It is observable That the same Text Acts 2.31 is also alledged expounded applyed and pressed by Saint Paul to prove the Resurrection of Christs body uncorrupted See here the holy Harmony betwixt the two Apostles Though Peter and Paul had a short and sharp contest at Antioch Galat. 2.11 where Paul withstood him to his face yet here their hearts and hands and tongues meet lovingly together in the improving of the same portion of Scripture Both of them shew first negatively how it could not litterally be meant of David whose body was corrupted and his Sepulchre remained amongst them unto that day and therefore positively must be meant mystically and prophetically of Christ Now as I am charitably confident that all who hear me this day are satisfied and assured herein That our Saviours body saw no corruption so give me leave to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie for fear some mistake the cause of this his incorruptibility and bottome it on a false foundation Some perchance may impute it to the shortness of the time he lay in his grave being but a day and two pieces of a day numero rotundo though currente stilo they commonly be called and counted three dayes These do ponere non causam pro causa for the time was long enough in that hot Countrey to cause putrefaction considering that our Saviours body was much bruised and broken with the whips nails and spears besides the effusion of much blood which would the sooner have invited corruption Others perchance put the untaintedness of his body upon the account of the great quantity of Myrrh and Aloes about an hundred pound weight and other precious spices wherewith Joseph and Nicodemus John 19.39 imbalmed it This also is an unfound opinion for all the spices of Arabia cannot secure a corpse from putrifying though they may preserve it that such putrifaction shall not be noysome to others in the ill savour thereof not keeping it from corrupting but from offending The true reason is this Though Christs soul was parted from his body and where disposed of God only knows during his remainder in the grave yet the union with the Deity was never dissolved which priviledged his corpse from corruption So that had it been possible which was impossible as is inconsistant with Gods promise and pleasure for his corpse to have lien in the grave till this instant they had been perpetuated in an intire estate whilst it is true of David as it is in the Text after he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell on sleep and was laid unto his Fathers and saw corruption Observe in the words four principal parts 1. What a generation is 2. What it is to serve ones generation 3. How David served his own generation 4. How we after his example are to serve ours Of these in order and first we will consider what a generation is A generation is a company of men and women born living and dying much about the same time I say much about the same time for seven years under or over sooner or later breaketh no squares herein but that the said persons are reducible to the same generation Thus Mat. 1.17 All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen Generations Now all generations are not of equal extent so admirable the Longevity of those before the Flood compared to our short lives since God for our sins hath contracted the cloth of our life to threescore ten years and all is but a course List which is more then that measure Psalm 90.10 And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and weâ—…ie away It is remarkable that Three Generations are alwayes at the same time on foot in the world namely 1. The Generation rising 2. The Generation shining 3. The Generation setting For should God clear the earth of all men at once mankind could not be recruted but by miracle besides neither humane Arts nor Sciences nor could the Scripture handsomly be handed and delivered from one generation to another God therefore of his goodness doth so order it that rather then any empty Interval should happen betwixt them one Generation should fold and lap over another These three degrees were most visibly conspicuous in the Levites which till five and twenty years of age were learning Levites thence till fifty acting Levites as being then in the strength of their age imployed in the portage of the Tabernacle and after fifty had a Writ of ease from bodily labour though they may be presumed to be busied in the teaching of others Pass we now to explain what it is to serve our Generation To serve it is to discharge our consciences according to Gods will in his word to our superiours equals inferiours all persons to whom we stand related in our generation And the more eminent the person is in Church and State the more are his references multiplyed and the more publick and ponderous the service is which he is to perform Nor must it be forgotten that David was a King in which respect it was proper for
