see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
be upon us and we pine away in them how shall we then live The Prophet had incouraged them notwithstanding their great sins to return by true repentance and they should not perish nevertheless they are muttering discouraged with fear breaking their spirits withdrawing themselves from God the judgements of God are begun upon us the hand of wrath is gone out against us we are pining away in them though we are not wasted yet yet we are like a man in a consumption that wasteth by degrees how shall we live certainly we shall die Saith the Lord say not thus among your selves but know if ye turn ye shall live As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye die oh house of Israel Beware of discouragment therefore it is Sathans device that when once he hath drawn men from God by a path of sin to hold them under discouragement that so he may ever after keep them from turning to God again It was his device whereby he would have kept Adam from turning to God after he had committed that great sin in eating of the forbidden tree He thought of nothing but hiding himself from God and so he did hide himself amongst the bushes of the Garden I heard thy voyce and was afraid and I hid my self Mark here was a fear of discouragement in Adam that whereas he should have come and fell down before the Lord and have begged mercy and said as David here Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me He run clean away from God There is a fear of reverence that keepeth a man with God and there is a fear that draweth a man to God but this fear of discouragement driveth a man from God and that is the temptation of Sathan to keep a man from God when once he hath turned aside from him Therefore that is the first thing take heed of such inward discouragements as may drive you quite off Secondly Take incouragement then to seek the face of God in his own means and way He hath threatned judgements against others for the same sins that ye find your selves guilty of when they have returned to him they have found mercy Return ye to him in truth and seek his face aright and ye shall find the same mercy In the prophesie of Joel ye shall see there that though God had threatned judgements nay though he had begun judgement for that was the case of those times judgement was begun upon them yet neverthelesse the Prophet calleth them to fasting and weeping and telleth them that the Lord is gracious and merciful and ready to forgive and who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Therefore let us do our parts and seek God in truth amend our lives and then no question of this but that God will return It is an old device of Sathan to draw men instead of Gods revealed will to look to Gods secret will whether I be absolutely rejected or cast off or not But this is not the thought wherein a Christian should exercise himselfe his main business is this to make his calling and election sure by all the evidences of it hy a holy life walk obediently to Gods revealed will and be certain thou shalt not be rejected by Gods secret will He never rejecteth those by his secret will and purpose and decree to whom he giveth a heart to walk obediently to his revealed will So much for that Who knoweth that the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live The incouragement is this That the child may live But mark his expression Whether the Lord will be gratious to me that the child may live If he had said no more but this Who knoweth whether the child may live A man would have thought this would fully enough have expressed his mind but there is more in it that could not be expressed without this addition Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live The life of a child is a mercy to the father David expresseth herein both his Pitty and his Piety His pitty He accounteth all the good or ill that befalleth his child as his own if death befalleth it he accounteth it as a misery that befalleth himself if sickness befalleth his child he accounteth it as an affliction upon himself This is his natural pitty that some natural affection of a father to his Child See such an expression of the woman of Canaan have mercy on me thou son of David my daughter is miserably vexed of a divel The Daughter was miserably vexed and the mother cryeth out Have mercy on me There is such a simpathy ariseth hence from the natural and free course that love hath in descending from the Father to the Child There are not only moral perswasions that may invite and draw on love but besides that there is a course of affection that floweth naturally and kindly from the Father to the child as it is with those rivers that fall downward they fall more vehenently then those that are carried upward so the more natural the affection is the more vehement it expresseth it self in the motion to such objects Now when the Father expresseth his affection to his child this is more vehement because it is more natural there is more strength of nature in it I cannot stand upon this only a word by way of inference and application to our selves First are natural parents thus to their children Then here is a ground of faith for the children of God that he is pleased to stile himself by the name of Father and to receive them into the adoption of sons and daughters This was Davids expression of God As a father hath compassion of his children so hath the Lord on those that fear him And the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it fully In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presense saved them in his love and pitty he redeemed them and he bare them all the dayes of old he bore them upon his wings This giveth confidence and boldness to Gods children in making their requests known to him This was it that incouraged the Prodigal I will arise and go to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and bofore thee c. God saith S. Barnard alwayes grants those petitions that are sweetned with the name of father and the affection of a child I should hence speak somewhat to children to stir them up to answer the love of their Parents but other things that follow forbids me any long discourse of this Secondly here is Davids piety expressed in this Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me He exprest not only the Pitty and affection of a natural father to a child but piety
my son would God I had died for thee my son All conditions that live find tears in mens eyes and consideration of their departure only the godly and the righteous man findeth none Here is their stupidity Can there be a greater stupidity then to make a man die twice as they die the death of their bodies so to make them suffer a death in our memories as they perish to the world so to perish also in our thoughts and meditations We owe God so much we owe piety so much we owe the memorial of many so much we owe our selves so much as to take it into consideration And yet no man considereth This is the fault which we may examine our selves of For if we now make reflection of all this upon our selves we must find a conformity with our times There is never a word of this Scripture but it is true now I will now take the parts in order First we cannot deny that evil is to come upon this place Nay it were well if it were to come it is come already it hath overtaken us If we load the earth with the evil of sin it is impossible that God should forbear long The evil of sin that surchargeth the earth must be unloaden again by this burthen by the burthen of punishment one burthen must justle out another Evils there have been impendant that we have seen Evils there are now present that we begin to groane under and no man can tell where that evil will stay There is evil present and evils to come because our evils are still multiplying the beginnings of sorrows and sufferings and fears God grant it may stay But our state and condition is like them in this that they are yet impendant We see the heavens grown black judgments are a ripening When ye see the sky red when ye see the skie black judgment is beginning not only beginning to bud but it beginneth to spread and inlarge it selfe Thus farr there is a correspondency There is evil that we have cause to fear and suspect yet further to come on this place Secondly there is a conformity with the other too in our negligence The world sendeth forth men now void of natural affection It was never so before For if before they neglected others yet they were careful of themselves But men now desperately neglect their own salvations There is no respect to God no pitty of others no not of themselves I do not wonder that men heretofore considered not when they loved their lives better then their sins because they had some sensible taste of that that was temporal when they loved their lives better then heaven But now men love not their lives best but their sins better for though their lives be in danger yet their sins are kept It is an admirable thing to consider how every way we are given to plenty to ryot to security notwithstanding God cometh neer and bringeth his judgment even to the door and makes it swell He forbeareth a long time to trie us with mercies and then he takes a severe course Where shall men see the face of an alteration our lives are the same our delights the same our vanities and follies the same we keep the same sins still as if we were bent to provoke God further to see what he will do That is an evident sign we consider not for what purpose God sendeth his plagues we consider not what he doth when he takes away others for our example none lay it to heart and take it into consideration it swimmeth not in his brain We begin to tremble and we think our selves well if we provide a countrey house but God hath beset us in the Countrey and in the City There will be no flight but to repentance there is the City of refuge and there is no way to repent but by consideration these must be took to heart before there can be amendment and till there be amendment there will he no removing of judgment It is plain then that we are conform able in that part of the Text. And in the first too That merciful men are taken away experience sheweth it daily they are taken so frequently that there is hardly any left they are not only taken away but swept away And if there were no other proof this representation this sad spectacle before our eyes that is an argument to make the proof of the conformity of the first part of the text with us In the text there is mention made of a righteous man of a merciful man The Spirit of God bringeth in all the parts by pairs It is fulfiled in the solemnity and occasion of this day by pairs God calleth us to piety by pairs he giveth us spectacles of mortality I thought I had come to do the duty for one to performe the solemnity of one Funeral but after I perceived I was called to do the office for two It was not so from the beginning it falleth not out so every day Here is the true proof that these are the times of mortality set the pairs any way and we shall see that there is one free none can secure himself from the stroke of death One a vertuous ancient Gentlewoman the other a grave learned minister but of younger condition here are both ages took away and both presented not only so but here are both conditions of life and both presented together and here are both sexes and both presented together to teach us that no sex no condition no age can secure themselves I will smite the Shepheard saith Christ foretelling the Disciples what should befal them Here is the smiting of the Shepheard and the sheep too But both together and I beleeve this place cannot send such another pair For the one He was the most eminent for his place For the other she was the most eminent for her piety I was not acquainted with the conversation of either and therefore I shall not speak much and the information I had it was not much for it was needless I may save a labour for both for if I speak any thing false ye are able to refute me if I speak any thing true as all must be true that is spoken here yet ye are able to prevent me and I can say nothing that ye know not For the one I here that he had the report of a man that was conscionable in the discharge of his place And all that I shall say of him shall be only this there is cause that ye should take to heart his death For what is the reason that in this little Parish that is as healthful as another But God is wounderful in his wayes and we must not search into the judgments of God that it is not full eight years but there have three succeeded that have been commended to this place and have died one after another Is it so that ye kill them with unkindness the world saith so I tell ye I know
