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
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
for so witnesseth the Wise-man Prov. 28. If we confesse and leave our sins we shall have mercy So David saith Psal 32.3 4. I said I will confesse my sins and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And Saint John telleth us in his 1. Epist 1.9 If we confesse our sins God is faithful and true to forgive us our sins So you see Confession as well as sorrow absolutely required to obtain remission A man must even Arraigne and as it were indite himself before God plead guilty acknowledg his trespass whatsoever it be and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them or else he repents not though he weep out his eyes with mourning and lamentation The third thing requisite is a firm purpose of amendment of life Whosoever will have God to accept his teares and bend a favourable care to his humiliation and acknowledgement he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done that he put on a stedfast purpose of doing so no more according to the direction that our Saviour Christ giveth to the man that he had healed Joh. 5. Goe thy way and sin no more and as Saint Paul speaks Let him that stole steal no more And therefore the Wise-man putteth on this part to the former in the before alledged place If we confesse our sins and leave them we shall find mercy There must be I say a settled purpose and a fixed flat determination in the soul of every man to cast off those transgressions that he hath confest and to return no more to commit them at least not to allow those sins that he hath acknowledged Lastly there must be added to the former three or else they will not availe neither an earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness through the mediation of his wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ which was wont to be craving mercy without this mentioning of Christ before he was offered and revealed to the world But now it must be so done as we must specially and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires to him in begging mercy at his Fathers hands for his sake alone So David after the numbring of the people I have done exceeding foolishly but Lord blot out for give the sin of thy servant So God commandeth Hos 14.2 Take to you words and say to the Lord receive us graciously So did David when he renewed his repentance and so must all men do when they begin to repent Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies and blot out my transgressions c. These are the parts of repentance And this is the first thing required at our hands as the condition of the Covenant of Grace without which we can never obtain life eternal And this repentance consisteth of sorrow for sin and acknowledgment of it to God with a firm purpose of amendment and earnest petition of pardon for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is such a Doctrine as the Covenant of works the Law never taught to the sons of men Nay verily it will not admit it the Law scorns as it were to admit repentance for it excludeth sin Repentance implieth sin in all the degrees and kinds therefore it is far from accepting Repentance if thou hast once broke the Law repent or not repent amend or nor amend be sorry or not sorry thou shalt never be pardoned or forgiven It is a rough and stern School-master that will whip and scourge offending children though they crave pardon never so much It is a rough Creditour that will throttle the Debtour and cast him into Prison though he confess the debt and be never so importunate in asking favour and patience But the Covenant of Grace it is a sweet Doctrine a comfortable Doctrine Thou hast sinned oh man and broken the Law and fallen from the favour of God and all possibility of salvation in thy self but come be sorry for thy sin acknowledg it to thy Maker resolve to run on in it no longer cry to him for pardon of it he will graciously pardon thee This is a sweet Doctrine you see full of comfort and consolation yet it is a Doctrine that tendeth to the honour of the Justice of God as well as to the honour of his grace and love the Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour but that we should repent What Judg would so abuse mercy as having past the sentence of death upon a Malefactour will yet pardon him and save him from the halter if he be not sorry for his crime and come and intreat for mercy and favour and confess that he hath offended and promise never to do so again there is no mercy and pardon for such a one because mercy must not oppose Justice though it may somewhat as we may say mitigate Justice The bloud of Christ if it were shed ten thousand times over it could never corrupt the Justice of God it may satisfie it but not corrupt it now the Justice of God were corrupted if it should admit an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour and bestow upon him remission of sins and life everlasting that would never leave it nor forsake it nor be sorry for it but still go on to offend God and trample under foot his authority this being coutrary to Justice in the very nature and essence of Justice it cannot possibly be effected no not by the shedding of the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ is of that vallue that it satisfieth the Justice of God and causeth him upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner to receive him to grace and favour You see now what is the first part of the Condition required on our side for the obtaining of life by Christ that is Repentance The next is Faith in Christ This we are taught every where If thou beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ saith the Apostle to the trembling Jaylour thou shalt be saved And saith our Saviour this is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent This beleeving on Christ is I suppose nothing else bnt a staying and resting and depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all good things promised in the New covenant at the hands of God He that goeth quite out of himself forgetteth all his own actions casteth behind him whatsoever seemed good in him and wholly claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him staies on him resteth on him for the remission of sins and for the favour of God and for grace and salvation this man beleeveth in the Lord Jesus Christ and this man performs that duty which makes him one with Christ that causeth him to become a member of that mystical body whereof Christ is the head and that causeth him to be one with the Father and to be the child of
and greatly amaze us when out affection is placed and setled in a designed object in a person that we neerly love and now to take away that comfort and as it were to diverse the heart from the heart O this goes neer us this doth exceedingly trouble a person Fourthly the strength of a tryal may consist in the suddenness of it to enjoy a comfort and on a sudden to have it taken away as it were in a mans sleep such a thing that he did not dream of when he did not expect that such a thing would befal him if a man had heard something before hand he might have been better fitted for it When the Prophet saw the Cloud ascend out of the Sea being warned of abundance of rain he hastened to escape So if a person have fore-notice of such a cross that would fall upon him he might be somewhat armed and prepared he might in some measure be able to bear his tryal like a little Boat well mannaged may meet with lofty waves but when the affliction shall take a man at unawares when it takes us before we can gather our selves together before we can put out our selves in prayer for a man to go forth and come home and find a wife dead and for a Woman to go forth and come home and find her Husband dead for a tender Mother to kiss her child and lay it down to rest and the next turn to find her child dead this is a great tryal Fifthly the strength of a tryal is in the successiveness of a tryal the repetition of a tryal when Jobs messengers come with news of one affliction having scarse delivered their message and their errand but another comes when there is a course of tryal one after another Thou O Lord hast set me as a mark saith Job Why a mark why God had as it were singled him a man for sorrow and tryal one arrow had no sooner lighted on him but another comes and pierces him Now this doth deeply prove our patience and makes us sometime wonder that the Lord should give us no rest when one affliction shall succeed another without any Cordial when the handkerchiff shall no sooner wipe off one tear but presently another distills down Herein is a great strength of tryal the heart is wonderfully cast down Sixtly the strength of a tryal may consist in the strangeness of our obedience to it as when a matter is put upon us as a duty to be obeyed and hath some contradiction to the precept of God when a tryal doth cross the precept of obedience and jussle against the promise of God that a man can hardly obey God but he must make God a lyar Abraham could not have obeyed God in killing his Child but he must run against that other command forbidding murther he could not defer it but he must violate his faith Now this doth exceedindly distract the Soul with a great tryal the more contrary the tryal is to the precept of obedience the greater is the tryal and the more neer to the person But I proceed to the next question Why the Lord doth impose great tryals upon great Christians the reasons of it may be these First great grace will be obscure and will scarce shew it self unless there be great tryals and therefore S. Paul when he was lift up to the third heavens lest he should be exalted above measure there was given him a thorne in the flesh he is beaten down with temptation that the grace of God might the more appear God doth hereby prevent our fall and doth hold great grace in great conflicts that the soul might have little leisure to admire its own fulness Secondly great tryals for great Christians because who is more able to sustain grear tryals then great Christians God is wise in all his actions and as Paul speaks in another case there was milk for babes and meat for strong men so when he imposes any affliction he considers the person and so proportions the affliction he imposes the greatest burden upon the greatest Christian a little blast is enough for a tender oak but a well grounded one may endure the strongest winds a poor weak Christian a little tryal will cast him down but a well experienced Christian that hath inriched himself with the promises of God that hath hardned himself with the receit of singular comforts one that knoweth the life of faith that hath gotten singular patience he can endure a hard storm he can go through great tryals with great comfort He can say with Job though thou dost kill me yet will I trust in thee he will be able to go through many sad nights and great tryals his faith will make him conquer all I come to the second point and that is this that Faith will make a man acquit himself in great Tryals Though Abraham is put upon it in a great tryal in offering up his son yet by faith Abraham acquits himself and offers up his beloved son The meaning of the proposition is this that faith will inable a man to give back his dearest comfort again to God though Isaac lie in Abrahams bosome though Isaac lie at Abrahams heart yet Abrahams faith upon Gods call will take him thence and present him to that God who gave him Faith makes a man resign up willingly unto God his dearest comfort as Job did The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Beloved remember this faith can take a mercy and be thankful and faith can part with a mercy and be content Paul he had learned how to abound and how to be in want and this lesson was the lesson of faith faith makes a Christian take from Christ what it injoyes like one of the blessed Martyrs his condition was if God gave him any mercy he was chearful if the Lord take away any mercy he fits down with contentment quieting his soul in patience if God give him any mercy he was not swoln with pride if God take away any mercy he was not cast down with sorrow Dost thou remember me O Lord saith faith Lord I am unworthy the least of all thy mercies and goodness Lord dost thou call for this blessing back again why here it is Lord do what thou pleasest like an honest debtor saith he if you can spare me a little I will thank you but if you will have it here it is as the blessing is a gift of Gods kindness so neither doth faith account of any mercy but a borrowed a lent good which God may require when he pleases There is a double acquitting of our selves one is a necessary acquitting and the other is a pious and Christian acquitting there is this difference between a godly man and another when God calls for any one of thy comforts it must be restored God is the Lord of life and whether we are willing or not when he calls the comfort and
being so common and we apt every moment to fall under some trial or other There be four vertues and special effects that faith works in the soul which will inable us to go through great trials and therefore we should labour to get this grace of faith into our souls First faith gets assurance Secondly breeds submittance Thirdly dependance and lastly conveyance First faith gets assurance it can eye God as our God though the storms be very great yet God can quiet it When a man though he sees his outward comfort dead yet Faith sees it in the hand of a living God Faith assures the soul God will put an end to the trial though there be a changeableness in the outward condition yet there is safety in God and setledness in God Though a man may look with a dull eye upon his loss yet if he can look upon God with the eye of faith as his God the absence of a poor creature cannot so much trouble him as the presence of a gracious and a glorious God can comfort and support him Secondly submittance is another effect of faith which faith works in the soul our outward condition is subject to many changes and many times we meet with them and we are hindered in our comforts and naturally we grow impatient and murmur and quarrel with Gods providence but now there is a vertue in faith it fashions the heart and the mind to the condition faith makes a man submit to God in all estates to make us stoop to our burthen it is the Lord saith Eli. 1 Sam. 3. let him do what seems good unto him and in the 39. Psal saith David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because the Lord did it Observe this unbelief makes a man dumb and faith made David dumb Zachary because he beleeved not the word that the Angel spake he was dumb and David because he beleeved the word of the Lord he was dumb unbelief procures dumbness as a judgment from God but faith makes a Christian dumb from complaining it quiets the soul in silence from murmuring against God it doth not make a person dumb as not to pray and to praise God but dumb in complaint Good is the word of the Lord saith Faith A third effect of Faith is dependance it will make a man trust God in frowning dayes though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Faith we can never lose any outward comfort but Faith can find a better in God though an outward loss may come yet Faith can make it up in God in the want of an outward comfort it will trust God Lord what wait I for saith David truly my hope is in thee Though the Christian estate may be at some time moanful yet at no time it is hopeless A fourth effect that Faith works is conveyance it can convey something to inable the soul to bear it up in all trials as Faith is an active grace to inable the soul to the performance of duty so Faith is a passive grace to strengthen the soul to suffer and bear affliction To you saith the Apostle it is given not only to beleeve but also to suffer for his Name Faith will call in strength enough to bear affliction we see many times a poor Christian by the strength of faith is able to bear a great loss and undergo a great trial God is pleased to exercise a Christian with great affliction but Faith carries the soul along through all remember this Faith bears Gods trials with Gods strength there is a power in Faith which exceeds all outward crosses and losses Faith draws strength from the Promise for there is no cross nor affliction but Faith can find a support in the promise of deliverance Faith makes a man see the affliction as it were come out of the hand of the Lord out of the hand of Mercy Faith can convey comfort to the soul in affliction by making it see the chastisement delivered from the hand of a wise and loving Father that our chastisement is for our profit for our future advantage and that this is sent for our personal good if thou couldest get but a sensible denyal of thy self and by faith see all things measured out by the Lord this would make us with patience take from God what he imposes upon us Faith will make a man conquer himself it will silence all murmuring and make the Soul bear its cross with patience THE PRIVILEDGE OF THE FAITHFUL OR The Joint-Inheritance OF ALL BELIEVERS SERMON XXXIII 1 PET. 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life TO let pass all by-passages you have in this Text the priviledge of Women which is the very same with that of Men especially in relation to the greatest priviledge that belongeth to either of them The very priviledge it self as at the first view of the Text may appear to you affordeth a fit Theam for such an occasion as this is which is the solemnization of the Funeral of a Grave pious and prudent Matron who was indeed while she lived a Mother in Israel in the Church of God who in her life-time testified much love to the Saints of God and in that respect I may say deserved now she is taken away this respect of Gods Saints and Children which by you is now shewed to her in accompanying her to her bed of rest The forenamed words of my Text doth branch it self forth into two parts One setteth out the priviledge it self The other the partakers thereof The Priviledge therein you may observe two points First the kind of it Life Secondly the ground of it grace The partakers of this priviledge are set forth in a compounded Article Joynt-heirs Co-heirs heirs together having relation to Women The simple consideration of the Word shews the right they have to the forenamed priviledge they are heirs The compound shews the extent of it Co-heirs one with another Men and Women heirs together of the grace of life That yet you may a little more distinctly discern the scope of the Apostle in this Text in a word note the inference of it upon that which goeth before or the connection of it therewith Lift up therefore your eyes but a little higher to the words going before and you may observe the Apostle giving a direction to men to honour Women notwithstanding they are the weaker vessels Vessels they are therefore capable of that which God shall be pleased to infuse into them his grace they are weak vessels so are men also they are earthen vessels these are the weaker these comparatively may be said to be as glassie vessels and yet notwithstanding you have a common saying that a glass with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex be brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were