To humble his children Psal 9.20 2. Cor 12. To strengthen their faith 2 Cor. 1.9 10. To encrease their watchfulnesse Mat. 25. 2 Pet. 3.1 1. To prepare them for death 2 Chro. 20.3 2. Sathan 2 Cor. 7.5 The inward causes of the fear of death 1. Natural In respect of the object it self death The apprehension of death as an Ill. Eccles 9.4 The apprehension of death as an ill unavoidable The apprehension of Death as an ill future In respect of the subject men Judg 8.20 Gen. 201 1. Sam 16. 2. Inward causes sinful 1. The want of the fear of God Deut. 28.65 66 c. 2. In ordinate love of the world Isa 38.11 Eccles 9. 3. Want of the assurance of Gods favour Luke 16. Mat. 6. Rev 6. Isa 33.14 Object Answer Psal 42. Exod. 14 11. Psal 23. Object 2. Answer Vse For exortation To be under the fear of death an uncomfortable estate The fear of death a bondage in two respects 2. It is possible to be freed from the fear of death Means to be freed from the fear of death 1. Humility 2. Faith 3. watchfulness 4. Preparation 5. Right apprehension of Death Phil. 3. Assurance of Gods favour 1 Cor. 3.23 2 Cor. 5.4 Coherence Definition of Patience Rom. 15.5 Gal. 5.22 Mat. 25 VVhat I is to let patience have her perfect work Rom 15.13 Collos 1.11 VVhat is meant by intire and wanting nothing 1. Sam. 30.6 The parts the text 1. A duty exhorted to 2. An Argument to Inforce it Conclus 1. Conclus 2. Conclus 1. A Christian not perfect without patience Mat. 5.48 Reas 1 A twofold perfection of a Christian Perfection of parts what it is 2 Pet. 1.5,6 Reas 2. Luke 21.19 Reas 3 No dutie can be rightly performed without patience Not Prayer Matth. 15. 2 Cor. 11. Not hearing Luk. 8.15 Rev. 3.10 Heb. 10.36 James 1.21 Reas 4. Heb. 10.36 Heb. 12.1 Conclus 2. Christian must labour for perfection in Patience Coll. 1.11 Mat. 5 48. Reas 1. Eph 5 Exod. 34.7 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 3.2 Pt. 2 Rom. 8.29 Luke 9. James 5.10 verse 11. Rom. 15.4 Reas 2. Acts 14.22.2 Tim. 3.12 Psal 73.27 Vse 1. For reproofe VVayes how men increase Impatience in themselves 1. By aggravating their afflictions Lam. 1.12 2. By giving liberry to their passions 3. By resusing comfort Gen. 37.34 4. By looking only on afflictions present not on mercies Est â—… 13 5. By looking on the instrument and not on God Psal 55.12.13 Plal. 39.9 6. By looking on the smart and not on the benefit of affliction Heb. 12.11 1. Cor. 11.32 Vse 2. For exhortarion How to exercise patience In present crosses 1. Cosider God the orderer of all conditions Therefore give him the glory of his soveraignty 1 King 20 3. Job 1.21 2 Sam 15 25 O his wâ—…sedome Of hâ—…s mercy Lam. 2. Ier. 45.5 2. Consider the desert of siu Dan. 9. Eâ—…â—… 9. Lam. 3. 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 born 〈◊〉 Patience Rev. 3.10 How to exercise patience in Gods delaying of mercies 1. Consider that delayes are not denyals 2. That delaies increase mercies Isa 61.7 2. Cor. 4. 2. Cor 1. 3. That delaies are but short compared to eternitie Coherence Division 1. Davids carriage durlâ—…g his childs sickness Meaning of the words 1. Cor. 3.8 Rom. 14.17 Davids Fast a religious fast Davids teâ—…rs proceeded nor from a natural but from a spiritual principle Gen. 32. Hso 12. Isa 38. 2. The reason of Davids carriage Gods absolute sentence implies condition Isa 38. Jonah 3.4 1 Sam. 15. Verse 35 Chap. 16.1 Num. 14. Vse 1. For instruction Jer. 18 7. Vse 2. For inconragement Ezek. 33.10 11. Gen. 3. Joel 2.12 13. Observe first Davids piety Mat 15 22. Comfort to Gods children Psal 103. Isa 63.9 2. Observe Davids piety Parents in their childrens miseries should remember their own sins 1. King 17. Object 1. Deut. 24.16 Ezek. 18.20 Answ Object 2. Answ Quest Answ Pro. 31. 