place as it falleth out with a woman with child her travel may come upon her in the street at the table when she is talking c. So shall destructiou come suddenly upon them they shall have no more warning then these general warnings that they have in the preaching of the Word Secondly it shall be a painful destruction full of misery and sorrow as travail on a woman with child And then thirdly It shall be an inevitable destruction such a destruction as they shall never avoid All their wit friends power strength wealth or whatsoever else they have cannot put off the stroke of Judgment that shall come upon them as all the devices a woman hath cannot make her escape her travail when it cometh So then the meaning of the words are as if the Apostle should have said When wicked and ungodly men in a course of sin shall crie peace to themselves and flatter themselves in their rebellious courses then shall a sudden a painful an inevitable destruction of all their comfort of all their props and hopes and helps fall upon them In the words you have a twofold description First of the state and condition of the men of the world when Christ shall come to Judgment He shall find all the world at rest As the Angel that stood among the myrtle trees spake in the 1 Zachar. 11. We have walked to and fro through the carth and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest He shall find all the men of the world in peace every man applauding himself in some vain conceit in some hope and considence or other They shall cry peace Secondly here is the consequent that followeth upon the vain flattery of themselves Then shall destruction come upon them And that destruction is farther described and amplified by a comparison taken from a woman with child to declare the suddainness the painfulness the unavoidableness of it Thus you have the opening of the words Let us now come to the points of instruction that may be raised hence First here you may see and he that runs may read it that They are most secure that are in least safety A man is in the greatest danger when he is in the greatest security Then a mans Judgment is neerest when he least thinks of it when he least freareth it This is the very thing that the holy Ghost would have us to take notice of here At that very time not before that time they shall crie peace Nor after the time when they had done it and repented of it But just at the very time when they are in the middest of their sins applauding of their own estate living under the power and guilt of sin then cometh the destruction upon them and they shall not escape Thus far the text That we may make the point clear before we come to prove it give me leave first briefly to tell you what we mean by that security which is upon men even in their chiefest dangers Know therefore that there is a twoford security A holy spiritual Security A sinful carnal Security There is first a holy and spiritual security and that even in this state where into we are fallen which consisteth in a mans reconciliation with God when he is in termes of peace with him having obtained remission of his sins and his favour through Jesus Christ so that God is pleased with him in his Son hath received him into the Covenant of grace interested him into all the promises and is become his God by a Covenant for ever Now here a man may be secure yea and he must be so in a spirituall manner Confidence upon the goodness of God in Christ upon the promises of God in the Gospel is that which is requisite in every Chriistian it is that which God commandeth Fear not saith he in one place And again Trust in the Lord. The Scripture is full in a calling for such security as this that men should lay aside all those carking and distracting cares when once they are in the Covenant of Grace that now they should mind nothing but duty and not be troubled about success For my brethren it is such a security as makes a man not to neglect duty but such as freeth a man from those disquiets of soul about the event of things This was that which David had and rejoyced in I laid me down in rest and peace for the Lord keepeth me in safety This is that which the Lord commanded the people of Israel to doe Isa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy chamber and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self c. He would have them secure themselves under his protection and in his ordinances This is such a security as draweth men neerer to God bringeth them to further acquaintance with God keepeth them in a constant communion with God causeth them to walk in Gods presence c. This is a good security But then secondly there is a sinful carnal security that is when a man yet living in a course of sin he beareth up his spirit against all fear either of judgments threatned or judgments approaching upon him under a vain hope of I know not what mercy in God and of I know not what assurance from men and upon worldly conceits and flatteries either from others or his own heart Here is now a sinful carnal security not warranted but condemned in the word of God This is the security that is ever an ill prognosticator and fore-runner of some heavy judgment to fall upon that person in whom it is This is the security that we have now in chase First then we will make it appear that it is an infallible sign of Gods Judgment upon a person or a people to cry peace to themselves to be secure and no way troubled at their estate when God is at war with them You shall see this in instances and examples See it in particular persons and in States and Kingdoms and you shall generally find it that before the destroying judgment came upon them they have been given up to this security we speak of this crying of peace upon a false ground See it in Agag 1 Sam. 15.13 The bitterness of death is past But was it past Nay at that very time the bitterness of death was upon him for the very next thing that we meet withall in the Story is that Agag was hewen in pieces before the Lord in Gilgall Ye have Belshazzar in Dan. 5. wondrous secure carrowsing and quaffing in the holy vessels that were taken out of the Temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem amongst his Princes and Nobles his Wives and his Concubines as if there would be no change of his estate and translation of his Empire But what was it so Nay at that very time the very same hour faith the text verse 5. came forth
iniquities you shall die in your sins Oh why do not we make our eyes as fountains to bewayle our sins that man is possest with extream hardness that lamenteth not his iniquity and he treasureth up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and the declaration of the righteous judgement of God Well if we will not mourn for our sins here to repentance we shall mourn heareafter in hellish horrour without hope of help or mercy In the third place this Doctrine that God will Jugde us should make us preserve in our selves a good conscience It is the very use that the Apostle makes Acts 24.15 16. He had hope that there should be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust therefore he did exercise himselfe to have alwayes a good conscience voyd of offence toward God and toward men Blessed faith Christ are those that are pure in heart There is nothing that will be so rewarded and so regarded at the last day as a good conscience But for those that have stayned their consciences with all wickedness and sin and have not washed their consciences with the bloud of Christ and the tears of true repentance these shall have their portion without amongst those that are unclean Lastly this Doctrine should teach us to fear God and to give glory to him As Saint John speaks in the Revelation the day of his Judgment is coming therefore fear him and give glory to him If the particular judgments of God that light upon men in this life should make us reverence his holy Name how much more should this last Judgment that is so terrible and unavoidable ABRAHAMS PURCHASE OR A POSSESSION FOR BURIAL SERMON XIX GEN. 23.4 I am a stranger and sojourner among you give me a posseâ—…ion of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight THis is the Conclusion of all Flesh they were never so dear before but they come to be as loathsome and intollerable now When once the lines and picture of Death is drawn over the Fabrick of Man or Womans body as it is said here of Sarah all their glory ceaseth all their good respect vanisheth away their best friends would be fainest rid of them even Sarah that was so goodly and amiable in Abrahams sight must now out of his sight he must bury his dead out of his sight Oh the strange misery that sin hath brought us to when it devolveth and throweth down all our glory at once and the ruff of Man-kind in their chiefest pride in their greatest jollity all is tumbled in an instant in a moment to baseness and stink and misery How should we be diligent to get the hope of a better life seeing this is so little worth having And how should our thoughts alwaies flie up to God since there is nothing but rottenness and putrifaction found here in the world But Abraham as the Father of faithful men and a pattern to all loving Husbands in all ages insuiug doth not this till such time as the dead Sarah groweth noysome to all that look upon her As long as he could by his mourning and lamentation prosecute her without offence to his eyes and danger to his health he did it but now the time is come when earth must be put to earth and dust must return to dust There is no place for the fairest beauty above ground when once God hath taken life and breath from it it must go to its own elements and to the rock and pit from whence it was hewen thither it must return This holy man therefore being well resolved of this and knowing the doom already uttered by God upon our first Parents Dust thouart and to dust thou shalt return he cannot keep his dead longer by him he knoweth the bed wherein now she must be laid therefore he seeks for it to these Country-men that he lived withall that were Heathens and Pagans but very moral and civil men as we may see in this whole Discourse And he desireth them that he might have a place for his own use and turn not intimating so much to them as that there should be a separation in their very death from Pagans and Heathens but he keepeth that to himself and covereth it with smooth speech and elegancy of language as his manner was For indeed it was not lawful for Abraham to bury his dead amongst the Canaanites the sons of Heth of whom he demanded this peculiar favour at this time but God would have his children as they differ in all their life from Heathens that knew no God so they should differ in every point even in their Graves after death that there might be no commixtion and mingling of light and darkness and no fellowship between Christ and Belial Therefore to continue this hope and confirm it in all his Posterity that were a peculiar and chosen people It was necessary he should chuse his Grave his place of Sepulture that they might be sequestred from them in their death as they were in the course of their life Now after he had performed that duty that every man oweth to his dead friend especially to his Wife the mate of his bosome he cometh to move this to the sons of Heth that were Lords of the soil He was abundant in tears before he comes to move it for God which commandeth us not to lament for the Dead as men without hope doth notwithstanding not forbid us to mourn and sorrow for them and to lament he giveth us leave nay he rather alloweth and approveth of natural affection when we weep with them that weep and mourn with them that mourn and rejoyce with them that rejoyce Abraham knew well in what estate his Wife was he knew she was in a happy condition he knew she was the Mother of the Faithful and was translated to the heavenly Paradise and he was not angry with God for taking away his Wife he disdained not the act of his providence notwithstanding he resolveth into tears and laments And these may well stand together if they be not as S. Jerome saith rebellious teares against God and against hope and against the faith of the Resurrection they are qualified and allowed and accepted with the Lord as a testimony of that good affection and brotherly love that he commandeth to be in every one After he had performed this perhaps mourned three or four dayes for his wife he knew this mourning must have an end he knew that he must commit her to the ground and make away with her that she might not be a means further to continue and aggravate his sorrow to no purpose for with that condition a man is allowed the use of affections as that he respects the glory of God and give way to weak nature rather then to any indulgent affection that is too head-strong and unruly as though there were no hope in the promise of the Almighty Therefore I say when he had thus