gift that he doth give and the freeness of it For who can give life but the God of life that hath life in himself And then again to do this altogether upon meer grace upon his own good pleasure it is a divine property And this is it that doth encourage us to come unto God notwithstanding our unworthiness And in this respect in the second place we have here a Use of instruction to acquaint our selves with God with the freeness of his Grace to plead it unto God when we come unto him and notwithstanding our unworthiness and our wretchedness yet to press this Lord what thou dost thou dost for thy own sake out of thy meer grace this makes me bold to come unto thee Specially upon the consideration of that greatest evidence of Gods free grace and rich mercy in giving his Son to do whatsoever is requisite for the satisfaction of his Justice so that here Grace Justice do sweetly go together for the strengthening of our Faith Grace in regard of our unworthiness Justice in regard of our rebellion God doth what he doth for his own sake his own Son hath made full satisfaction to his Justice And finally this should the more enlarge the heart to God again a gift the freer it is the more worthy of praise it must needs be the more acceptable to him that receiveth it when he receiveth it from meer Grace and he that giveth it is thereby the more worthy of praise so that lay these two together life and the grace of life and then tell me what sufficient thanks can be given to him who out of his Grace doth bestow this life Thus from the priviledge in the second part thereof come we to the partakers of this priviledge And first of the simple consideration of it Heirs so that we come to a right unto that eternal life by inheritance as we are Heirs So do the Texts before-noted expresly set it forth We are justified by his grace that we should be heirs of eternal life Tit. 3.7 And Saint Paul giveth thanks to God for the Collossians that he had made them partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And our Lord when he doth give us possession hereof inducts us thereunto with this inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25.34 take it by inheritance here is your right Now we may not think that this ground of right to our eternal inheritance cometh by our natural generation for so we are heirs and children of wrath as the Apostle noteth in Eph. 2.3 It cannot come by nature for so it is Christs prerogative the true proper natural Son of God and thus as the Apostle faith God hath appointed him heir of all things Heb. 1.2 but it is by another grace whereby we are made children A double grace in this respect a grace of Adoption and a grace of Regeneration A grace of Adoption for God giveth to us the spirit of Adoption whereby we are moved to cry and call Abba Father and by this grace we are children and being children we are heirs Co-heirs not only one with another but as it is there noted heirs together with Christ Co-heirs with him by vertue of this grace of Adoption So likewise by the other grace of Regeneration we are qualified hereunto Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. blesseth God Blessed be the God saith he and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible c. We are begotten to this inheritance This might again be pressed as a further Argument against the fore-mentioned presumptious Doctrine of Merit that that cometh by Inheritance cometh not by Desert But I pass it over This doth afford to us matter of consolation for this Text is full of consolation every word of it against the baseness whereunto in this world the Saints seem to be subject that are scoffed that are despised howsoever they appear here in mortal mans eye yet notwithstanding in truth they are Heirs they have an Inheritance And as it doth administer to us matter of comfort and a ground of holy boasting and glorying in the Lord so it affordeth to us direction to carry our selves as becometh Heirs not to set our love too much upon this world not to dote upon it but to be lofty minded to have our heart and affection where our inheritance is namely in Heaven to wait with patience for it Be followers of those saith the Apostle that through saith and patience inherit the promise And likewise to make sure to our selves our inheritance look to our evidences Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your calling and election sure Do but make your Calling sure that you are truly and effectually called then it solloweth by just and necessary consequence you were elected before the foundations of the world and shall be saved Many other Meditations do arise out of this right we have to that life which by Grace is conferred upon us Consider we the extent hereof Heirs together joynt-heirs so as all of all sorts have a right to the life of Saints I speak here of outward conditions whether they be great or mean rich or poor free or bond whatsoever they be they have all a right they are joynt-heirs they are heirs together As it is with us in some places there is a title of Gavil kind that giveth a joynt-right to all the Sons that a man hath and so for Daughters all Daughters are co-heirs so this tenour is as I may say Gavil kind all have a right thereunto no exception of any because God is no respecter of persons This my Brethren serveth as an admonition to those that are great or may seem to be higher than others here in this world if they be Saints let them not despise others who are Saints too they are Co-heirs with them they are fellow-brethren there is not an elder Brother among them Christ only is the Elder Brother There may some have a greater degree of glory there may some have greater evidences thereof in this world and greater assurance yet not withstanding they have all a right to the inheritance they are all Co-heirs And this again is another comfort to the meaner and weaker sort that howsoever there may be some difference in regard of outward condition here yet notwithstanding in the greatest priviledge there is no difference at all and therefore to conclude concerning these and other consolations ministred to you I will use the Apostles words Comfort your selves with these things 1 Thes 4.18 And particularly concerning the Female Sex because the Apostle here applyeth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are Heirs Co-heirs of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applyed to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3.28
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
others with whom she had long and private intimacy of many years acquaintance I must and will speak That which I told you was recorded of Rachel that she was fruitful in procreation of Children may in a great measure be spoken of her for if the Scripture account bearing but of two children fruit certainly it will make an extraordinary fruit in bearing of twelve which she did It is a certaine token of a true and faithful servant of God to frequent his house to pray unto him to praise him in his Church earnestly to labour to be instructed in his will out of his Word then and there read and preached to them all which evidences of a good Christian were found in this our Sister For her constant coming to Church I my self can now speak upon my own knowledge I have seriously and strictly examined my self and I profess ingeniously before God that knows my heart and you that here me speak that I cannot call to mind that ever she mist coming to Church twice a Sabbath day since I came which I would be heartily glad I could speak as well of others of this Parish as of her For some of them have got such a fisking trick up and down to go to other Churches as if there were no rellishable food at their own that I fear at the last they will come to none at all I pray God they amend this fault It was a vertue in her that deserved commendation and it is a vice in them that deserves reprehension When she was in Gods house she did not as too too many do imploy her time in sleeping or some such ill course but I ever observed her to listen very diligently and attentively to what was delivered for the nourishing of her soul I confess I do not remember that ever I saw her take any notes in the Church of Sermons that were preached for it seems she did it when she came home for since her death going to her house accidentally I met with a book of hers wherein she had written many texts of Scripture with notes the day when they were preached and the persons by whom most of those which I have preached I saw and perused and others of strangers that I my self have heard these qualities are not to be past over in silence but are worthy of your serious imitation Neither did she think it fit barely to set them down for her own instruction only but what she heard upon the Sabbath day that she constantly practised upon the week dayes She catechised her children in those points spending some time in training them up in the knowledge of God and putting them in mind of their duty to him in whom we live and move and have our being by repeating Gods word delivered by hearing them read Gods word printed and by singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs That she was a most provident and careful Wife and a most indulgent and loving Mother all that knew her can best testifie and some of them have informed me And this let me speak and I have it from the mouth of some that prehaps did not think I would have mentioned it at this time and would have had it concealed but for reasons best known to my self I hold it very fit to relate she was ever held to be of a most sweet nature and of a very loving disposition that she was very charitable and inclined to relieve the poor It is likewise testified of her she was liberal alway but more liberal now then usually having had a consideration of the hard and needy times to which end as if she had prognosticated her own death she laid some money according to that ability that God had blessed her with for the relief of the poor Let no man censure me for speaking these things I do for if I should not have given her her just and deserved praises some that now hear me and knew her from her cradle might justly have censured me for too much remisness Thus for her life As for her death I can say little touching it It pleased God not to give her any long time of sickness but to take her away though not unprepared yet on a sudden with a short warning When her bitter pangs first came upon her she called to her Husband and desired him to joyn with her in hearty prayer to Almighty God that he would be graciously pleased to extend his mercy towards her that he would be pleased to let her live longer that she might repent of her sins and beg mercy at his hands for them that she might amend her life And if he would not grant this for her yet for those many poor Children that were young that she was to leave behind her she desired him to be a careful Father over them all she prayed to God devoutly to send a blessing both upon him and them Much she could not then speak because of her pains that now began still to increase upon her When she was in the extremity of her labour he being absent as it was fitting she sent down to him to desire him to pray to God on her behalf that he would ease her of those grievons pains and preserve her in the great pain and peril of Child birth The propitious God it seemed heard him and granted his request for presently to the thinking of the standers by she was well delivered Not satisfied with this having received so great a blessing from God she sent down again to desire him to give God thanks for her safe delivery But God that had determined to take out of this miserable life quickly turned that hope of the standers by into a fear and suddenly she changed which perceiving as long as she was able to speak she cried Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul Lord have mercy on me Lord pitty me poor miserable wretch and when she could not speak she held up her hands to heaven as desirous to make her peace with that God whom she knew she had highly offended I make no question but God hath translated her from the valley of tears to the Mount Sion of blessedness whither God of his infinite mercy bring us all THE DEATH OF SINNE AND LIFE of GRACE SERMON XXXVII ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe intent of this Chapter is to take off an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospel which publisheth the free Grace of God to great sinners The Apostle had said in the latter end of the 20. Verse of the former Chapter where sin abounded Grace did much more abound From hence some did infer that therefore under the Gospel they might take liberty to sin the more their sins were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest his abundant Grace upon them This the Apostle answers in this Chapter and he answers it two wayes