1. Sam 2 29 chap. 3.12.13 Vse 1. To parents The sins that bring judgments upon mens posterity Vse 2. To children 2. Davdis carriage when his child was dead The reasons of it Observation from the first reason Psal 44. The way to order our affections is to reduce them to the principles of rectified reason Job 14.14 Observation from the second reason Vse Encles 1 2. Observation from the third reason Observation from the fouth reason Eccles 3.2 Coherence Division Pâ—…pos Sin is the sting of death A double consideration of death What death is here meant Corporall death Principally Two parts of spiritual death What sin is the sting of Death Sin two wayes considered Sin unmortified proves the sting of death 1. In respect of the guilt 2. In respect of the filth How sin is said to be the sting of Death Sin stings before death A death After death At the day of Judgement After the Judgement Sin makes death fearful Sin makes death hurtful Vse Bâ—…cles 11. How a man shall know whether Death shall come with a sting to him Eccles 11.9 How to get the sting of Death pâ—…lied out 1. Get a part in Christ Rev. 1.18 Rom. 8. 2. Get sincerity of heart Isa 38. 3. Practise Mortification 1 Cor. 15. Vse 2. Division of the text 1. Death is Nature teacheth 1. what death is 2. The properties of death That it is 1. Universal 2. Inevitable 3. Uncertain The Scripture teacheth 1. what death is 2. what are the causes of death 3. what are the consequences of death Heb. 9.17 The particular judgment The general Judgment 5. what is the remedy against the evil of death 2. Death is an enemy 1. Depriving a man of all that is benefitial or comfortable 2. Inflicting misery upon a man 3. Death the last enemy Not to all But to the Saints 4. Death shall be destroyed Vse 1. For Examination How a man may be fitted for death 1. Get death disarmed now 2. Get armour against death Vse 2. For reprehension Vse 3. For Exhortation Vse 2. For comfort The division of the text The first part of the Text. The meaning of the words 1. Of the subject Merciful men 1 Joh. 4.20 Rom. 12.18 2. Of the predicat they perish Eccles 3. Observat 3. Of the extent from the evil to come 1 From the evil to suffering That he shall not see it That he shall not endure it Ezek 9 Exod. 12. 3. From the evil of finning That he shall not see sin com mitted by others That he shall not commit sin himself Vse Quest Answ The loss of a godly man a great punishment to a place The second part of the Text. Inconsideraton a great sin A frui of sin A cause of sin Isa 40.6 Luk. 1.4 Psal 90.10 Exod. 17.14 Isa 8.1 Ezek. 24.2 Rom. 14.1 The division of the words Observation 1. Aust lib. 19. de Civit. Dei. A double blessedness Phil 3.21 2. Cor. 5.7 Phil. 1 23. 1. Cor. 15.19 Eccles 9.4 Job 2 4 Job 6.3 Psa 119.175 psal 39.13 Isa 38.18,19 Job 7.15
this experiment and cannot secure a corps from mouldering into it first matter Dust For proof hereof let us suppose first that which I may call an healthful corps viz. of one not weakned and wasted with a long lingering and languishing disease but of one cut off suddenly in the prime of his youth Secondly Suppose an Artist expert in his profession of Embalming no whit inferiour to them who made the last bed for the repose of King Asa's corps 2. Chron. 16.14 of sweet oders by the art of the Apothecary Thirdly allow him the most and best of spices not only a mixture of Myrrhe and alloes about an hundred pound weight the proportion assigned by Nicodemus for our Saviours body John 19.39 but as many as India and Arabia doth produce the Embalmer being stinted to no number but his own pleasure Lastly because moist Countries be accused to invite corruption let us lay the scene of this experiment in Egypt it self where the dryness of the clymates may contribute something to the affecting of the work The premises thus provided in matter and manner in kind and degree to the Chyrurgions full desire let him not begin his opperation and fall on working according to the rule of art Here I suppose he will with his instruments first take out the brains and bowels of both which conclamatum est it is granted on all sides that they cannot be preserved from putrefaction and juditious art will not adventure on a labour in vain Next I conceive he will curiously incorporate his spices into those vacuities and concavities out of which the brains and bowels those hags of corruptions were taken out Thirdly after the using of much art in order to his design he will build the body many stories high in perfumed Sear-cloaths Lastly he will deposite it in some dry place perchance where no earth shall touch it lest as ill company often solicite good natures to badness the corps may be tempted by contiguity to the earth the sooner to return to dust Now when all this is done all in effect is still undone as to the thing undertaken I deny not but that a corps may thus be