world when he is covered with the rich hangings of natures wardrobe in his mothers womb then man tumbles in sin as the word in the original signifieth He is sinful in his birth in his life in his thoughts his words and actions and shall he that is thus spotted and stained and polluted stand before the pure Judge of heaven and earth without trembling surely no The mighty the Kings of the earth the Captaines high and low of what condition soever as many as have not made their garments white in the bloud of the slaughtered Lambe Christ they shall tremble and flie to hide themselves and cry to the mountains to cover them before the face of this glorious Judge We come now to the last thing and that is the end of Christs coming to Judgment The end of Christs coming you know is to give a reward And this reward shall be both to the wicked and to the godly for he shall give the reward according to every mans work First I will speak of the reward of the wicked And after conclude with the reward of the godly The reward of the wicked shall be endless woe and perpetual misery in hell There was never any man that descended into that fiery lake and returned thence to tell us what torments are provided for the wicked in Hell but yet as by one drop of the Sea water you may conceive of the saltness of the rest and as a man may ghesse at the stature of a Giant by the length of his foot even so we may have some conceit of those endless and easeless and remediless torments prepared for the wicked in hell by a taste of the miseries we have in this life Great may the grief of a mans heart be even in this life as great as mortality is able to bear Can we read of the mourning of Joseph of Hannah of Job of Jeremy of Jerusalem and not be moved our hearts are hard Can we read of the hideous torments invented by Tyrants Caldrons of boyling oyl roasting upon spits tumbling down Mountains in barrels of nails rending of joynts with horses can we read of these merciless torments and not be moved our hearts are harder then a milstone Alas beloved these are nothing but shadows but counterfeit to those torments that are prepared for the wicked in Hell For though the bowels of hell labour to empty the bowels of judgtment yet she hath an immeasurable portion for her children now living nay for those that are unborn a patrimony of blackness of brimstone of the wrath of God of wailing and gnashing of teeth Certainly death shall take them away but they shall never die they shall consume for ever and yet shall not be consumed they shall be in fire unquenchable and yet see no light You may read of the wine of giddiness Psal 60.3 of a strange kind of Worm Isa ult of fire and brimstone Ezek 38.22 of the Wine-press of Gods wrath Revel 14.10 All these and if worse then these can be are prepared as so many torments for the wicked workers of iniquity Their cup is the deadliest that ever was drunk even of Gods wrath wherewith they shall be filled for ever their worm is that that continually gnaws upon the conscience they shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the Lambe and his Angels Not such as that of Sodom and Gomorrah for then there were hope that they might be converted at the last into heaps of Ashes or pools of Pitch but such fire and brimstone that as a bottomless Mine gives them neither rest night nor day the smoak of it ascending for ever and is appointed for a time times till time shall be no more Their torment in such a measure as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor heart of man hath conceived But beloved all this is but general if the time would suffer we could shew the torments of the damned in particular as First the eternity of those torments in that they shall never end and I verily perswade my self that this is a great increase of their torments the very conceit and thought that they shall never end it is a great increase and aggravation of the torment You know there is no grief and sorrow or misery in this life but time will either deminish it or take it quite away either the tormented or the tormentor will die but in hell there you have them tormented day and night for ever and ever neither the tormented or the tormentor die but they live to endlesse woe O! saith a godly Father in his meditations if a wicked sinner in Hell did know that he were to continue there no more thousands of years then there are sands upon the Sea-shore or no more millions of Ages then there are piles of grasse upon the ground yet this would he some comfort that at last they should have an end but this word never it breâ—… the heart that after they have continued there so many thousand years and millions of ages they are as far from the end of their torment as at the first Secondly we might note 〈…〉 in the extremity and strictness of those torments the straitness of them there is no mercy shewed Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness And again the gate is shut after the sinner is once cast into Hell there is no getting out again the gate is shut The straitness of these torments may be exceedingly laid down to us in the Parable of the rich Glutton who in hell roaring in everlasting flames lift up his eyes and saw Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his bosom he desired Abraham to send Lazarus but to dip the top of his finger in water to cool his tongue a small request he asks not to be delivered from his torments or for a flaggon of water but for a drop yet to see the strictness of those torments it was denied him Dives had before the world at will what his heart could desire but Lazarus comes to his gate full of soars and hungry yet he refused to refresh him with crums from his table see the just judgement of God against the merciless wretch Dives refused to give a crum when he asked he is denied one drop So that as Saint James speaks Jam. 2. there shall be judgement merciless to them that yeeld no mercy Beloved all you that have the wealth of the world remember this example when the poor distressed members of Christ come to your gates shut not up the bowels of compassion open your hands and your hearts to relieve them for as I said before there shall be judgement merciless to those that shew no mercy But I come to the last thing that I will but only name that is the reward of the godly that everlasting eternal felicity in heaven The time will not suffer me to speak largely and particularly of the reward of the
lively and active in the service of God yet there are many discouragements and temptations to draw him out of the way again that it may be he may fall if he have not somewhat to support him and hold him up therefore the consideration of the judgment to come it hath kept the hearts of Gods servants in a good frame when they have been in it Saith the Apostle be constant and immovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. As if he had said You know this that there will a time come when it will appear that you serve not God in vain therefore for the present be constant in the good you are in Hold fast that thou hast till I come saith Christ to the Church of Philadelphia and let no man take thy crown Rev. 3.21 Christ will come and it is but holding fast a-while and then the Church shall have a crown and the servants of God shall have a crown of glory an abundant recompence of all that they have done in the service of God therefore hold fast Hereupon Jam. 5. the Apostle exhorts co patience because they should meet with many persecutions and oppositions be patient for the coming of the Lord draws neer Bear the injuries that you suffer for the present and the indignities and the unkind usage of men for the coming of the Lord draws neer when you shall have a plentiful harvest so he goes on illustrating this by a comparison taken from a Husbandman that waits for a harvest and then he shall have a plentiful crop and increase for all his pains in Winter and in seed time so saith he the Lord will come and then you shall have a plentiful increase A word or two for the Use of this Since this is the Use that the servants of God have made and that we should make of the Judgment to come therefore to be more careful in the duties of obedience and holiness so to speak and so to doe as those that shall be judged It first shewes the cause of the discouragements of Gods servants and the prophaneness of the world is because they perfectly beleeve not the judgment to come The hearts of Gods servants would not droup so they would not be so faint so dejected and discouraged if they beleeved that there were such a judgment to come wherein Christ will abundantly recompence all their sorrows and labours wherein he will bring his reward with him plentifully Again the wicked world would not be so prophane as they are drunkards and swearers and Sabbath-breakers and all sorts of wicked persons they would not give themselves so to sin as they do if in truth they did perfectly beleeve there were a judgment to come when all their words and actions their company their time and every thing shall be brought to account I say the cause of all prohaneness is this here it begins men beleeve not the judgment to come The Apostles were troubled with these kind of scoffers Where is the promise of his coming So they hardened themselves upon the observation of the continuance of the seasons upon the face of the earth in like manner from the beginning Well saith the Apostle God is not slack as men count slackness but is patient and forbearing that men may repent but at the last he will come and come with flaming sire So this is certain whatsoever you think and put the evil day far off from you yet there is a judgment coming wherein all your actions and affections and speeches and your whole conversation shall be scanned and brought to the rules of this law that you have despised Therefore let men take heed and know it is a device of Satan to harden their hearts either to think that the law is a dead letter I mean in respect of the directing use of it that it is of no use to direct them it is a device of Satan to put them off for they shall find that that law will judge them that now should direct them And then again for men to think that there shall be no Judgment or not such proceedings according to the law this is a trick of the Divel to keep men in prophaneness and hardness of heart Therefore secondly if we would grow up in holiness in the fear of God Let us prefect and strengthen our faith in assenting to this truth that there is such a judgment to come wherein our words and actions and all shall be brought to account Therefore so speak and so do as those that shall be judged Thou art now in company and thou speakest amongst men but thy words are with God they are written in thy conscience as it is in Jeremy upon the Table of thy heart there they are written the words that thou hast for gotten seven years agoe it may be twenty years agoe and never tookest a course to get them blotted out by repentance there they are written and these words shall be brought to judgment and so many actions as thou hast neglected therefore look to it First bewail those words and actions past as things that else will come to judgement if thou judge not thy self before-hand And then again for the time to come set on a resolution to walk daily as one that may die every day and then shall be brought to judgment Therefore judge thy self daily renew thy Covenant settle thy peace on a right ground daily and perfect holiness in the fear of God daily as one that expectest a Judgment Saint Jude condemns those that feasted without fear They were at their Tables companying and feasting as men without fear S. Jerome speaks of himself that whatsoever he was doing he had a fearful apprehension of the day of Judgment Alwayes saith he whether I eate or drink or whatsoever I do I here the Trumpet and the voyce of the Arch-Angel saying Arise ye dead and come to judgment Well I say do thou so let this be thy serious thought and do it not slightly but think that this may be thy last word and thou must be brought to judgment for it this may be thy last opportunity and thy last action and thou must be brought to judgment for that Do things in this manner as those that so speak and so do that they must be judged Wouldest thou be content to have thy oaths brought before Christ in judgment if not take heed of swearing for it is judged already by the law therefore judg and condemn thy sins in thy self and forsake them that thou maist find mercy Wouldest thou be found guilty of Sabbath-breaking at the day of Judgment if not repent of thy former guilt and be more conscionable of sanctifying the Sabbath after And so I may say of every sin Wouldest thou be found an Usurer a Deceiver unrighteous in any course a scoffer a prophane person Wouldest thou appear