ΘΡΗÎΟΙΚΟΣ THE House of Mourning FURNISHED With DIRECTIONS for PREPARATIONS to MEDITATIONS of CONSOLATIONS at the Hour of Death DELIVERED IN LIII SERMONS Preached at the FUNERALS of divers faithfull SERVANTS of CHRIST By Daniel Featly Martin Day John Preston Doctors in Divinity Ri. Houldsworth Richard Sibbs Thomas Taylor Thomas Fuller And other Reverend Divines ECCLES 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of Mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth Ambr. de obit frat Non amitti sed praemitti videntur quos sed non absumptura mors sed aeternitatas receptura est Seneca Ep. 77. Iter imperfectum est si in media parte aut citra petitum locum steterit vita non est imperfecta si honesta ubicunqque desieris si benè desieres tota est Newly Corrected and Amended with several ADDITIONS LONDON Printed by G. Dawson and are to be sold by John Williams at the Sign of the Crown in St. Pauls-Chruch-Yard 1660. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THere is no man that can plead Ignorance to the universal Decree of God concerning the necessity of Mans Mortality It is appointed for all men once to die and every man can say as that wise Woman of Tekoaeh we are all as water spilt upon the ground There is no Age Estate Condition or rank of Men but have been foyled with that invincible Champion Death who riding up and down the World upon his pale Horse above these five thousand years hath with an impartial stroke laid all flat before him some in there Infancy have proved what it is to die before they knew what it was to live others in the strength of Youth some in their old Age rich and poor high and low of all sorts young men may die old men must die even those that are stiled Gods and that by no fawning Sycophant but by God himself their Mortality proves them to be men to themselves though they be as Gods to others and as Epictetus once told the Emperour That to be born and to die was common both to Prince and Beggar The sicknesses and miseries of this World have made the proudest Painims to confess with St. Peter to Cornelius Even I my self also am a mortal man So that experience as well as Scripture concludes what man is he that liveth and shall not see death There are no ingredients in the shop of Nature that are sufficiently cordial to fortifie the heart against this King of terrors or his harbingers the velvet slipper cannot sence the foot from the gout nor the gold ring the finger from a fellon the richest Diadem cannot quit the head-ach nor the purple Robe prevent a Fever Beauty strength riches honour friends nor any nor all can repeal that sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Every fit of an Ague and every distemper of this frail constitution being as a light skirmish before the main battel of Death wherein weak man being vanquished is led captive to his long home and when once the lines of Mortality are drawn upon the face of the fairest mortal he becomes a ghastly spectacle how lovely soever before and the conclusion is Bury my dead out of my sight This inevitable necessity however it be confessed and acknowledged of all yet lamentable experience teacheth that in the Christian world most men so live as though they should never die and at length they so die as though they should never live again and when the time of their dissolution cometh their souls are rather chased out by violence then yielded to God in obedience Indeed to a wicked man Death is the beginning of sorrows it is a trap-door to let him down to the everlasting dungeon of Hell but the children of God though they cannot scape the stroke yet they are freed from the sting of death they can play upon the hole of this Aspe without danger and welcome the grimmest approach of this Gyant with a smile being freed from the hurt of him by Him that is the Captain of the Lords Host who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light so that the sting of it being plucked out and the suffering sanctified by Christ death is become to every Believer but a dark entry to the glorious Pallace of Heaven Now as it is Gods tender mercy to his Children that their conflict and misery should be temporary but their perfect happiness eternal so it should be their care in this little space of time alotted them whereupon their everlasting condition depends so to provide that they may live happily where they shall live eternally and since we cannot escape death to prepare for it that we may get the sight of this Basilisk before it approach and so avoid the danger of it Wretched is the estate of that man who when these spiritual Philistims the terrors of death make war upon him shall have just cause to say The Lord is departed from me the death of such a one will be like the sleep of a frantick man who when the malignant humor is concocted awakes in a greater rage than he lay down whereas to him that is wise to consider his latter end death is no way dreadful death may kill him but it cannot hurt him it doth free him from temporary misery but cannot hinder him from eternal felicity and as that noble Captain of Thebes who having gotten the victory over his enemies but withal received his mortal wound he made this his grand enquiry whether his weapons were safe or not whether his buckler was not in his enemies hands and when it was replied all was safe he died with a great deal of chearfulness and fortitude So when a Christian is to grapple with death his main care is that his Buckler of Faith and the Helmet of his Salvation his Hope that they be safe to guard his Soul and then he passeth not much what becomes of his outward man he dies in peace and confidence Now that we may be fitted to encounter with this last enemy besides the manifold helps which God hath reached to us in his Word in the passages of his providence in the frequent examples of mortality before us continually and in our own sensible approaches to the gates of death I say besides these and infinite more this ensuing Volumn with so much care and pains compiled by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage Each Sermon therein being as a several Legasie bequeathed by those upon the occasion of whose deaths they were Preached as by so many Testators who themselves have made a reall experiment of Mortality and left these for our instruction that survive them It is true the dayly examples of Mortality are so many real Lectures that by a kind of dumb Oratory perswade us to expect our end but as they are transient so our thoughts of them vanish therefore it can be no small advantage to have in
of doing holy duties Would you be found praying pefunctorily and carelesly Would you be found coming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you do holy actions that are good for the matter would you be found doing of them with unfit and unprepared hearts You see what the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 11. For this cause many are sick and weak and many sleep they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore be found doing of holy duties and not in a right manner The serious consideration of this that Death is the end of all men with the particular application of it to a mans selfe that as it is the state of all men so it is mine in particular I must die and I may die now it hath an influence into all the actions of a mans life To conclude In the last place This point is of use to us also in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous not too doleful to any man We would not have our freinds to be in another condition in their birth then others we would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would we have them have more dayes Let this serve as a brief touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are useful to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore This will make the death of others bitter and will be worse than the death and losse of our freinds the guilt upon a mans conscience that he hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our freinds easie by making good use of them while they live It did smite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them think you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministry before Think with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian freind that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when freinds are took away we may have cause to thank God that we have had communion and confort of their fellowship and society the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death So much for that I come now to the second and principal reason why it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting it is this because the living shall lay it to his heart What shall he lay to his heart That that is the end of all mèn he shall lay the death of all men to heart The point I observe from hence is thus much It is the dutie of those that live to lay to heart the death of others That is seriously ro consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is clear for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that cometh to God Secondly in respect of the good that cometh to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when we lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods works in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seen he saith to the sons of Adam Return The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is he that hath the power of life and death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without the providence of God much lesse the servants of God the precious ones upon the earth the excellent ones as David calleth them I say God is seen much in these works and it is a great dishonour to God when men do not consider the works of his hands David by the spirit of prophesie in Psal 28.5 wisheth a curse upon ungodly men and for this reason among the rest because they consider not the operation of his hands this is that that puts men into a curst estate and exposeth them to the wrath of God when they regard not the works of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein we give God the glory of his wisdome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraignty and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when we labour to draw to a particular use to our selves the works of God in the world specially the death of men of all men good and bad for we must give it the same latitude and extent and scope that the Text doth here he speaks here of the death of men in general and he saith of all men that their death shall be laid to heart by the living Secondly as their is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that cometh to God thereby so in respect of our selves also much benefit cometh to our selves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three special things considerable in the death of any one that is matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them Therein we see the Certainty of Death Therein we see the Nature of Death Therein we see the Cause End of Death First therein we see the certainty of death For now we have not only the word of God that tels us that we shall die but the works of God taking others before us that as the Sacraments are called visible instructions because they teach by the eye and the outward senses so the death of others are visible instructions to the living it teacheth by the eye a man is guided by the eye to see his own condition and as it were in a glasse there is represented to him his own state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we do that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we do and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our works shall cease as theirs do when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certainty and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that
and the same person arising from divers principles In every renewed soul there is is a principle of nature and a principle of grate I speak not now of corrupt nature but of pure nature for we may so speak There is a desire that ariseth from nature and that tendeth to the conservation of a mans beeing and to the conservation of a man in all the comforts and contentments of his beeing This is and may be in a child of God But then it is overswayed by grace which makes a man now resign up this will of his to Gods hand to be content against his own natural desires to be disposed of according to Gods will This we may see in our Lord and Saviour Father faith he if it be possible let this cup pass from me Hear is a desire to keep not onely in his natural beeing but to keep in the comfort of nature and life And this is lawful and a good desire for these affections are the works of God upon the soul of man The will of man moveth naturally by these affections these desires they are the fruits of nature and so the works of God in nature and therefore not simply to be blamed But now that which keepeth them within compass is an over-ruling work of grace whereby the creature is made to acknowledge his distance from the Creatour and that subjection he oweth to God as the soveraign Lord of nature and of all creatures And in this sense our Saviour Christ doth check his natural desires if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt faith he So here is a work of grace ordering and over-ruling nature that it might not exceed that proportion of the creature and those desires that should be in nature So then you see what kind of willingness we mean such a kind of willingness as in the issue and close resteth in Gods will The object of this Patience is Afflictions and the changes of this life Affliction is properly any thing that is grievous to a mans sense any thing that crosseth a mans will There are some things that indeed are Afflictions but not to this or that person because he is not sensible of them or because he is not carried with any desires against them But when a man is crost in his will that is an affliction to him but specially when this is set on him with a change when God brings as Job speaks changes upon him when a man is in another turning and course of life this is an affliction indeed A man that hath tasted the sweetness of prosperity now to be left in affliction this was Jobs case and this is specially the object of Patience You have heard of the Patience of Job But how did Jobs Patience appear in the Afflictions in the changes of his life That notwithstanding he had felt the sweeness of a prosperous estate and the comfort of freinds yea and the comfort of Gods favour shining upon his heart and many other particular mercies yet when God turned his hand and took away the comforts of his life the comfort and society of his freinds the comfortable expressions of his own love to his soul and threatned the taking away even of life it self Job could now in this case resolve to rest in the determination and appointment and will of God Here is Patience now Thus briefly you have heard what the duty is to which the Apostle exhorteth It is Patience that is a willing resigning of our selves to Gods appointment in the changes of our life But now that is not enough the Apostle contents not himself to say Have Patience but let Patience have her perfect work He would have them grow in Patience to grow from one degree to another to abound in Patience as the Apostle speaks of Hope and Joy in Rom. 15.13 that they might not only have patience but have it brought to perfection which in Coll. 1. 11. is called all long suffering that there might not be the least defect that they might have a measure of patience proportionable to the measure of Tryals that look as God increased the measure of their tryals upon them so they might have patience to answer those tryals somewhat to support the heart when the greatest weight should be laid upon the soul to press it down so the word Hipomene that is translated patience signifieth to bear up a man to support him under a burthen that he be not prest down by it So he would have them have such a measure of Patience as might bear up the soul in the greatest pressures that though they were afflicted they might not be broken in their afflictions Thus you have the duty opened Let Patience have her perfect work The reason is that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing That you may be intire Some understand it thus that you may be intire in respect of every grace in respect of all gracious habits that you may have one grace as well as another that as you have knowledge and faith so you may have Patience too that which is so necessary a grace for a Christian as well as any other Others by intireness here and wanting nothing think that the Apostle meant this that they might have that which might supply comfort to their souls in all their wants A man is then said to want nothing when he is content and satisfied with that estate wherein he is as if he had all things So David when Ziglag was burnt his Wives carried away captive his souldiers began to mutiny and threaten him yet nevertheless he seemed to want nothing when he could comfort himself in the Lord his God Godliness is great gain but how with contentment that is there is such a sufficiency with contentment of heart as if a man had the things he wants So then hear is the thing that you may be intire in respect of all gracious habits necessary to the beeing of a Christian that you may have that inward store and supply of comfort that may support your hearts in all outward wants Thus you have the meaning of the words The parts are two An exhortation to duty An argument to enforce that exhortation The duty whereto they are exhorted is that they should be perfect in Patience let Patience have her perfect work The Argument whereby they are perswaded to this duty is that they may be intire and wanting nothing that they may have all that is necessary to a Christian We will observe two Conclusions hence which we shall follow at this time The first is this That Patience is necessary to the perfection of a Christian Or A Christian is not perfect without patience The second is this That every Christian should strive for a perfection of degrees of Patience Or that a Christian must labour to attaine the highest degree and perfection in Patience These two Conclusions we