preserved some hundreds or perhaps for some thousands of years And yet give me leave to say of such a body minima est pars sui ipsius there is the least of flesh and body in that flesh or body the matter thereof insensibly resolving into dust and that dust vanishing into nothing that doth appear so that the most of what remaineth is the substance of spice and flesh and that at last passeth to dust as its general matter Yea such prodigious cost of Embalming bestowed on bodies hath accedentally occasioned their speedier corruption Many a poor mans body hath slept quietly in his grave without any disturbance whilst the corps of some Egyptian Princes might justly complain with seeming Samuel to Saul 1 Sam. 28.15 Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up their Fingers and Hands and Armes Toes Feet and Legs and Thighes and all their body tug'd and torne out of their tombs tumbled and tossed many hundred miles by Sea and Land bought and brought by Drugists for Mummy and buryed in the bellies of other men they it seems being canibals who feed on mans flesh for food though not for Phisick all which may seem a just judgment of God on the imoderate cost and curiosity in their embalming as if endeavouring thereby to defeat and frustrate Gods sentence and to consure the truth in my Text. Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return In a word as a loving child which is violently kept from his tender Mother will wait and watch his first and best opportunity to return to his Mother again So every mans body is a child of the Mother Earth and though the vigilant eye and powerful hand of art endeavoureth its utmost to detain this child from the arms of its Mother maugre all obstruction it will make its way unto her for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return First Use this teacheth us what to think of Popish Reliques their Priest pretending many of their Saints bodies to remain in their shrines at this day uncorrupted thus they fabulously report that the hand of Saints King Oswald Nullo verme perit nulla putredine tabet Dextra viri c. That no worm or putrifaction tainted his right hand which had been so abundantly bountiful to the poor If so he had far better success then he who was a better Kind and Saint even David himself Acts 13.36 Who after he had served his Generation was laid to his fathers and saw corruption But most of these Popish forgeries were discovered at the desolution and such bodies found as rotten as their superstition who adored them Second Use Seeing it is impossible to preserve our bodies from returning to dust let us labour to keep our souls from being turned to damnation Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Wherein observe all Spirits both good and bad after death return to as to the Father of Spirits to do their homage unto him I say they all instantly return unto him from him alone to recerve new orders and instructions how and where he will have them for the future disposed of in an eternity of weal and woe God grant that our souls may so return to God as never to return from him but abide with him in endless happiness O consider the worth of your soul and value them accordingly Saint Matthew saith 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and loose his own Soul But Saint Luke Chap. 9.25 hath it if he gain the whole World and loose himself His body is without him only an appendant and that seperable but his Soul is his very self loose that loose all There lived lately in the City of Exeter a person well known generally remitted by all a right religious man though in my mind more to be commended for his devotion then discretion his custome was to apply himself to strangers in all companies and sequestring persons by themselves demanded of them If you die at this instant what assurance have you of the eternal salvation of your Soul A question which hath posed many a great Scholar to give a good answer with truth and comfort thereunto I confess his Christianity was better then his civility in surprizing people with so sudden an Interrogatory However it is a question if not fit for him to ask of others fit for every man to demand of himself the Preacher in the Pulpit the People in their Pewes the Taveller on his Horse the decumbent in his bed every one at all times in all places Now it is not the least part of Gods mercy unto us that before our bodies after our deaths finally return to dust they even whilst we are living begin for to ungive and to