it is you do not know when your consciences a little awaked shall make report of your life past how in matters of God you have been ignorant superstitious careless neglecting his worship despising his Word blaspheming his Name mispending his Sabbaths in dealing with men you have been cruel false unmerciful oppressing in the usage of your own bodies unchast vicious lustful proud wanton wallowing in excess what peace can your souls have when these things be thought upon what calmness of spirit what hope of entring into rest how can you think that the end can be comfortable when the life hath been abominable What answer made Jehu to Joram when he demanded Is it peace Jehu What peace said he so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are so many So when Death comes like Jehu marching furiously against you and you enquire of him whether he comes with peace or no he will answer what peace when your whoredoms and your gross and crying sins are yet in great number What peace when these make a partition betwixt your souls and the Lord Certainly there can be no peace but a fearful expectation of judgement and violent fire to devour Suffer me then to conclude this exhortation as Daniel did his speech to Nebuchadnezzar O King break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor So say I break off your sins by repentance your ignorance by seeking after knowledge your contempt of Gods word by a reverent yeelding to it your security by a standing in awe of God your neglecting the exercises of Religion by careful using of them your whoredom by chastity your drunkenness by sobriety your malice by charity your oppression by mercy your falshood by fidelity this is the way that will bring peace at the last thus and thus only you may find rest for your souls THE VITALL FOUNTAIN OR LIFES ORIGINAL SERMON XXXV JOHN 11.25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die THese Words that I have read to you they are part of the conference between Martha and Christ when Christ was coming to Bethany to awake Lazarus from the sleep of death The conference is laid down from the beginning of the 21. Verse to the end of the 27. and Martha meeting with Christ begins the conference as we may see verse 21 22. Then said Martha to Jesus Lord if thou haddest been here my brother had not died but I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Here Martha manifests her affection to her dead brother and her faith in her living Master she manifests the strength of her natural affection and the weakness and imperfection of her faith The strength of her natural affection appears in this that she was perswaded if Christ had been there present her brother Lazarus had not died he would not have suffered Lazarus to have dyed which for ought we know is more then she had sufficient ground for Then the weakness and imperfection of her faith appears in this that she rested too much upon the corporal presence of Christ that she ascribed no more power to Christ then that by his prayer he could attain at Gods hands as much as ever any holy man did namely the life of her brother I know saith she that ever now whatsoever thou askest God will give it Whereas Christ being true God was able to work any miracle by his own power Now the answer of Christ is laid down verse 23. Jesus said unto her thy brother shall rise again Christ to comfort Martha passeth by her infirmity and promiseth to her that he will restore her brother to life again that she shall enjoy her brother again but this promise is only laid down in general and indifinite termes Thy brother shall rise again Christ doth not say expresly I will raise up thy brother to life but he speaks only in general terms Thy brother shall rise again which we are to ascribe to the modesty and humility that alwayes may be observed in the speeches of Christ Thy brother shall rise again Then we have the reply of Martha laid down in verse 24. Martha said unto him I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day Martha was not satisfied with this promise of Christ for it seems she durst not take it in the full extent of it therefore she replies that as for the last Resurrection she knew indeed that her brother and all others that were dead should then rise again this did comfort her but for any other matter of comfort she could not gather any from the answer of Christ and his promise therefore Christ replies again in the words of my Text And Jefus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the life he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Christ would have Martha know that he was true life yea the fountain of all life and such a fountain of life that whosoever did believe in him and cleave to him nothing should hurt him no not Death it self Thus you see briefly the coherence and the scope of the words We come now to shew you the meaning of them In these words we may observe these two parts First here we have laid down a compound proposition And then the distinct Exposition or explication thereof First here we have laid down a compound Axiome or Proposition a copulative Proposition wherein Christ affirms two things of himself First I am the Resurrection Secondly I am the Life I am the Resurrection I am the Life Now the difference between these two we may conceive with reverend Calvin to be this I am the Resurrection That is I have all quickning power in me I am able to restore and give life to those that are dead And then I am the life I have such quickning power in me that I am able to preserve and continue the life that I have given or restored to any I am the Resurrection and the life And then follows the Exposition of this Proposition and of the several members of it for the truth of a copulative Proposition depends upon the truth of both the parts and members of it therefore there followes the Explication and confirmation of both the parts of this Proposition First of the first part I am the Resurrection this is explained and comfirmed in these words He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live I have such a quickning power in me faith Christ that I am able to restore spiritual life to that soul that is dead in sins therefore I am able to raise up the body that is dead in the grave I am able to give spiritual life to the soul which is greater
God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly look to sin as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sin into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sin hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealt with the as a just God though not in the extermity of rigor yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theif on the Crosse said We suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sins deserve thy sins deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee We see that a commutation and change of punishment a less for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but the confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath laid on thee thou maiest conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sin let us search and trie our wayes and turn again to the Lord. So let this be the main businesse of thy life in this case rather bethink thy self how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man look to sin in all this Lastly consider the gratious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgment impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleâ—…h and striveth the more he increaseth his pain The more patiently a man yeeldeth himself to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mitigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that he layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the presene be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are other afflictions of our life and that is not only in those cases wherein some positive evil as we account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred maketh the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seem to catch at it it is drawn from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they ask is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soul desireth How shall a man come to exercise patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not danyals though God delay the thing he may and will in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Job in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk wait for it it will come and it will not tarry it will not lie God will be known a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to wait for the present Now this is an act of faith He that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seal that he is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve wait for it Secondly Gods delayes are not only not denials but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes he recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetness into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamity for their affliction faith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions faith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farr more excellent and sxrpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternal weight of glory for momentary afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abonnded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a year what if twenty thirty forty years what if the the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercy with the time to come of thy enjoying of mercy A small time of waiting on earth to an eternity of recompence in heaven Compare eternity with the time of thy suffering Alas how little what a small or no agreement is between them A moment to eternity If the life of a man should extend to a hundred years to a thousand yeares to which age never man yet lived yet that is but a point a moment to eternity A thousand years past and to come they are but as yester-day to God Take the eternity past in God himself that is without all beginning and the eternity to come that shall be without all end and put the life of man in the middest of these two and we will conclude it is as a point in the middest of a circumference it is but a moment nay not so much as a moment of time Stretch out the duty of Patience then hast thou waited a week wait a month a year seven years seventy years nay seventy Ages all the ages of the world if it were possible All these are but a moment to eternity And where is there a man that hath waited so long but God that his servants may not faint in their expectation either supports them with other comforts lest they should faint in their desire or else giveth them that which they desire before their hearts faint Know therefore that it is no such great matter for
also arising from the sense of his guilt He was guilty of sin and by sin he had brought this sorrow upon himself and therefore who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me in sealing to me the pardon of my sin this way in adding this mercy as a further assurance of his love in granting me the forgiveness of my sin God had told him by Nathan that his sin was pardoned though he told him the Child should die it may be by the same mercy he will release me from this sentence of death upon my Child whereby he released me from the guilt of my sin before Here I say is the sense of his own sin The point I note hence is That Parents in the miseries that befal their children should call their own sin to remembrance All the sorrows and sicknesses and pains and miseries that befall children should present to Parents the remembrance of their own sin It was the expression of the Widdow of Sar epta to the Prophet Eliah Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my child She saw her sin in the death of her Child So I say in all the afflictions and crosses that befall children the Parents should call to remembrance their own sin But some men will here say There seemeth to be no need of such a course for God hath said plainly That the child shall not die for the sin of the Parent And after God cleareth his own waies from inequality and injustice by that argument The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father Therefore what reason is there that Parents should call their sins to remembrance in the miseries that befall there children I answer Though he say the child shall not die for the Parents sin yet we must understand it aright for what doth he mean by the sins of the Parent And what doth he mean by death By sins of the Parent he meaneth those sins that are so the Parents as that the children are not at all guilty of those sins then the children shall not die By Death he meaneth as the word signifieth the destruction of nature So death shall not befall the child for that sin that himself is not guilty of But how then come little children to die before they have committed any sin actually was this for their own sin or for the sin of their Parents I answer for their own sin they die for the soul that sinneth it shall die and all children have sinned they brought sin into the world and sin brought death as the Apostle speaks therefore death reigneth over all even over those that have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression that is that have not sinned actually as Adam had done yet nevertheless they die because they have sin upon them they have the corruption of nature In sin they were born and in iniquity their mother conceived them and the wages of sin is death therefore they die for their own sin But what if temporal judgments and afflictions befall them is this for their own sin or for the sin of their Parents I answer for both both for their own and for the sin of their Parents for as death so all the miseries of this life are fruits of original sin which is an inheritance in the person of every child by nature as soon as it is born but yet if the sin of the Parents be added to it that may bring temporall judgments There are many instances and examples of this how God hath visited upon the posterity of wicked persons the sins of their Fathers according to that threatning in the second Commandement And this you shall see either in godly children of wicked parents