present calamities of a mans life For crosses of any kind in name state freinds or families or in whatsoever a man hath or goeth about they may all be reduced to this one head when a man cometh from a state of health to a state of sickness from a state of comfort to a state of sorrow from acquaintance and society to be as a Pelican in the wilderness as David speaks destitute of all freinds and helps from inward rejoycing in his heart in the assurance of Gods love to spiritual disertions wherein he seemeth to be as in a cloud under the frowns of God When a man is in this case how shall he exercise Patience how shall he come to it Briesly the way for a man to get patience in such cases as these is this First to consider that there is no change in my life there is no condition whatsoever that I am cast into but it is ordered by God Set thy soul awork now to give God his glory in that change of thy life First give God the glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion Secondly give him the glory of his wisdome Thirdly give him the glory of his mercy in those changes of thy life that seem most grievous to thee First I say give him the glory of his absolute soveraignty Acknowledge him an absolute in-dependant Lord that doth what he will among the creatures His will is the rule of all his actions upon the creatures here below and uncontroul'd unquestionable It is high arrogancy and presumption and pride of spirit for the creature to contest with his Creator concerning his actions on earth Let every man reason thus I must give God the glory of his Soveraignty and acknowledge that he hath power and right to rule all the families of the earth and why not mine as well as another Why not my person as well as anothers Why not to order all the changes of my life as well as another mans That which Benhadad spake proudly to Ahab thy silver and thy gold thy wives and thy children and thy house and thy Citie are mine That may God speak truely and by right All that thon hast and all that thou art is mine therefore give him that glory that Job did in the change of his life The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord that gave hath right to take what he will There is nothing that will keep the creature in his due place but the consideration of Gods absolute soveraignty This consideration was that that meekned the spirit of Eli when that heavy message was brought to him that there should come such misery upon his house that whosoever heard it both his eares should tingle well saith he It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good It is the Lord and it becometh not servants to stand and contend with their Lord. So David when the Priests offered him their service to go along with him to the field from Absolom If saith he I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back to Jerusalem and his tabernacle but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Here was that that humbled the spirit of David when he considered that he was under the hands of an absolute Lord let the Lord do with me what seemeth him good Secondly as thou must give him the glory of his soveraignty so of his wisdome Know that God ordereth all his wayes with wisdome and counsel he knoweth what is good for his children Ye are content when ye are sick that the Physitian should diet ye because ye account him wise and one that hath skill in that course If God diet thee for the purging out of some corruption and for the curing of some spiritual disease in thy soul submit to God in this case be willing to resigne thy self up to be ordered by him A man that hath a Gangreen or such a dangerous disease in his body submitteth to the Surgeon in his course though it be to the cutting and sawing off a limb though it be never so painful and the losse be never so great yet he is for the saving of his life willing to have that taken away God is a wise God that knoweth what estate is best for thee not onely when tryals are better than comforts but what one kind of tryall is better then another it may be it is better to exercise one with poverty another with disgrace another with spiritual trouble another with restraint of liberty which particular tryall is necessary to cure that disease and which this that is in my soul the heavenly Physitian will bring that upon thee as a spirituall prescription and a heavenly course that he takes in insinite wisdome to cure thee Lastly give him in all this the glory of his mercy What hast thou lost but thou maiest have lost a great deal more What dost thou suffer but thou maiest have suffered a great deal more As Alcibiades when he was told that one had stollen half his plate I have cause faith he rather to be thankeful that he took no more then to be troubled that he took so much I am sure it is true of God in this case what hath God took from thee some part of thy estate some friend some comfort of thy life some one or other particular comfort could he not have done more He afflicteth thee in thy body he might have afflicted thee in thy soul and a wounded spirit who can bear He hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soul into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meek heart and willing spirit to God as a merciful God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their own houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Jeremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added grief to his sorrow What grief was that that He must go to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions comes upon thee they might have been greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give
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
yet Abel was the first that died Adam committed the transgrestion the elder son was Cain the second Abel in the course of nature the eldest should have gone first but Abel righteous Abel that was the moyty the half of his comfort and the greater half though the younger Adam sinneth first and yet righteous Abel dieth first He gives the reason to be this because God would let us see in the Portal of death the table of the Resurrection he would shew us the linnaments of the Resurrection in the first man that dieth that righteous Abel is took away that we should be assured that he was but translated there was hope of the Resurrection confirmed even in his death But yet that is not all the reason I conceive that is more proper to this is righteous Abal dieth first to shew that even righteous and merciful men must not expect immunity from death and from suffering tribulation in this world it is the condition that befalleth Abel the righteous as well as Cain the Pharisee It belongeth to faithful Abraham as well as to Apostatizing Gemas to beloved Jacob as well as to rejected Esau to meek Moses as well as to cursing Shemei to Deborah the Prophetess as well as to usurping Athaliah to devout Josiah as well as to impious Ahab to tender-hearted David as well as to churlish Nabal to the humble Publican as well as to the vaunting Pharisee It is the law and rule that is set to all there is no exemption righteousness piety and works of mercy then do not exempt Eor if they could exempt how should piety have the reward when should godliness come to the full recompence It is death that makes way to the hope of reward And if it be so that righteousness excuseth not then neither honour nor strength nor beauty nor riches can excuse in the world for these are of far less prevalency with God then piety So the Argument standeth strongly If Job died that was a merciful man if Abel was taken away that was a righteous man look to other conditions then Casar that is the Princes of the world shall be cut off their state and pompe shall not keep them then Cressus that is the rich men of the world shall die their purse and plenty shall not excuse them then Socrates that is the prudent and learned men of the world their wisdom shall not prevent it then Helena that is the Minnions of the world the decking of their bodies and their beauty and painting shall be setched off they will expose them to death they shall not free them then Sampson that is the strong men of the world those that are healthy of able parts likely to out-live nature their strength shall not excuse them that no man should glory in any thing without Neither the strong man in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his wealth but if he glory in any thing to glory in the Lord. Though we must not boast our selves of piety yet as the A postle saith yea have compelled me If a man may boast of any thing it is of piety that is rejoyce in this If God have made a man a vessel of mercy and an instrument of doing any good but otherwise to boast of it even that shall be the stain and further disgrace of it for righteousness it self excuses not from death all are subject to the same law that is the first observation Mercifull men are taken away as well as others Secondly there is a difference in the manner though they be subject to death yet it is a subjection under another subjection Death is made subject to them they conquer Death So both stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both laws are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shall die the death there is the reward of sin the law of promise that is kept thou shall live for ever there is the reward of righteousness Mortality giveth the reward to sin immortality to piety Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporary death Taking away is not a final translation it doth not implie a nullity Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not grace It is true there is the sharp Axe of death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it a funder It is a great knot that was first knit between the body and the soul it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a natural bond and union between Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civil union between friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the mystical union between the head and the members between Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But look as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostatical union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immoratlity and eternity yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the mistical Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that mistical Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soul and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barn the Corn in his ground is of no less value and account then that in his house and Barn Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barn shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many he receiveth but that which is in the ground multipiles therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle faith for immortality The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walk up and down in the world and glorisie him with works of piety why the body is sown to immortality there is still somewhat of Christ That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference between these two to be snatched away
we rise and every night we go to bed but especially when we see some harbingers of death sent unto us then to have nothing to do but with our blessed Lord Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And with Saint Steven Lord Jesus receive my spirit And next to this let me put in also Mercy Charity Die forgiving one another Thus our Lord taught us to do when he cried out Father forgive them for they know not what they do And Saint Steven taught us to do so too Lord lay not this sin to their charge And then lastly for I cannot stand upon these things there must be a death in Peace Peace with God Peace with our own consciences and Peace with all the world And now the man that dieth thus dieth with willingness dieth in repentance dieth in faith dieth with invocation dieth in charity dieth in peace this man dieth in the Lord and such a one is blessed They that would thus die in him must live in him A man cannot be said to die in London that never lived in London A man cannot be said to die in the Lord that never lived in the Lord. If thou dost not live in obedience in faith in repentence in invocation in charity in peace thou canst not die in these A man must first live the life of the righteous before he can die the death of the righteous And then again if a man would die thus He must be well acquainted with death grow familiar with him by meditation Many things more I might have said to this purpose but I am loath to transgress the hour I have done with that Give me only leave now to speak in a few words unto the present occasion You have brought here beloved the body of your well-beloved neighbour Mistris S.H. late the Wife of your late reverent Pastour Doctor R.H. to be laid up together with her Husband in hope of a blessed and glorious resurrection It is long since that I did in this Place perform this service at the buriall of his former Wife a woman of whom I may not speak for though I hold my peace the very stone here in the wall will say enough of her and you that know her cannot but assure the truth of it I am intreated to perform now the like duty to the second Wise And I was easily intreated to do it for that name of brother and sister that was usually between us for many years continued may very well challenge of me any duty I am able to perform I am straitned in time and I cannot speak what I would and I do perceive already by this that I have spoken that if I should speak much more my passion would not give me leave Let me tell you one thing amongst many others it is a thing extraordinary and it is for imitation The Vertuous woman in the last of the Proverbs is commended for many things Amongst others this is one She doth her husband good and not evil all the dayes of her life And mark it I pray you It is not all the dayes of his life and yet peradventure some woman might be thought a good woman that doth that but she may perhaps outlive her Husband A vertuoks woman will do him good and not evil all the dayes of her life And for this amongst many other things I do commend this vertuous Gentlewoman I may almost say with the words there in the end of that Chapter Many daughters have done excollently but thou surmountest them all So I may say many women peradventure have done excellently in this kind but I do not know of any one that ever hath done the like to her Husband I pray you hear it Her Husband had a brother that lived in Portugal at the time of his death who was there married he had there three children at least two sons and a daughter This vertuous good Woman would give her self no rest till she had these children out of Portugal she got the two sons hither And what was her care here is another exceslency of hers her chief care was for their souls What did she or rather what did she not to win those children from Popery in which they have been brought up and to bring them to the true service of God She obtained it she got it When she had done that won them to our religion she had not done all one of these had a desire to exercise some Merchandise by Sea She furnished him to the Sea she furnshed him with money for his adventures The other she bound Apprentise here in the City to an honest trade and she hath given them a liberall childes portion I may say so A childs portion that they may thank God and I hope they will have the grace to do it that they had I do not say such a Aunt in law but such a Mother Here was not all She sent for the Mother too she was but sister-in-law to her Husband she sent for the mother she sent for the Daughter they were here She clothed them she fed them some moneths and if she could have won them to our religion she would have maintained the Mother while she had lived she would have brought up the Daughter as her own child But that could not be done it was a work beyond her strength You see here a vertuous Woman that did good to her Husband not all the dayes of his life but all the dayes of her life To the very last day of her life she never did cease to do good to her Husband in his kindred and I think I may say that she was more careful of his kindred then of her own But this is not all This kindness you will say was shewed to her Husbands kindred Hear a little more therefore She knew that there were many Ministers that had a great charge of children and peradventure would be very glad to have some of their children taken off of their hands She hath given to the putting out of five Ministers children to bind them Apprentices fifty pounds She knew that there were some poor persons of the Palatinate here which stood in necessity She hath given to the reliese of them twenty pounds She knew that there were many poor souls that lay in Turkish slavery She hath given for the redeeming of them twenty pounds Nay yet more She considered that her Husband was sometime a poor scholler in the University of Cambridge And she considered too that there are many Ministers Widowes that lived well while their husband lived that are fain to crave reliefe the greater is the shame of some men when they are dead She hath therefore given five hundred pounds to purchase lands and with this land to maintaine partly two Schollers in the University from their first coming thither till they be Masters of Art And then with the residue to maintaine four Widows that have been the Wives of honest preaching Ministers
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