or in ungodly children of godly Parents Suppose a man leave a great deal of wealth to his children and have one that fears God amongst them it may please God to lay some losse or crosse upon him to the undoing of him he may utterly be impoverished and beggered and deprived of all that means that his father left him by unrighteousness He getteth an heir and in his hand is nothing saith Solomon that is God deprived him of all that estate his father left him by unrighteousness Now I say here is a judgment upon the father and yet a mercy upon the child A judgment upon the father that all that he hath laboured for that which he lost his soul for should be vain should come to nothing and not benefit his posterity as he thought Yet it is a mercy to the child to the child of God He by this means is humbled it draweth him from the world Nay when God emptieth him of these things that were unrighteously gotten he giveth him it may be an estate another way wherein he shall see God his Father provide for him without any indirect and unlawful courses So sometimes the very shame and reproach that falleth upon wicked children here it is a judgment to the parents and to the children too Upon the parent as far as he is guilty of the neglect of his duty and of evil example and the like so he is punished in the shame that befalleth his posterity As it is a blessing upon a man that he is not ashamed to sit in the Gates as Solomon speaks no man can upbraid him with his children So it is a correction to Gods children even when their children prove ungodly so farr as they have been negligent and careless of their duty This was the case of old Eli a good man yet nevertheless the hand of God was gone out against his house and family and what was the reason of it Because thou honourest thy sons above me they made themselves vile and thou restrainest them not therefore will I bring a judgment upon thy house at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle I say it may come to pass and that by reason of that natural affection that is in Parents that that misery that befalleth their children may be an exceeding cross and an affliction to them God layes sharp corrections on them when he makes those children which they accounted as comforts and the hope of their life to be the very cross and vexation of their life There is then ye see such a course of Gods dealing with men to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the children that is if the children walk in their fathers steps if the child and the father agree in a course of sin if the father by omission or commission make himself guilty of the sin of the child c. and so if the child either by imintation or allowance go on in his fathers way he draweth a greater judgment upon himself by adding to his fathers sin and as they are alike in sin so they shall be alike in judgment You see likewise for temporal judgments that God may and often-times doth lay many
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
Lord the Lord that sheweth judgment and righteousness upon the earth there is a mercy shewed to the creature but it is I that do it faith the Lord. If you meet with a merciful man God is merciful in that man If you meet with a bountiful man God is bountiful in that man If you meet with a man whose lips feed many God instructeth that man I say seeing all things we have though they have divers channels and pipes and conveyances whereby God conveyeth goodness and mercy to men yet nevertheless it is in God and from God we receive all let us therefore look upon every creature as instruments in Gods hand that can do us neither good nor hurt without him What good it doth it doth by the influence of the supream cause working by that creature let us so look upon and conceive of every creature Thus the Saints have done in all times Jacob when he saw Esau I have seen thy face as the face of God saith he He saw God in the face of Esau So in all good men we should say God is good in them This should make men not to seek themselves not to study men more then God not to study gain with men with the loss of God to please men with the displeasing of God but to venture the loss of all men that they may please God if they cannot keep men and God together For the affections of men are in Gods hand and he fashioneth and frameth them according to his own pleasure either to love or hatred as David observed in the case of Shimei God hath bid him curse Be convinced I say of this that if we get all the men in the world to be our freinds with the neglect of God if we get all the treasures and wealth of the world if a man were advanced to the Monarchy of the whole earth yet these things are more in Gods hand then in ours When a man hath wealth it is not in his own keeping riches have wings When a man hath favour God gives it not into his own keeping whatsoever we have it is secured to us by Gods protection and made good to us by his blessing Let this be our care and work therefore how we may live to God how we may enjoy God in the things we enjoy and possess God in all things we possess in the things we have still to keep God and that will keep our estates and names and comforts and lives and all That is the first Again secondly There are certain graces to be exercised if a man would not live to himself for indeed it is the property of a Christian and none else to live to God and not to himself and he doth it by vertue of those graces in his heart that empties him of himself and draws him to God therefore I say there are certain graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himself What are those First the knowledg of God in Christ Get a more full and particular and experimental knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefess of ten thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so we would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sons better then ten friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith he Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in Heb. 11. What made them live so to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himself by faith Moses for sook the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whome the world was not worthy wandred up and down in sheeps skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith works by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly we shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soul to Christ The love of Christ constraineth me faith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for we thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soul loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that for instruction Being convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinful estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possiblity of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and less to themselves A man simply censidered without any relation to others or dependance upon an another man he may please himself but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men he must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himself as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himself as a Christian and observe the good of the body he must carry himself as a member to do good to the whole Let every Christian labour to do this if he would have comfort to his soul that he doth not live to himself that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithful dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man faith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the souls of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their souls but when he saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to do men good with whether it be inward or outwards gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man any thing whereby I can be advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not
compleat Model Though I say much yet I know I say nothing but the truth I read of few excellent woman in the Scripture but she made them a pattern of one vertue or other For obedience she was a Sarah for wisdome a Rebecca for meekness a Hannah for a discreet temper an Abigal for good huswivery a Martha for piety a Mary a Lydia I know not any necessary thing that belonged to make up a good Christian but in some measure it pleased God to bestow it on her Thus she continued all her life in the time of her health and in sickness with so much patience as after a sort she endured a martyrdome and I see no reason but we may allow a Martyr of Gods making a swell as of mans I am sure if God make Martyrs I know not any fitter then she so meek and patient and constant Many daughters saith Solomon have done vertuously but thou surmountest them all I will not say so of her because I decline flattery But this I will say that I know not many excel her scarse any that come neer her She hath the reward of that she hath done given her of God and her works follow her We leave her to God and having committed her soul into his hands we beseech his gracious favour upon our selves THE GREAT TRIBUNAL OR GODS SCRUTINY OF MANS SECRETS SERMON XIV ECCLESIAST 12.14 For God will bring every Work into Judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil DEath and Judgement are two subjects about the meditation of which our thoughts should every day be conversant we should every day be thinking of those two dayes Every day upon the day of death because there is no day wherein death may not befall us And every day upon the day of Judgement because as the day of Death leaveth us so the day of Judgement findeth us We had an occasion like to this not long since Then you may remember I discoursed of Death considered as an Enemy I shewed you what kind of Enemy it is it is a common Enemy a secret Enemy a spiritual Enemy Now at this time having the like occasion I thought it not amiss for me to discourse of that that cometh immediately after Death that is Judgment The Apostle saith Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die and after Death cometh Judgment And it is that that Solomon mindeth us of here in the words of my Text which he addeth as a reason to that grave advice he gave in the verse before going Having discoursed at large in this book concerning the vanity of all earthly things and the vexation among those things that are under the Sun he telleth us where it is best for us to set up our rest that is in learning that one lesson Fear God and keep his commandements for this is the totall all that God requireth That we might the rather be stirred up to hearken to this counsel he telleth us that whether we do or no the day will come that we shall be called to an account when God will bring every one of us to Judgment and take a tryal of every work we have done and of every secret thing whether it be good or evil In handling of these words we have two things in general that Solomon speaks of First the person Judging Secondly the things Judged The Person Judging is God And there I will speak First of the Judg. And then of the Judgment The things that God bringeth to judgment and tryal he telleth us first every work every thing be it never so secret And then a more particular resolution those things that are good and those things that are evil God will bring every work to judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I begin with the Person judging And here first of the Judge himself God shall bring to Judgment God essentially meant all the Persons in the God-head Father Son and holy Ghost For all concur in this work being as the School-men say Opus ad extra It is one of the External works of the God-head and it is an Axiome in Dviinity that the External works of the God-head are not to be divided It is true there are certain internal works of the God-head that are said by the Schools to be divided incommunicably proper and peculiar to every Person as it is proper to the Person of the Father incommunicably to have his Being of himself Of the Son to be begotten of the Father And it is the property of the holy Ghost incommunicably to proceed from both But those works that they call External that is those works by which the power and wisdome of the God-head are externally made manifest to the creature such as creation preservation redemtion those equally and indifferently proceed from all the Persons not from one in particular but from all in general and this of Judgment is one For as they all concur in the creating of us so they shall in the judging of us all of them shall co-operate together in the executing of justice and mercy Justice in the damnation of the wicked and mercy in the salvation of the godly You will object peradventure that the Scripture seemeth to speak otherwise though Judgment here be attibuted essentially to God in some places it is attributed personally to Christ He shall judg the quick and the dead and therefore oftentimes it is called in the Scripture the Judgment seat of Christ as 2 Cor. 5.10 Again somtimes this work of Judging is appropriated to the Saints Know yee not that the Saints shall judg the world 1 Cor. 6.2 and by and by again Know you not that we shall judge the Angels vers 3. How shall we reconcile these when it is said Christ and the Saints shall judge I answer This threefold doubt is reconciled by a threefold distinction God is said to judge if we respect the Authority of Jurisdiction Christ is said to judge if we respect the Promulgation of the sentence The Saints are said to judge if we respect the Approbation The power and right are equally given to all three Persons but the particular Execution is given to Christ the Approbation of what Christ doth is ascribed to the Saints As at at our common Courts of Assize here one is set upon the Bench as Judg and others are joyned in commission with him as Accessories the Judge only pronounceth the sentence and they that sit in commission with him ratifie and approve his sentence that he pronounceth so at that day Christ shall sit upon his Throne as Judg the Saints they shall joyn as Commissioners Christ he alone pronounceth the sentence upon every one that is summoned there to the tryal but then his Apostles and Saints that are joyned in commission with him for such honour have all his Saints they shall ratifie and approve and