Nation or Kingdom it is an infallible sign of judgement falling upon it And is must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it cometh or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must befall men and places when they are under this carnal security First look to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall do well It proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sin should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they go on in a course of sinning against God Durst they add drunkenness to thirst one wickedness to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that he hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear prepared an Ark. He beleeved the word of God was faithful that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Ark for the safety of him and his house and therefore he feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Ark. So likewise Josiah when he read the book of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sins of the people his heart melted within him and why because he beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sins wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a discription of a beleever in Isa 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what is the reason why infidelity doth presently bring judgements upon men The cause is apparant infidelity it draweth men from God An unbeleeving heart departs from the living God And when a man departs from Gods presence God pursueth him with his judgments All the judgements of God are upon that place where Gods presence in his graces is not If I go faith David to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there if I go into the deep thou art there And how there Not only as an observer but as a punisher that is when men come to this point to flie from God Now unbeleef is a drawing of the soul from God to the creature therefore it provokes God for it sets up an Idol in the heart of man and Idolatry exceedingly provokes God and therefore he bringeth judgements upon it Beside that marke the threatning of the word against this Deut. 29. When a man heareth the words of this curse and blesseth himself and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart the Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the plagues that are written in this book shall be heaped on him When is that when is the time that the wrath of God shall smoak At that very time and instant when he flattereth himself with his vain conceits that he shall have peace though God threaten judgement then at that very instant the wrath of God shall fall upon such a man In this manner did God deal with the Israelites in Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and why so that they may see and not perceive that they may hear and not understand lest they should be converted and I should heal them How long shall this be saith the Prophet till the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate When God giveth over a people to be regardless in hearing the Word that they hear and do not hear ken they hear and do not regard they do not comforme and reform according to the doctrine delivered then God intendeth to sweep them away by judgement that they may be utterly left desolate as the Text saith You see then it must needs be a grievous fore-runner of a judgement upon a place or City or people or nation when they remain impenitent in their sins and yet cry peace Again secondly If you marke the concommitants what accompanies that carnal security in the heart of men and it will appear then that it must of necessity bring a judgement upon a Land and place What is that that accompanies it A disposition slighting of God himself When a man I say heareth the Word the judgements threatned heareth the Law warning him to take heed of wrath the Gospel alluring him to repent and yet all moveth him not but still he flattereth himself I say here is a disposition slighting God himself God in all his Attributes is slighted His power his wisdom his justice his truth is slighted yea his mercy and patience and long-suffering all are slighted when a man in the course of sin goeth on in carnal security Especially amongst the rest this is a slighting of Gods patience and long-suffering and forbearance of men Wherefore do men harden themselves against exhortation to repentance but because they presume upon the continuance of Gods long-suffering toward them Mark how the Lord takes notice of this The forbearance and long-suffering the goodness and mercy of God should lead thee to repentance and therefore God hath forbore thee all this while that he might bring thee to repentance But what if he do not Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart heapest up as a treasure to thy self wrath against the day if wrath What day is that The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if he should say Now you obscure Gods justice and righteousness from others and from your selves Well God therefore will take a time to declare his righteous judgement for that purpose God hath a day of wrath and thy daily going on in sin against the long-suffering and patience of God it doth but add wrath to that day Thus it is when God hath borne with a man his own self So it is likewise when God warneth a man by his patience toward others What hardneth men in security Do we not see God hath been merciful to many sinners why may he not be so to me too He gave them repentance after many sins committed why may he not do so to me Mark what Solomon faith Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer or an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in
as it is in the Revelation that the time is now come too neer He that is filthy let him be filthy still that is let him go on to the end It is evident and apparent that sin is increased since the sickness it is apparent that our sins are aggravated though they are dayly cryed down And now at this time as if we would defie God to his face and call upon him to hasten his judgments upon our Land upon our Families and persons every one strives as it were who shall outdare him most in our excesses in impenitency in hardning our selves in a course of sin These things convince us of our security There are many more that might be named if the time would permit But put these together and they may shew us our wretchedness When we consider how little we have profited by judgments how little we have profited by the ordinances how full of vain confidence and idle dreames how notwithstanding all these we abound still in wickedness and there is no reformation of our hearts and lives what may we not conclude against ourselves If ever people were drowned in a drunken security we of all people under heaven are at this time For of all people under heaven we are in a manner the last God hath spared us to the last We have had warning by judgments inflicted upon others for many years together It hath come neerer to us hy degrees it began a far off in Bohemia and then in the Phalatinate and in Germany The Lord would have us see how he cometh to us by degrees by steps that at the last we may meet him by repentance But where is the man that yet gets out of the bed of security that cometh out of his sleep to meet the Lord that comes with a broken heart to beg for forgiveness of his sins past and to beg for mercy for the time to come Well now since it is so that we are convinced by these signs that we are in a carnal and sinful security we see then so many of us at least that are children of the light and of the day what cause we have to be awakened and to do that for others which they will not do for themselves to be more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our souls for our own sins and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgments and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us Is it not a fearful thing that when the Lyon roareth the beasts of the Forrests tremble Yet the God of heaven roareth against the world at this day and the proud hearts of men do not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the forrests be afraid of the Lyon more then the poor worms of the earth of the mighty God of heaven and earth But this is the horrible Atheisme and Infidelity that is in the hearts of men that they beleeve not Gods power and justice nor his threatnings I beseech you let every man be exhorted to stirre up his soule to this business to awaken himselfe in his own particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough be you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Be sober and watchful saith Saint Peter for your adversary the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your own Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soul it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstain as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that war against the soule Do as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemy against them they will be sure to keep their Watch. Beloved you cannot but know that your corruptions are awake you may perceive it in your sleepes and dreames take heed that you be not found in a spiritual sleep that corruption prevail not over you Besides these the enemies of the Church are awake Heretiques are awake every where to bring men from the faith to pervert the faith of many oh be awake to prevent those Besides others are awaken to ransack houses to destroy Cities oh be awake that you may be at peace with the Lord of Hosts the God of Armies that hath all power in his hand to keepe you safe Againe secondly consider the evil of this security you are in of this disposition of heart when you cry peace peace to your selves in the middest of Gods displeasure It is an evil disease a spiritual lethargy That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleep and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spiritual lethargy in this deep sleep of sin at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a sensless disease a disease that takes the senses from the soul and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a sign that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spiritual lethargy it shews not only that sin hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousness and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the means to escape out of it Thou saist saith Christ to the Church of Laodicea that thou art rich and needest nothing and that was the reason she sought not to Christ It is our condition we have knowledg enough therefore we care not for the Ordinances of God We have faith enough and therefore we care not for increasing it though none of us say thus with our tongues yet most of us beleeve thus with our hearts As David saith of the ungodly man the wickedness of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesness of men in the use of the means of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of security that they are in a spiritual lethargy that leadeth to death As it is an evil disease so it causeth much evil It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsel of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When we neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it self Doth not your own experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences somtime by secret incitements as it were a spur upon your hearts hath moved you to duty and to leave your sins How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to perform these duties to walk in the wayes
of God to please him in all things the neglect of those purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardness Again it lettethin Sathan When the unclean spirit is driven out he goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last be returneth from whence he went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himself Alas how many men are there that for a sit in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sin they have grown secure and careless and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleep was in a spiritual slumber and Christ goeth away She seeks him whome her soul loved but she could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleep their hearts it may be are awake but they walk not with that watchfulness and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thank themselves Christ hath hid himself to teach them to be more watchful And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgments You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their security And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his coming and therefore he eats and drinks with the drunken what is the issue of it He shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held down with secure thoughts of Gods displeasure and thinks it is at peace with God it is an evident sign that wrath is a coming Nay beloved in that measure you are in carnal security in that measure you are under wrath let that therefore be enough to awaken you and say thus with your selves It were better for me a great deal to be among the number of those that complain and are mourning Christians then to be in the number of those that are full of jollity and joviality that rejoyce and sport themselves that put far from them the evil day I might then escape the wrath of God as they do Who are they that escape wrath See in Ezekiel 9. Those that were awake when others slept those that mourned when others laughed those that humbled themselves before God when others hardned themselves those were the men that were marked in the forehead by the Angel and they escaped And in the third of Malachie Those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name in those evil times that spake oft one to another there was a book of remembrance of them and they are Gods jewels he will be sure to keep them safe But how shall we come to be awakened I should have told you some helps for this I will but touch upon a few in a word First I will propound sobriety as a main help Would you be watchful and kept from spiritual slumber take heed that you keep your selves sober I speak not of sobriety as it is opposed to drunkenness though that be one thing Be not filled with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the holy Ghost Ephes 5 As if he should say you cannot be filled with the holy Ghost and with excess of Wine persons that take liberty in excessive drinking certainly they are destitute of the holy Ghost and so of life and salvation But I mean a further sobriety that is as it is opposed to worldly-mindedness Take heed that you plunge not your selves too much in the world and worldly pleasures and cares for these are against the rule of sobriety Be sober in your diet in your apparel in your gaining in your spending in your mirth in your company in every thing that is moderate your selves and your affections in these things A man may soon grow to such a drunkenness by excesse in worldly affections that he may be in a dead sleep neglecting Gods judgements and his own estate as we see men that plunge themselves in worldly business are It takes away the thoughts of those things that concern our spiritual good I say not that you should leave off the business of the world for every man must continue in the calling that God hath set him But I say moderate your affections to the things of the world Do worldly business with heavenly minds in obedience to God Do them with waking hearts to repent for the sins of your callings to avoide the sins of your callings And that that I say of labouring in your callings I say of pleasures and of every thing else we should be watchful and sober as S. Peter saith Be sober and watch Secondly if you would be free from security which is a forerunner of judgement be sure to keep your selves in exercise A man that would keep himself awake will busie himself in some exercise and imployment or other What exercise should a Christian use The exercise of grace and of the duties of obedience Be sure to keep your selves in the exercise of all the advantages that God giveth you in your lives to imploy your graces in In difficulties and straits exercise your faith In provocations to anger and discontent exercise meekness In crosses and troubles and afflictions exercise patience In the miseries and wants of others whether spiritual or corporal exercise mercy And what I say concerning grace I say concerning duty Keep your selves in the exercise of prayer and reading and meditation and conference some one thing or other some holy employment or other that may keep the soul waking For I tell you you shall find that whensoever you let fall spiritual exercise you will at that very instant fall into carnal security in some kind or other Thirdly would you keep your selves from this dead sleep of carnal security then keep your spirits in fear Sorrow and grief makes a man heavy but sear keeps a man waking when Jacob feared Esau he kept a watch that night Sampson feared the Philistims and it wakened him out of his sleep Fear makes a man watchful You may perceive it in your own experience In that measure that the fear of God prevaileth security is expelled Keep fear therefore Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart falleth into evil Mark how he opposeth the hardning of a mans self in carnal security to the fear of God Keep your heart in a constant feare Reason thus Alas shall I do this thing and sin against God
Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I go on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seize upon me in this imployment in this business in this action Fear lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keep a constant watch against the shares that are in those places Fourthly keep good company Company you know is a good means to keep men awake Two are better then one and wo to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keep not company with a froward person lest thou learn his frowardness So keep not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keep a man in carnal security No keep company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Keep company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth help Fifthly would you be kept from this sinful security then keep God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keep himself awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this main object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence faith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keep them from sin in Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himself from God in any secret place Think in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witness he would not venture upon many things that he now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet nevertheless he would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the dark hears you in your most secret whisperings knows every action of your life and every circumstance of those actions This will be a means to keep thee from security I will add but one more which is the sixt Consider thy latter end The night is now coming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou fool this night shall they take away thy soul I think there is none that heareth me this day but he would certainly keep waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spiritual waking a waking from sin a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the door ready to seize upon you We speak not only to you that are aged that are at the brink of the grave but we speak also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain That Church was asleep as many of us are at this day God cometh to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodness you have left may be renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and go on in a course of sin sit now down and humble your souls get into a secret corner wherein you may consess those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccless 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Judgment As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this would know that there will come a Judgment day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us be sober and watch We know not how neer the end of the world is we know indeed it shall not be yet be cause Antichrist must be destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but nevertheless certainly thy end is neer thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular Judgment may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that cometh the Judgment That is the particular Judgment that cometh upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doom Judg your selves now that you may not be Judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sick and weak and many sleep that is they are dead what then If we would Judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. So say I to you judg your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Bar arraign your selves as malefactors before the Judg bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercy the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore do it now I might add many other helps to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present We have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to live securely as men that dream of a long life for many years Here is a young man dead took away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sickness though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sickness you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your security make good
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
equality with the Angels the glory of a Kingdome worthy a tear a groan a sigh a fast are they now so contemptible or mean that no violence is requisite with what face shall we appear before our Saviour at his Tribunal when he shall demand of us his tears his watchings and fastings when he shall say unto us were are my tears are they water spilt upon the ground not to be gathered up Where are my sighs and groans have they vanished in the ayr where are my watchings what not a tear for so many tears not a fast for so many fasts not a groan for so many miseries which I indured Had I shed but one tear should it not have broken up a fountain of tears in thee Had I setched but one sigh should it not have made thy life a perpetual sigh But when I have done so much for thy sake shall it be lost wilt thou do nothing for thy own self shall I cast so much seed into the ground and reap nothing again Oh my beloved what are all our afflictions what are all the afflictions of our selves to the least drop of gall that he tasted to the least scourge which he suffered how can we say that either we loved God or our selves if we do not these things in testimony of this If ye shall not perform these duties it is a small comfort for us that we have freed our souls it is your salvation we thirst after and say in a better sense then the King of Sodome Da nohis animas Give us your souls and without this we have no comfort we may be acquitted at the bar of God but we shall not be crowned in his Throne for what is our crown but you that hear us but if you shall thus groan as I doubt not but you do in secret it is not I but God himself hath promised that they that sow in tears shall reap in joy that they which mourn here shall be comforted hereafter that they which groan here shall be refreshed in their proper house In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven Which God of his infinite mercy grant c. THE CARELESSE MERCHANT OR THE WOFUL LOSSE OF THE PRECIOUS SOUL SERMON XXII MATT. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul THe Patriarch Jacob in his vision at Bethel saw the Angels of God ascending and descending Gen. 28. So from the thirteenth verse of this Chapter we have the Disciples of Christ ascending and descending For first their general speaker Simon Peter had made a notable confession of our Saviours Divinity and had received for the further incouragement of himself and his brethren such an excellent testimony from our Saviour that the Angels of heaven might behold observe and imbrace Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee but my father which is in heaven and I say thou art Peter and on this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Which words were not only appropriate to him they were spoken to him but they were common to all the Apostles For as Origen argues shall we think that the gates of hell prevailed not against Peter but did a gainst the rest Therefore that which was said to him was said to all and being such a glorious commendation behold the Angels ascend But secondly what if the earthly mind of man dream of a Messias temporal and that they must be promoted to places of eminency and stiled gracious Lords the case is too palpable for if Christ warn his Disciples and tell them of his approaching death at Jerusalem he shall be sure to meet with a check no such matter it shall not be so to thee Oh! here is a strange metamorphise a sudden alteration before a Confessor and now a controller there is no wisdome of the spirit in this and therefore no commendation for this but because he was somewhat too forward get the behind me for thou art an offence to me behold the Angels descend And surely this carnal wisdome had been able to weigh them down to the nethermost hell had not the wisdomâ—… of the wisest curbed and subdued and restrained it What not suffer Yes Peter also must suffer and all that will follow Christ must renounce all the inticements of the world and mortifie all the corrupt exorbitancies of the flesh and resist all the temptations of the Divel For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his soul Which words are an exaggeration of the woful estate of a temporizing Professor of a carnal Gospeller and they reach to our consideration these four generals First the excellency and worth of mans soul which is of greater value then the whole world Secondly the possiblity of the loss a man may lose his own soul Thirdly the compossibility of outward prosperity he may lose his soul in gaining the whole world And then lastly the woful bargain in such an exchange What is a man profited Of these in order First of the surpassing excellency and dignity of mans soul it is valued and prized here above the whole world It was the plausible conceit of certain Ehilosophers that the world was a great man and that man was a little world a little world indeed but as Saint 〈◊〉 rearms him a great wonder for within this little world there is a reasonable soul worth all the world To render an exact definition of the soul it requires the tongue of an Angel rather then of a man it passes the comprehension of travellers to apprehend the nature of the soul for these three God Angels and mans Soul they are unknown to us we may sooner admire their excellency then conceive their nature and argue of their opperations then attain their knowledge of such sublimity is the soul of man so Angelical and Divine the excellency whereof is commended to us by three distinct voyces of Nature Grace Glory For first in the order of nature it is the greatest thing saith Plato that we may conceive in a narrow room the most noble thing that all the frame of nature affords and that In respect of the Orignal In respect of the Image In respect of the Original the soul of man hath no beginning here 〈◊〉 there was no voyce directed to the earth or to the water for the production of 〈◊〉 soul but a serious confultation of the sacred Trinity and a breathing into his 〈…〉 the breath of life Saith Saint Austin he created it by infusion and 〈…〉 creation And the Philosopher well concludes that the soul as it is not from without it is only divine Therefore the Manichees extolled it too high when they deemed it a portion of Gods substance let not others abase and depresse it too low to think it is derived
he was out of the way the Angel watcheth him and catcheth him in this corner and in that corner he could go into no corner but the Angel with his drawn sword was ready to meet him and to slay him And the Apostle saith of those that were led away by false teachers Their damnation sleepeth not Gods judgments are alway waking thou maist sleep on both sides in sin but Gods justice sleepeth not And thou that art the Lords if thou sleep know that correction and chastisement sleepeth not and they will awake thee thou wert better to awake by slighter means To conclude all consider that all of us there is no man upon the earth but we are all going to meet the mortal sleep of death and if we shall when that meets us have our own consciences tell us that we have also a spiritual sleep within us that we carry a spiritnal sleep to meet that mortal sleep what a miserable and mournful state will that be when the heart of man or woman that is coming to die shall say and speak aloud and witness against his Master O thou hast been a sluggish and sleepy Christian thou hast had good means but thou hast not kept thy watch thou wouldest sleep do what the exhortations of the Word could thou wouldest be a drowsie Christian Hence it comes to pass that so many when on their death-bed they come to grapple with that mortal sleep and then conscience porclaims against them then they cry Oh that I had but one day but one hour more that I might waken and strengthen the things that are ready to die and that it might be better with me then it is But alas now their short day is past and one perpetual night to come and now it is too late as it proves many times Therefore let not time go but know that that mournful day must come upon us we must meet that mortal sleep Let us labour to shake off spiritual sleep drowsiness of spirit and make our peace in the mean time that conscience may witness with us and for us at the day of death and judgment Let us labour to be watchful and desire to be ready for the Lord and to have our accounts ready for him This shall suffice for the words Now for our occasion because this is my first occasion of this kind I must enter with a preface and that is this that as I have ever been in the course of my ministery so I shall be very sparing in the praise of the dead because I know that these exercises are appointed for the instructing of the living and the consolation of those that survive and not for the praise and commemoration of the dead Besides I know and see by daily experience every where how few there be that in their life time deserve the praise of Religion in their death For my part I never did nor never will gild a rotten post or a mud wall or give false witness in praising to give the praise of Religion to those that deserve it not I desire those of my congregation would make their own Funeral Sermons while they be living by their vertuous life and conversation As the Apostle saith He hath not praise that is praised of meh but he that is praised of God THE RIGHTEOUS MANS RESTING-PLACE OR AFENCE AGAINST UNNECESSARY FEARS SERMON XXVII GEN. 15.1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and they exceeding great reward THe tender mercy of God is seen in nothing more than in afflicting his own people for he proportions his castisements not to our deserts but to our streugth and you shall ordinarily observe where Almighty GOD laies a heavy affliction he gives an extraordinary assistance when he leads any of his people through a hot fire he is with them in extraordinary manner This holy Saint Abraham as he was the Father of the Faithful so he was a pattern to all the faithful in both these both in his tryals and in Gods assistance There was never any man called to more tryals than he to leave his Country and his Kindred and his Fathers house and after to sacrifice his own Son And there was never any man more assisted from God as we see in those many apparitions that God vouchsafed him Comforting him sometimes in Dreams and Visions Sometimes he appeared to him in an admirable and most friendly manner talking with him as a man doth with his Friend One of them are in this Chapter The Lord appeared to Abraham and comforted him in the midst of his tryals and troubles Where you may see an admirable incouragement that God gives to his servant Abraham You may note First the incouragement it self that is not to fear Secondly note the time when God gave him this incouragement when he had encountred with those Kings immediatly before as we see in Chapter 14. And when he was to encounter with many evils and troubles after then the Lord appeared to him Thirdly note the manner how God is pleased to reveal this comfort that is by way of vision God appeared by vision Fourthly note the ground of this comfort and incouragemeat that God gives him and that is taken from a twofold Argument First what God was to him in regard of any evils that he did feel or fear he was his shield to bear them off Secondly in regard of all the good things that Abraham could lose in the world an exceeding great reward he would be to him all in all So you see this portion of Scripture affords plentiful matter for instruction and consolation All that I will speak of at this time I will wind up in this proposition that is that They that are in covenant with God and labour to keep his covenant as faithful Abraham was and did they may be a people without all carnal and inordinate fear For Abraham felt much and had just cause to expect more but in the middest of all God appeared to him and bid him he should not fear And what was spoken to Abraham is spoken to us for he was the Father of the faithful and they that are of the faith with Abraham are blessed with him So then the blessing of Abraham and all the incouragements that were given to him they belong not to him only but to all that are the spiritual seed of Abraham to all the faithful so that the Proposition is not limitted to him but extends to all A Doctrine if ever needful it is now We know how it is with all men that are out of Covenant with God Adam as soon as he had sinned he runs from God he was afraid and hid himself from the face of God so every unregenerate man is except his conscience be ignorant in a dead sleep and cauterized for he seeth God on the one side a revenging Judge and he knows himself on the other side to be guilty and
iniquity with God Therefore certain it is that after regeneration this original lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sin it remains the substance of it still remains and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the Ivy is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it self that it can never be quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soul be taken a sunder by death there will be no total riddance of Original corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appears by the temporal death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shews there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sin there would not be the wages of sin there would not be death if there were not sin Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin they teach some sins to be venial that is such sins as in their own nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sin in general he saith the wages thereof is death And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the transgression of the Law and Saint John defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthy of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are witten in the book of the Law to do them There is no sin then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such venial sin as they dream of We deny not but that some sins are venial and some mortal in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are venial because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them venial for otherwise every sin in it self considered be it never so small is mortal for if it work according to its own nature it works death of body and soul It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equal and that we bring in with the Stoicks a parity of sin because we say all are mortal It is a foolish cavil for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equal bigness Though all sins be mortal they are not all equal some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundry other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its own nature be mortal as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sin is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby we should call to remembrance the grievousness of sin that brought it into the world by the woful wages we should be put in mind of the unhappy service Had there not been sin there would have been no death upon the death of the soul came in the death of the body first the soul died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soul the soul forsook God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheat he said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou feest Death seize upon any say to thy self sin hath done this this is the wages of sin and if man had never sinned we should have seen no such thing Fourthly this must deter us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitful and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sin is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be fair but the evening will be foul when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the stream is sweet but it ends in brackishness and bitterness Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great chear and jollity and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Jacob he entertains him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Joh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sin gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keep us from every sin though it seems never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come We read that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eat though they were exceeding hungry yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sin by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part do but take it as Jacob took Esau by the heel look to the extream part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not do amiss Jezabel might have allured a man when having painted her face she looked out of the window but to look upon her after she was cast out eaten of doggs and nothing remaining but her extream parts her scull and the palms of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sin may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extream parts it would then affright and deter him for the wages the end of
man that gives a thing upon merit he gives it not freely I answer it is free in respect of us whatsoever Christ hath done we did not merit it If it be replyed Christs merits are made ours and we merit in him and so it cannot be free I answer this reason were of force if we our selves could procure the merits of Christ for us but that we could not do but that also was of free gift Ioh. 3. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that he that beleeves in him should not perish he gave him freely of free gift so that though eternal life be due to us by the merits of Christ yet it is the free gift of God I will stand no longer in proving the truth of the Doctrine I come to the application and use to conclude with the time First it serves to confute our adversaries of the Church of Rome in the point of merit They look for heaven and eternal life as wages we see the Apostle teacheth us otherwise that eternal life is not given in that manner but another manner of way It is not given as wages it is the free gift of God And in Rom. 8. he saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed all our sufferings all our works they are not worthy of the glory of God we connot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when we are justified and an eternal life when we are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternal life is not a retribution to our works but the free gift of God When God crowns our merits he crowns nothing else but his own free gift these and many other sentences we find among the ancient Fathers plainly convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not only from Scripture but from all sound antiquity Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our own deservings do all the good thou canst take heed it do not puff thee up think not to merit heaven alas thou canst not do it for what is it to the Almighty as it is said in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst do him no good therefore thou canst look for nothing at his hands since thou canst do him no good but all that thou dost in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to do it but all thou canst do is no more then thou art bound to do Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy self to bean unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good works yet thou hast more sin and the least sin of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeal must be to the throne of grace and thy only plea must be that of the Publican every one of us God be merciful to me a sinner when we have done all we can it must be mercy and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternal life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gist it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then we could have no certainty of it the devil would easily pick the Lock yea without picking he would shake in pieces the crazy joynts of the best work we do he would steal it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us he hath kept it in his own hands he hath laid it up in the Cabinet of his own mercy and love that never fails for with everlasting mercy he hath compassion on us Isa 54. he loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not and whom he loves he loves to the end It is laid up in the mercy of God he will have it his gift lest we should keep it and it should be lost he hath reserved it in his own hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternal life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is wary to discern and faithful to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternal life is the free gift of God it must make us thankful to him for it which we should never do if we deserved it doth a master thank his servant for doing his duty So if we did think heaven were our due we should never be thankful for it Pride is a great enemy to thankfulness therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that we deserve no good thing at Gods hands then we will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankfully Especially when we consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou do Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankful to him is all the tribute we are to pay to this our royal Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thanks We set eternal life at too low a rate if we forget to be thankful There was never a precious Jewel afforded so cheap as eternal life for our thankfulness If we did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants said to him concerning his washing in Jordan if the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternal life we should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankful be but thankful Thus I have described to you this twofold service the wages of sin that is death temporal eternal The service of righteousness the wages and reward of that eternal life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30.19 Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sin nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seed may live If we follow sin the wages will be death if we apply our selves to righteousness in the
thing or other and therefore it was thus with him Nay Christ himself the censure of all men was thus much concerning Christ himself We did esleem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted The intent of the phrase is as one smitten for his own ill as if God had now manifested that he did not acknowledge him to be so holy and righteous So thus you see the inclination in the heart of man to uncharitable jndging of those that God hath cast down and suffers to be exercised under many afflictions and troubles Let us learn then spiritual wisdome let us learn love and spiritual mercy to judge more favourably of the state of those whom we see troubled in spirit Many times God infeebleth and distresseth the spirits of his best servants to abate the pride of men that none might exalt himself before God Nay in the very thing wherein they have excelled in the same thing he sometimes abaseth them you see Abraham he is called the Father of the faithful his excellency was his faith yet faithful Abraham is detected in Scripture of much unbelief in some particulars Who would think that he should expose Sara as he did to save himself that he should do it that was called the Father of the faithful you have heard saith the Apostle James of the patience of Job the very excellency of Job was his patience who would think that ever patient Job should utter such things as he did sometime even cursing the very day of his birth David a man of a chearful spirit a man full of the praises of God a man wonderous large when he comes to speak of the glory of God at several times A man would have thought him of an invincible fortitude and courage yet nevertheless you shall have David so cast down as that he thinks the Lord had forgotten him and that the Lord would shew no mercy upon him that the Lord had hid himself from him and that he would never regard him more who would think that ever David that abounded so in the comforts of the spirit sometimes should be so dejected at such times as those were when he was in such a conflict Why doth God do this To shew thus much that the very best of his servants in the chief of their excellencies are dependant on him still they have nothing of themselves or from themselves Therefore they shall sometimes seem to want that they have that the very having and using of it may be ascribed to his glory Then let us now reason thus when we see the servants of God in trouble exercised under disquiet Let us conclude now God is glorifying himself This the Apostle infers He will rejoyce in his infirmities because the power of Christ is manifested by it For our selves it should teach us according to the intent of this place above all things to labour that our hearts may be kept in that blessed plight of spiritual joy that we may be strengthened with freeness of heart to serve God in our inward man Let not your hearts be troubled How should this be done The Text tells us here and so I come briefly to the second thing observable in the Text the means you beleeve in God saith he beleeve also in me As the words are read in the translation they seem to be uttered by way of concession as much as if Christ had said since yon already beleeve in God now beleeve in me The Syriack seems to express it otherwise and so render it by way of command and to make here an intimation of two duties as a help of quieting the heart and so it reads it Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God beleeve also in me propounding a twofold object where-about faith should be exercised that the heart may be quieted in the time of any trouble The first is God considered in the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence The second is Christ Mediator God and Man Now saith he beleeve in God that is the first rest upon God Then the second is beleeve in me also as one that is the Mediator between God and you now making your peace with God So the second part seems to be the prevention of an objection For when he saith Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God they might say Alas shall we beleeve in God that are sinful men The sinners in Sion cry out Who shall dwell with consuming fire c. Therefore saith Christ beleeve also in me that is know that God will be your God in and for my sake he is reconciled and well pleased with you Therefore in all your approaches to God take me with you look up to God pray to him depend upon God through me still keep me as a Mediatour between God and you and this will preserve your hearts in peace The time would not serve if I should go over things particularly and in a full way Therefore I will touch the heads of things and it shall be thus much that A special means to preserve the heart of man from excessive sorrow and fear from trouble and disquiet of spirit is faith Let not your hearts be troubled But how shall we help it Beleeve in God beleeve also in me And this we shall see through the Scriptures David found it thus Psal 40. he speaks to his disquieted soul Trust in God I will wait on him he is my God Jehoshaphat in that excellent speech to his Souldiers that were now troubled for the multitude of their enemies against them Beleeve in God and you shall prosper beleeve his Prophets and you shall be established that is the way to stablish the heart to beleeve in God revealing himself in his Word It is noted of Moses in Heb. 11.27 He therefore endured all that he did because he looked on him that is invisible And those three companions of Daniel Dan. 3. Our God say they whom we serve is able to help us but if he will not we will not worship thy golden Image There was matter of trouble and disquiet in the heart to be put to such a plung that they must either worship or be cast into the Furnace heated seven times hotter Well this eased them of all trouble and disquiet they knew whom they have trusted and he was able to keep that that was committed to him to the coming of Christ As Saint Paul expresseth it with which he also rested abundantly satisfied On the other side the want of this hath been the cause of that perplexity and disquiet that hath been upon the hearts of Gods servants at all times That was the reason that Abraham was so disturbed and disquieted in that fear of what should be done to him in Egypt certainly he failed in this in resting upon God Moses was wondrously troubled when the Lord bad him go to Pharaoh and deliver Israel out of Egypt saith he Lord send by him whom thou shouldest send I am a