rocks that breaks the brazen gates asunder that looseneth the bands of death Therefore unless thou question the power of God no doubt but he is able and can bring all of us to judgement He will do it for the manifestation of his power Secondly as for the manifestation of his power so for the manifestation of his wisdome It is a point of wisdome when one hath made a thing to bring it to the intended end for which he made it Beloved this is Gods intended end in making of us therefore he brought us hither into the world not that we should have alwayes a Being here but that after a certaine time we should be dissolved and put into an everlasting condition therefore Saint Peter speaking of the salvation of Gods elect he calleth it the end of their faith not only the end they aspire but that end that God hath assigned and appointed them to If God should faile of his end we might call his wisdome into question it might give us occasion to say that he undertook that which he was not able to accomplish so that insteed of shewing himself wife he should shew himself weake Therefore except we should call his wisdome into question doubtless he will call us one day to an Account Thirdly for the manifestation of his truth nothing gaineth God more honour then that he is faithful and true in whatsoever he hath promised Now this day of Judgement is the day wherein God hath promised to recompence the faith of the godly and hath threatned to punish the wickedness of the wicked he hath appointed a day for it faith the Scripture Acts 17.31 What though it be a great while since the promise was made for all this we must not think that God is slack as men account slackness the slacknesse of men is when they keep not their promise according to appointment we must not think God is so slack he alwayes keepeth his day that he hath set he never faileth of his promise but when the time is come he keeps touch he breaks not his day As it is said Ezod 22.41 After the four hundred and thirty years were expired that God spake to Abraham the very same day all the children of Israel went out of Egypt How many promises and threatnings after do we read of wherein he never failed of the performance of what he spake the least tittle therefore saith Saint Gregory we have seen so many of Gods promises already verified that we may be confident that those that are to come shall also be accompilshed surely he will not fail in this but as certainly as he hath promised it shall come to pass So that unless we shall deny the truth of God who the Scripture saith cannot it is impossible that he should lie we must of necessity beleeve that for the manifestation of his Truth there will be a day of Judgement Fourthly as for the manifestation of his Truth so of his Justice and Mercy I will put them together It is the property of Justice to render punishment to those that have done evil and of Mercy to recompence those that have done well Now therefore for the manifestation of his Justice and Mercy this day must come It is true here many times wicked men speed better then Gods people A man may sin a hundred times and yet God porlong his dayes and the children of God on the other side are persecuted and neglected so that here he giveth not retribution to every one according to his works Whereas it standeth with equity and justice that well-doers should be rewarded and evil-doers should be punished the stream runneth contrary wicked men speed well and good men ill Naboth cannot have a poor Vineyard but one rich Ahab or other is ready to get it away They â—…at my people as bread and they eat the bread of Gods people they eate the inheritance of the fatherless and devour widdows houses so that here all is turned topsie-turvey as if the world were a thing cruciated tearing it self If this world should last alwayes where were Gods justice And therefore for the manifestation of Gods justice and mercy there must be a day of retribution when for that portion of sorrow that the godly have had here they shall have a portion of happiness and joy and when for that cup of pleasure that the wicked have drank here they shall have put into their hands a cup of trembling and wrath If Dives enjoy his good things here let him look for a day when he shall be denied a drop of water It Lazarus have had his ill things here let him look when the day shall come that he shall be rewarded Except we will divest and strip God of all his Attributes deny his power his wisdome his truth his justice and mercy we cannot but confess that certainly there is a day to come when God will bring us to judgement That is for the first That the day of Judgement shall come In the next place we are to consider as that it shall be so in what manner and how it shall be Briefly the manner of this Judgment is set forth to us in the Scripture in five particulars First the Summons Secondly the Appearance Thirdly the Separation Fourthly the Triall Fifthly the Sentence First the Summons All shall be summoned to come before Gods Judgement seat and this Summons of theirs shall be by the voyce of Christ himself The dead in the grave shall hear the voyce of the son of man and they shall come forth c. Job 5.28 This voyce in Scripture is called the Trump of the Angel He shall send his Angels and they shall gather the Elect together from the four winds Mat. 24.31 The Trump shall blow and the dead shall arise 1 Cor. 15. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangel with the Trump of GOD and the dead shall rise 1 Thes 4.16 At the giving of the Law there was the sound of a Trumpet so when God shall come to punish the breach of the Law the Angel shall blow the Trumpet Trumpets are commonly blown at a Battel or at a Feast at a Feast they sound joyfully when it is at a Battel they sound dreadfully both shall sound here at that day the sound of the Trumpet to the godly shall be as at a Feast but the sound of the Trumpet in the ears of the wicked shall be as a summons to battel If we will have the joyful sound of that voyce then we must welcome the voyce of Christ now God now speaks by men then by Angels Now the Trumpet of the Gospel soundeth then the Trumpet of Judgement shall sound we must learn o bedience to this and then we shall find a great deal of comfort in that there is a Surgite that we must hearken to now arise from sin Come unto me all yea that are weary and heavy laden
perpetuity it must be a constant assection grounded and established in the heart The Ayre you know is light and yet we call it not a lightsome body because it is lighted by the presence of another and when that light body is removed it is dark you may say it is dark for the Ayre is dark in the night when the Sun is absent as it is light when the Sun is present those we call lightsome bodyes whose light is originated and rooted in themselves So it is in this case such are not godly persons that may have some injections of godly thoughts and godly affections cast into them and be in them for a spurt and for a brunt and for a little flash like a flash of lightning in the Ayre and gone away again presently but it must be rooted and grounded in a man so as that it will continue continue so as that the exercise of graces and duties toward God should be frequent and quotidian as it is here in the Text The desire of our soul is to thee in the evening and our spirit shall seek thee early in the morning Morning and evening frequently daily to have commerce and communion with God to walk with him to set our selves in his presence and to approve our selves to him to make it our constant trade to do so to be Gods dayes-men to work by the day with him and withal to be constant to hold out for perpetuity Only time can discover truth and truth is the daughter of time to us God knoweth it before but we can never know but by the holding out but by the perpetuity I acknowledg there is a great difference between that which the Scripture calleth temporary faith and that which it calleth saving faith there is I say a great difference they do not only differ in this that the one holdeth out and the other doth not hold out but they differ in their vital principles by vertue of which one holdeth out because it hath a more noble nature in it and the other because it is a slighter timbered thing it doth not hold out because the one is a real and true and substantial beauty of grace the other but a superficial and painted beauty substantial beauty that is founded upon nature upon our complexion whether it rain or shine it will hold out in both but painted beauty one fears a little wet will alter the painting another lest a little heat should do it A painted beauty will not hold but true will hold And they that do love true love long as our Proverb saith I am certain it is so here they who do once love God truly love God for ever I will dispatch the rest in a word There be some special duties besides these generals which make the general character of a Christian I say there are some special duties that do concern him according to the speciallity of times Now there is a double time and so a double posture of a Christian in which accordingly he hath several suits of graces to put on and to exercise There is a double dealing of God which is the foundation of it God dealeth sometime in a way of mercy and favor toward his servants and God dealeth sometime in a way of Judgment and wrath and displeasure and he doth so though not as an angry Judg but as a father that is angry even with his own servants Now accordingly as this general temper and frame of spirit should be at all times so it should shew and discover it self in those several times In the time when God sheweth favour then the servant of God is to serve God so much the more chearfully and so much the more fruitfully to run the wayes of Gods commandements because God inlargeth his way and giveth him free scope and more opportunities and advantages for it and to improve those favours for the advancement of his glory that gave them But the particular thing that is especially exprest here though that be intimated too and it is noted as a character here of a wicked spirit that they will do wickedly in the land of uprightness that is in the land where God dealeth very gently and gratiously and uprightly with them every way and squarely that they can no way complain it is a wicked spirit that doth so But that which is specially meant here in the way of thy judgments will we wait for thee is that Gods servants will not only not start if their temper be right from God when he smiles upon them but they will love him when he frowneth they will even then stoop and kiss the rodd they will then obey him Gods children will acknowledg him to be their Father and Lord and submit to him even when he is angry Here is a vast difference between the godly and the wicked as I shall a little touch by and by As the Father speaks even to this very purpose when sweet oyntment is chased it smells the more sweet it delivereth the persume the more excellent but in a dunghill in a filthy place stir it and the more you stir the more it stinks Wicked spirits when God doth but chafe them manifest the filth and corruption that is within them as a man may know money as he saith when it falleth down whether it be silver or brass it will then betray it self so here their language their speech will betray them then and declare what they are The divel thought that Job had been of such a temper that he would have curst God to his face if he would lay his hand upon him and touch him but it was far otherwise because he was of a better mettal and stamp therefore he blessed God in the middest of judgment as he had done formerly in the middest of his mercies And this is that a Christian should do labour to be fruitful in thankfulness and chearfulness of spirit when God sheweth favour and giveâ—… any ease and mercy to him and labour likewise to be faithful and constant to him even when his judgments are a broad But there be divers particulars in that I will but meerly mentich them There be these sour things as so many sleps and degrees of the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment whether they be impendant or incombent whether they be publick or private that concern the Church or particular persons First of all the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment if he be of a right temper is Perseverance to hold out not to be beaten off for a little storm or shock but to keep on his pace to keep on his way Travellers that go to sea meerly to be sick a little or in sport if there arise but a black cloud they presently give over their voyage is at an end they come not to venture shocks and storms and danger they come for pleasure but the Merchant that is bound upon a voyage
receive the sentence either of Come ye blessed or go ye cursed After which sentence once pronounced there shall never question be made of the end of the joy of the one or the ease of the torments of the other But here ariseth a question you know the world consists but of two sorts of persons beleevers and unbeleevers For the beleever it is evident and plain Joh. 5.24 He is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already he shall not come into judgement And for the unbeleever it is as plain Joh. 3.18 that he is already condemned even already both are judged already both the beleever and unbeleever the beleever is saved already the unbeleever is damned already what need therefore a general a second Judgement To this I answer that there is a very great need of it both in respect of the justice and of the mercy of God whose property it is alway to reward the godly and to punish the wicked which seeing he doth not to the full in this life it must needs be that a day will come that he will fully do it You know the course of the Lord as David speaks good men have bands in their death and wicked men are lusty and strong good men are in evil condition and wicked men in prosperity Diogenes the Cinnick seeing Harpalus a thief long in prosperity he was bold to say that wicked Harpalus his living long in prosperity it was an argument to Diogenes that God had cast off his care of the world that he respected not mens affairs And indeed the prosperity of the wicked hath brought the Saints of God to a stand Davids foot slipped almost in seeing the prosperity of the wicked It made Job to say Job 24.12 Men groan out of the City by reason of oppression and the souls of the slain cry out and yet God chargeth them not with folly This made Jeremiah to expostulate his cause with the Lord Jerem. 12. Let me talk with thee of thy judgments Why doth the wicked prosper and they that transgress thy commandements This makes the godly take up that passionate complaint Psal 73.11 How doth God know it is there any knowledg in the most high Certainly we have cleansed our hearts in vain in vain we have washed our hands in innocency in vain we labour to live godly lives Why Every day we are chastened for the Lord corrects us every morning And these have the wealth of the world they have the world at will We in Christianity know this to be true Dives hath the world at will while poor Lazarus is shut out of doors hungry and thirsty cold and naked full of necessity every way This being so the day must needs come that the one shall have fulnesse of glory and the other of misery But to answer those places before cited To the former Joh. 5. where it is said The beleever is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already It is true he is passed already from death to life by faith he hath it already and by hope he shall not come into judgement that is of condemnation so we must understand it but there is a judgement of absolution that is to be executed and so when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with the sound of a Trumpet and the voyce of the Archangels then the dead in Christ shall rise first and be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ and then they shall be set at his right hand and hear that heavenly sentence Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world You see the answer to that that beleevers shall not come into judgement that is not the judgement of condemnation but of absolution at the last day Now for the other place where it is said Joh. 3.18 the unbeleever is condemned already It is true he is condemned already and that three wayes First of all he is condemned already in the counsel of God Secondly he is condemned already in the word of God Thirdly he is condemned already in his own conscience First in the counsel of God God hath made an eternal decree of Predestination whereby he hath elected some to salvation and predestinated them thereto and others to damnation In this Gods eternal decree the unbeleever is already condemned nay before ever he came into the world as you have it in the example of Jacob and Esaâ—… Rom. 9. before ever they had done good or evil God hated the one and loved the other Secondly in the word of God he is condemned Jo. 3.18 Why because he hates the light and loves darkness Thirdly in his own conscience he is condemned for the continual horrour thereof gives him no rest day nor night there is a worm continually gnawing there and a sting tormenting him but the full execution thereof is to be in the day of wrath when he shall be set at the left hand of Christ and hear the sentence Goe ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the divel and his Angels O what a terrible day will this be to all the wicked workers of iniquity for Christ Jesus the Judge shall come then to give them their reward This shall be a black a sad a woful dismal day to them they shall not be able to look on the Judge he shall be so terrible to them You see the terriblness of the Judge set down by Saint John Revel 20.10 11. where it is said he saw a great white throne and one sitting thereon from whose face fâ—…ed heaven and earth and their place was no more found Heaven and earth are great and mighty creatures insensible creatures that have not sinned they flie and tremble and hide themselves at the coming of the great Judge and shall man silly sinful man think to stand before the Judge without trembling Indeed if a man could present himself spotless without blame he needed not to fear but alas it is far otherwise there is none that doth good and sinneth not saith Solomon The most righteous before men are stained and poluted in the sight of God and may cry with the Leper Unclean unclean what is man that he should be pure or the son of man that he should be just with God The Angels of heaven are impure in his sight how much more filthy man that drinketh iniquity as water Job 15. So in Psal 14.2 When God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there were any that would uuderstand and seek after God Will he find any that frames themselves according to the rule of perfection that he requires surely no but this he finds they are all corrupt and abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one so sinful is man in his whole race sinful in his conception he is conceived in sin before ever he sees light in this
enjoy life by it Again mark on what terms he requires it 't is but to belent and to be lent upon Usury too Many covetous earth-worms would be glad to hear of the most advantage by Interest of mony yet no Usury is lawful except this and this is spoken in this phrase to no other purpose but to convince the world of sin that seek gain to their own loss and procure their profit a wrong way He that gives to the poor he lends to the Lord upon Usury It is the confession of the Usurer that to receive ten in the hundred is great gain and he concludes that much advantage doth acrue to his Coffers and accounts it a prosperous profession Miserable trading when we exchange our Souls and expose them to eternal destruction for the procurement of a little wealth of this world which hath not a minutes subsistance But This is the trade of advantage not ten in the hundred but a hundred for ten nay a hundred for one To enjoy a hundred for one here and in the world to come eternal life is advantage far above the comparison of any gain the earth can afford us Further mark who it is that asks this at thy hands even he whose favour thou must one day seek for whose countenance thou wouldest give all the world it is he before whose seat thou must appear that calls for this duty of doing good with thy estate while thou enjoyest it deny not this small courtesie to him lest his favours being abused turn into anger and thou become a miserable instance of his heavy displeasure No man desiring the favour of a Prince or Judge in some business of importance but would gladly embrace an occasion of doing him a pleasure before the tryal of his cause that so the Judge may take notice of his good will and gratifie his kindness Beloved we have special use for the favour of Christ and must all appear before his Judgment seat Now we have opportunity sufficient Christ in his poor members of the houshold of faith comes to you expecting favour at your hands he wills you to do good to them and to him in them What you bestow on them he accounts as a courtesie to himself In as much as you have done it to these it extends unto him and what is denyed them he takes it as an injury to himself Inasmuch as you have not done it to those you have not done it to him Therefore look how you extend mercy here to enjoy it hereafter and as you expect the favour of the Judge make way for his kindness by the performance of his will in a seasonable contribution during this life he that useth not mercy here shall find none hereafter and Judgment shall be merciless saith the Apostle to them that shew not mency Nay look that such mercy be shown as God expecteth you that are wealthy according to the wealth and riches you possess God will accept of no beggarly present from a wealthy man neither will he receive a poor reward from the Coffers of him that hath hoarded up much red clay where he hath sown liberally he will reap leberally Look to it for Christ looks for it Wouldest thou reap liberally in that day then sow liberally in the mean time Do according to your several abilities and opportunities and when you meet with advantage to do good take it chearfully and make use of it willingly it will much commend thy love to Religion and improve thine own good in the conclusion So much shall serve now for this point You see in a word the meaning and intent of the Apostle is this that every man according to his estate and ability while he hath time and means should bestir himself to do good A word for the occasion in Hand Funeral Sermons faith Saint Austin are not comforts to the dead but helps to the living It is for their sakes that survive that God hath given us these occasions and for your sakes that are yet living that I have chosen this Text where you have the rule and the example concurring together The life of our deceased Sister was but a commentary upon this Text She hath been amongst those that knew her in her life a lively pattern and example of the performance of every duty that we have now spoken of It pleased God to translate her as a choice Plant from a far Countrey a Nurcery amongst the Churches in other parts into his Vineyard into his Garden into his Orchard his Church here in England Since she came hither and hath been planted here She became no fruitless nor dead tree but according to the blessing promised to that man which meditates in the law of God day and night She brought forth fruit and had a green lease among us She brought forth abundance of good fruit and is laid in the earth with the green lease of a good name and flourisheth now as a good example to those that live even being dead After it pleased God when she came to England to reveal to her the way of salvation more fully then she knew before to make her understand more clearly of the power of godliness and what the practice of Christianity meant which she before had received only in the Theory in forms of doctrines but not so heartily and serously looking into them She grew very covetous of good company and the benefit that comes by that good conference and example She made great advantage of her time in the large sense of doing good She took her opportunities to do good to her self and her soul by the obtaining of the knowledge of God in Christ and yet nevertheless even towards her latter end not being perswaded that she had done enough that way she promised to act Maries part more lively if God would spare her longer time on earth and exceed her former vertues by her latter endeavours and to refrain from Martha's troubles Those opportunities she embraced in health by the providence and goodness of God were managed by her with such care and respect that success followed their conclusions with much advantage She increased in love that radical grace as the sap doth increase in the root extending that love to Christ and to the servants of God ever delighting in their company prizing them at a high rate as the only excellent ones and some very poor and weak Christians naming them according to the phrase of our Saviour worthy persons and such a one was a worthy man or a worthy woman being the tearms wherewith she expressed her honourable esteem of those that seared the Lord. Besides in the whole course of her life she exercised the Scriptures I have seen notes of her own gathering out of the Scripture wherein it seemed she desired to become a profitable reader in making use of such particular places as struck against such corruptions which she was more especially desirous to take notice of and such directions
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
the Clergy that dejected sinners may with safety lodge their grievances in their breasts let me desire them That as the Lawyer and the Physician are true to their Profession so they would be faithful in their Ministery that poor souls may fly to them with confidence for comfort in their sad conflicts for sin and with sin This makes so many Christians to carry their sin with them to their graves rather than they will disclose it because they dare not repose any trust in those that ought to be as true to them as there own hearts If we find a man truly penitent for his sins let us cover them with the vail of Charity and onely declare his repentance to the world that God may be glorified and good Christians on Earth as the Angels in Heaven rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner I have much to speak but am willing to contract my self as knowing you are fully satisfied in that faithful Testimony I have already given you Be not so uncharitable as to think I might be mistaken in this good Gentleman I was often with him and had frequent converse with him and the freedom to speak and I found him alwayes in the same humble frame and temper of spirit and I must profess this I have not often received more satisfaction from any man in respect of the fruit and comfort of my endeavours than from him I met with an humble and tractable spirit willing to hear of the wrath of God due to sinners and careful and solicitous how he might avoid it truly sensible of the weight of his sins much dejected with the thought of them and so far the sense of his sins had humbled him as that I may say Malice it self could not judge worse of him than he did of himself And that which made me believe the truth of his humiliation for sin was this That I found no presumptious thoughts arising in his heart of Gods mercy but when I sought to cheer him with the hope of Gods mercy to penitent sinners he told me He was not yet humbled enough to partake of it I was much satisfied in this answer as knowing the deeper the foundation is laid the surer is the building the more humble we are the firmer will our confidence be in Christ And from that time I strove to comfort him with the precious Promises of the Gospel and told him he might upon the word of Christ challenge an interest in them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Such as are truly penitent and onely such might claim a special Title to the Promises of Christ This did revive his fainting spirit and the thought of Gods mercy in Christ did as much cheer him as ever the sense of sin had dejected him Then he began to feel the comfort of Gods love glowing in his breast soon after he felt the heat of it and his affections were so enflamed with the love of God as that his thoughts were restless till he enjoyed him whom his Soul loved and this made him to count every minute too long to be parted from Christ his Saviour Therefore being now fit for heaven and weary of the world and desirous to enjoy God in a better place the last words I heard him utter were these Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Christ cannot come too soon for that heart that is ready to receive him The Lord makes us fit for his coming and we shall be happy whensoever he comes And now after all this that I have spoken you will say I have said nothing for the honour of this good Knight I have not buried him like himself I have strew'd no flowers of Commendation upon his Herse befitting his quality and Degree and the House he came from I confess all this As he desired all vain pomp and oftentation should be laid aside at his funerals For what have I done said he that I should deserve it so have I declined all pomp and vanity of words in the Pulpit which is no place to shew our quaint and lofty strains of Oratory but our zeal to Gods glory and the edification of his people I came not so far to sawn and flatter but to testifie my pious respects to the memory of the Dead and my unfeigned affection to the Souls of the Living But what Is not this that he dyed a good Christian that he loathed his former Vanities that he was truly humbled for his sins and rested upon the Mercy of God in Christ for the free pardon of them If you value not these things pardon me if I think there is nothing to be valued in you but vanity and what the value of that will be you will know at the hour of Death God grant you may know it sooner and then you are happy when you will find that piety in the heart is more to be accounted of then all the wealth and honour in the world I think I have said enough to honour this Noble Knight at his Funerals that he dyed a true Child of God and left a goodly Inheritnance on Earth to be possessed of a better in Heaven There have I a good ground to believe he rests in peace and joy and there I hope we shall all meet at the last And thus in an holy intention to Gods glory a zealous desire of your good and an honourable respect to my Friend I have now run through the duty of this day not aiming God knows my heart at the least applause from you nor yet valuing the censure of malevolent spirits who shake off all Charity to the Dead and to the Living I have endeavoured to approve my self faithful to God in speaking nothing but the Truth faithful to my self in the discharge of a good Conscience and faithful to my Friend in publishing the truth of his Conversion to the world Thus have I sought to honour God to right your worthy Neighbour and in so doing I hope I have not wronged my self And now it is my earnest prayer to God for you not that I may injure the Dead but in love to your Souls that all of you may have the grace to live better than he did And this I wish again from my heart hoping the best of him and fearing the worst of some of you that ye may obtain the like Faith and Repentance to die no worse than he did His Soul now rests in Bliss and joy do ye that survive labour to enter into that rest which remains for the people of God in the glorious Mansions of God the Father Now bestir your selves and do your best for heaven while ye have time and opportunity work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling shew all diligence by Faith Repentance and Obedience the old and sure tract and road to Heaven to make your calling and election sure live holily that ye may die comfortably Learn to number
the best Ermine It is nothing to be born a Gentleman it is all in all to live and die a good Christian This was the sweet expression of this your honourable Neighbour feeling a want of Grace in his heart wherewith he desired to be satisfied Oh says he to me one drop of grace in the heart is more worth than all the wealth and honour in the world I shall not commend to you the goodness of his Nature the sweetness of his Disposition because he bewailed it as a Snare and an occasion of sin to him A mans good Nature leads him many times into sin and the loving temper of his spirit temps him and puts him forward to sin Where Grace does not command there a good disposition is soon marr'd and drawn aside This likewise was matter of grief to him that his frail Nature was soon wrought upon and carried aside to that which his own heart soon after told him was sinful and displeasing to God What need I tell you that he was an affable friendly and obliging Gentleman winning and gaining upon all that came near him He that look'd but upon his Face might have seen goodness and courtesie looking out of his Eyes And what 's all this when he did acknowledge with tears that this pleasantness of his countenance was suddenly clouded with a violent and over-ruling storm of passion which carried him beyond himself But it is strange to see what a command grace hath over the Soul which speaks to these unruly passions as Christ did to the boisterous billows of the Sea Peace be still Mar. 4.39 as easily as the Nurse charms the crying Infant in the Cradle As prevalent as these passions were in the time of his health they were so allayed by God in his sickness as that all his friends about him did rejoyce to see the patience and calmness of his Spirit all the while the hand of God was upon him And that I may give you a clear proof of the mortified Spirit and happy change which God wrought in his Soul When I took the boldness to mind him of a late difference between himself and the Reverend Pastor of this place he burst out with tears and laid this charge upon me That I would right him so far as to acquaint him that he did heartily desire him in particular to forgive him and all other good Christians that he had wrong'd in the heat of his passion either rich or poor Judge ye now what could I have spoken more for his honour than I have done in this discovery of his frailty and his happy conquest of it Therefore I thought good to make this publication of it to the world that ye may know ye never honour you selves more than when ye glorifie God by shaming of your selves when we are most vile in our own eyes we are most honourable in the repute of God and good men But all this that I have spoken is nothing to that which is yet behind Therefore go along with me a little further and I shall in brief relate unto you such comfortable passages as fell from him in the time of his sickness and then leave him to your Christian Charity to judge how well he acted the latter part of his life and with what earnestness of spirit he strove to gain the love and favour of God in Christ At my first coming to him I found him deeply toucht with a serious apprehension of the former errours of his life how far he had provoked a good God by the many sins which his Conscience then charged him with Then dâ—d he break forth into 〈◊〉 free and voluntary confession of all his sins and exprest with many tears his loathing and detestation of them I was glad to see those Limbecks of his eyes distilling and dropping down in such a plentiful manner to find his heart thus smitten and bruis ed with the remembrance of his sins and prest him to a greater measure of sorrow as knowing such clouds of grief would make way for the beams of joy and comfort to shine in his Soul The truth is I have not come near a man that hath reckoned up his fins wiâ—h greater abhorrency and detestation than he did I askt him whether if God should be pleased to grant him a further respite in this world he would become a new man and take off his heart from his former vanities He answered I would not for the gain of the whole world live such a life as I have done and I desire next to Gods glory to live for this very end that I might testifiâ— the truth of my repentance to the world I askt him whether his heart did witness the truth of all this Oh sayes he my heart is deceitful and treacherous but if I know my own heart all that I speak is in truth and sincerity I should be the most cursed Hypocrite alive if I should either dissemble with God or man at such a time as this Oh remember to deal faithfully with your own hearts if you speak otherwise than ye find it to be in your own breasts you turn Imposters to your selves and deludes your own Souls not us It is the integrity of the heart which God looks at if there be no rottenness there there is a good foundation of joy and comfort laid in the Soul 1 Job 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And now from the example of this good Knight let me press this one thing upon you That when ye find your hearts opprest with the weight of your sins ye would give them a speedy vent and seek to ease your hearts of so mighty a clog by a serious confession of them He that smothers sin in his breast will in the end be choaked with the noisome scent of it What is a man the better for hiding and locking up his sin in his bosome Let me advise you to open a vein in your own hearts and let out the corrupt blood that lies there The longer we hide sin in our bosoms the more it festers and what man will not do his best to get rid of a bruise before it rots and putrisies Confession is a soveraign Remedy to procure the pardon of our sins Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and for saketh his sins shall have mercy He is most likely to find mercy that is most ready to acknowledge that he deserves none We see what David gain'd by an humble confession of his sins He no sooner cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord then the Prophet return'd him a comfortable answer from the Lord The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die Quantum valent tres syllabae Peccavi How prevalent are three syllables pronounced by a penitent heart I have sinn'd to move the God of mercy to mercy And here I hope I shall seasonably cast in a word of advice to my Brethren of