we must part and in this respect a man who wants a lively faith may acquit himself in a tryal when he sees that floods of tears will not help him specially when he sees it is past recovery he resigns up a comfort when he can keep it no longer he will part with a blessing when he cannot avoid it But then there is a pious acquitting of our selves when God calls for a comfort back the hand of Faith presents the comfor to God again when God calls for Isaac Abraham presently resigns up his beloved Son again upon this ground God is the Lord who gave him and now the Lord calls for him back again I and the Lord shall have him thus Faith acquits the soul in great tryals and joyns with God against all our own contentments to set down with much patience in great losses to submit to Gods call and Gods appointment Now the reasons why Faith can acquit a man in great tryals may be these First Faith can exalt Gods will above all and submit our wills to Gods will remember this God is the Author of mercy when he will he gives us and when he pleaseth he takes it away again It is well to have abundance saith nature and sence we cannot be without it no saith Faith I will yeeld to Gods will it is good to enjoy this saith Sence it is better to part with it saith Faith when God calls for it Secondly Faith can give God the glory of all outward comforts this is a great occasion of stilling our souls to find out the right owner of our comforts if a man did once discern that by faith that God is the Author of all comfort and that all mercies come from God this would make us submit in the day of tryal this is certain God is the God of our bodies and of our souls and of our comforts who hath more right to a possession then the owner all our comforts are but Gods servants God is the great Land-Lord of heaven and earth the God of all our possessions what if he be pleased to gather a flower we are but tenants at will and whatsoever our outward estate is Faith over-looks all and submits all to God and receives it by Gods permission and doth as it were hear the Lord say I must do what I will with mine own Faith makes a man say nothing is mine own my Child is not mine own my Wife is not mine own it is Gods possession when God calls for it Faith resigns it up as Gods due faith renders unto God the things that are Gods Thirdly Faith can make the soul acquit it self in great tryals because faith finds no loss by obediencial submission for all our unwillingness to resign up and to part with any comfort it doth arise from infidelity or from the stubbornness that is in a person when a man haves and holds his comfort contrary to Gods will or else it doth arise from a conceit that some dammage will redound to our selves â—…parting with such a blessing but faith sees safety enough to yeeld up all into Gods hands who is the Father of mercy and God of all consolation Thus we see Abraham being put to it about his only son he gives up his child his Isaac and God bestows Isaac upon Abraham again nay a further degree of blessing confirmed with an oath In blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven This is ever true faith makes a man give back a blessing with this conclusion either God will continue the comfort to a person or else he will give him more or a better for it Fourthly a fourth reason why Faith can make a man acquit himself in great tryals because Faith can find all losses made up in God alone Faith can find God as a most ample and universal good Faith doth look upon God as a particular good and such a good that answers all again that abundantly makes up all losses There be many broken peeces of comfort that must concur to make up our outward good for our good here below is a compounded good the Wise is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good here below is a compounded good the Wife is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good below but God is all this in himself and much more whatsoever good whatsoever comforts are in a Child a Wife a Husband or in friends in riches in health all that is in God and much more to faith what is that thou seest in a Husband or in a Wife or in a Child that thou mayest not see in God What is that thou findest in a friend that thou mayest not find in God and what is there in riches that thou mayest not have much more in God the Husband can do thee no good without God who can do thee so much good as God the Husband can comfort thee who can comfort thee so much as God a friend may counsel thee and direct thee but he cannot deliver thee Faith sees more in God than in riches more in God then in all outward blessings bring all the outward comforts together they cannot make up a Christians comfort Faith is never satisfied with these things it is not a Child alone nor a Husband alone nor a Wife alone nor a friend alone that makes up a Christians comfort but God alone can do it whatsoever is in any outward comfort Faith find it much more in God God and his favour God and his gracious countenance these make up a Christians comfort this alone supports the Christian and in the want of all things Faith can comfort it self in the favour of God in the loss of all things Faith can find all again in the favour of God This is a fourth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great Tryals A fifth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great troubles because Faith knows upon what terms we possess all these outward comforts upon what small grounds we possess them upon moveable and changeable titles Faith looks upon all these things as upon things that he must part from we have here no abiding City our place and being here is but for a short time and remember this God never bestowed any comfort upon thee and me with an assurance of an immortal possession all the assurance that he hath given thee is nothing all the creature is but vanity it is of a shifting nature and therefore it is said of riches that they do take to themselves wings they skip away honour is soon
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
first degree of his exaltation so this spiritual Resurrection that we have spoken of it is the first degree of a Christians exaltation therefore get this in the first place yea get this and all will follow If thou attain this thou maist be assured of the second Resurrection also to the life of glory Remember that Christ by raising himself from the dead by his own power declared himself to be the eternal Son of God He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his Resurrection So if thou canst by a power and vertue drawn from Christ rise out of the grave of thy sin then thou shalt declare thy self to be the member of Christ the Son of God the daughter of God therefore labour to attain this first Resurrection But here this question may be demanded but by what means now doth Christ convey this spiritual life to his children and how shall I get to be partaker of this Resurrection by what means shall I attain this first Resurrection to this spirituall life To this I answer briefly that by the same means by which Christ works faith in the soul by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life for he that beleeveth liveth and he that liveth beleeveth he that beleeveth is raised to life therefore by the same means that Christ works faith by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life Therefore the outward means is the Preaching of the Word the inward the Spirit of grace By such means as Christ will raise the bodies of the dead at the last day by the like means he now raiseth the souls of those that are dead in sin Now Christ will raise the bodies that are now dead in the Grave at the last day First by his voyce John 5.28.29 and by the sound of the Trumpet 1 Cor. 15.52 The Trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And he shall raise them by his quickning Spirit So by the like means Christ now raiseth our souls that are dead in sins therefore if thou desire to be raised out of the grave of sin let me counsel thee First to attend diligently to the word of God upon the preaching of the Gospel The word of Christ is a quickning word as Christ saith Joh. 3.63 My Word is spirit and life The voyce of Christ is a quickning voyce as Christ by his voyce raised Lazarus out of his Grave when Christ said to Lazarus Come forth presently Lazarus quickned and came forth so the voyce of Christ in the ministery of the Word hath a quickning power to raise sinners from the death of sin therefore when the Ministers cry aloud and the Prophets lift up their voyce as a Trumpet then hearken Secondly be frequent and fervent in Prayer for the Spirit of grace and of Christ before thou hear pray and after thou hast heard pray that the Spirit of Christ may accompany his Word that so this may be a means to awaken and to quicken thee out of thy natural estate and to raise thee out of the death of sin Thou must pray to God to give thee a hearing ear and a believing heart that so the sound of the Word may not be as the sound of a Trumpet in the ears of a dead man but that thou maiest be quickned by the voyce of Christ And though thou have continued a long time in thy sins yet be not altogether discouraged remember that Christ is able to raise thee though thou have continued never so long in thy sins for he that was able to raise Lazarus that was dead and buryed and now stinking in the Grave he is able to raise up thee also In the last place in one word if upon examination thou find thou have attained to this spiritual Resurrection then here is a ground of exhortation To humility To thankfulness Here is a ground of Exhortation to Humility and Thankfulness to joyn them both together because they usually go together the proud person is alway unthankful and the humble man is alway a thankful man Now if thou have attained to the Resurrection thou hast great cause to be humble and to be thankful First thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou hast nothing but that thou hast received thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou puttest not any hand to this work no more than the dead body of Lazarus could help to the raising of him No more then a creature being nothing can help to its own creation no more can a sinner help forward this mork of his Resurrection therefore thou hast cause to be humbled for not puting the least helping hand to this work it is wholly supernatural Therefore let not any one arrogate any thing to the power of his free will but remember the work is wholly supernatural Secondly as we have cause to be humbled so to be thankful too do but consider the desperate and dangerous estate of sin whence thou art raised and then make thy humble confession with the Israelites when they brought their first fruits before God Deut. 26.5 A Syrian ready to perish was my father he went into Egypt with a few and become a Nation mighty and populous and the Lord brought him out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm with terrour and signs and wonders and hath brought us to this place and hath given us this Land even a Land flowing with milk and honey The like deliverance the Lord hath wrought for thee therefore be thankful and make thy thankful acknowledgment with the Psalmist Psal 115. Not unto us but to thy name give the glory And then desire God as he hath by his mercy brought thee to the Kingdome of grace so by his power to preserve thee to the Kingdome of glory And desire Christ as he by his quickning Spirit hath made thee partakers of the first Resurrection to the life of grace so to make thee partaker of the second to the life of glory DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRUIT OF EVES Transgression SERMON XXXVI GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died IT is a Statute law of God that all both Men and Women must die The causes for which it pleased Almighty God to leave the bodies even of his dearest Children under the power of Death to be returned to dust are many First for the manifesting his truth according to that ancient threatning mentioned Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Secondly for the manifestation of his power that by death he may translate his chosen servants to life Sin it was that brought death into the world and God will shew his strength in this that death shall be the utter abolishment even of that very thing which brought it first upon us and made us all lyable to it If there had not been sin there should not have been death and now God will that in those that are his the kingdom and being of sin shall utter
that is onely in the former part and most of all in the latter part only in the former part that straitneth and restratheth our hope most of all in the latter part that inlargeth our misery and so it may well for when the hope is restrained to the present there the misery may be infinitely inlarged But not for the present is our hope only for the present ergo c. I need say no more it is the Text. I shall raise to you six several Consectaries or Corrollaries or Conclusions that naturally arise out of this Scripture and I purpose at this time to run them all through it must be roundly it shall be plainly do you hear patiently The first Assertion we make out of the Text it is this that The faithful are hopeful The godly have hope we have hope that is taken for granted The second concerneth the object of this hope and the Point is this that Christ is the object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ The third is touching the time of our hope and that is for this life the Lesson is this that The life-time it our hope-time We have hope in this life The fourth is that Hope in this life it is not onely of the things of this life Not only of this life for if in this life only we have hope oh no take that away our hope in this life is not onely set upon the things of this life If in this life onely not so Fistly this life you see how that standeth convertible with another term in the Text with misery shewing thus much that This life is miserable The last is that The faithful the hopeful they are not of all the most miserable they are not miserable at all Then were we miserable but the former being not true that cannot be true These are the six Points Of which to content my self with a touch of them as I pass along and so onely to present them severally unto you I begin with the first that The faithful they are hopeful We have hope so are the words Faith is the evidence of things hoped for so saith the Apostle Heb. 11.1 And they that have access through this Grace they rejoyce in hope of the glory of God they go joyned together Hope is a constant expectation of the performance of such promises of God as we apprehend out of his Word by faith For example Faith doth beleeve Gods promises to be true Hope doth expect the performance of them according to that truth By Faith we beleeve God to be our Father by Hope we expect that he should shew himself such a one to us By Faith we do beleeve eternal life by Hope we attend when this life shall be revealed Spe as one speaks what is it else but persever antia sidei the perseverance of Faith Faith is the Mother Hope is the Daughter the Mother is iucouraged and comforted by the daughter as Naomi was by Ruth Hence it is that the holy Apostle Saint Peter he ascribeth the salvation of our souls to our faith saying that the end of our faith is the salvation of our souls Well and Saint Paul he assureth the same to belong unto Hope saying we are saved by Hope So then Faith saith I beleeve these blessed promises of God to be true and Hope faith I see them and I wait for the enjoyment of those things that are reserved for me Thus Faith and Hope are woven one in another Thus the faithful are the hopeful We have Hope That 's the first Point The Use of this Point briefly it shall be but this First to teach us to seek and to find out this Hope in our selves And secondly to strive and to fight against some impediments that oppose themselves and are hindrances of this Hope First thou must go and seek thy self and search out and find whether thou hast this Hope in thee yea or no and thou must be sure that thou beest so far from being a desperate past-hope like Cain that rather thou beleeve and hope above hope with Abraham not presumiug but beleeving as he did Now then how a man may know whether he have this Hope in him or no I think he may find it out thus in few words There are divers temptations and especially three of a mans faith not to enlar ge my self further in every of which Hope if it come in and play its part then it doth appear to be present to be there As for example The first temptation that is a kind of battery against the strong hold of a mans faith it is the prorogation of Gods promises He is pleased to put them off longer and to dispose of them many times other waies then we look for Hereupon we that are weak in Faith we stumble at it and we would hasten them on apace though we know what the Prophet saith He that beleeveth maketh not hast But we are such faithless persons that we hasten on too much and would have God to come apace to make good his promises Now when God defers these promises if a man cometh in with his hope and faith The vision is yet for an appointed time though it tarry wait for that that shall come will come and he will not tarry and though the Lord doth hide himself as it is in the Prophesie of Isaiah yet he will return again If Hope will prompt Faith and tell it that the Lord is not slack as some count slackness but he will make sure his promise in the end then this is a manifest sign to a man that hath his faith thus supported that Hope is present there Here is then one search of it Another time there is another temptation that betideth a faithful man and that comes to pass by Gods appearing in a manner an enemy by visiting him in his soul by wounding his conscience by setting him in a kind of sight of Hell when he is distressed in spirit as if God were now come out as a man of War against him and would not have mercy upon him Now if Hope can come in and say that God cannot forget to be gracious nor cannot shut up his loving kindness in displeasure and therefore I will endure and I will stay on the Lord for He will appear and He will have mercy upon Zion I when the time the appointed time cometh I will stay this time If I say Hope thus perswadeth the faithful man of this goodness of God that shall be revealed to him here is a manifest sign Hope is present There is a third temptation that Faith meets withall and that is concerning the mockings of men in the World when they deride the profession of Christians and faithful men and will say as those profane and profuse fellows in the Epistle of Saint Peter Where is the promise of his coming it is so long since his promise was made
because he will not have his creature worn out with a tedious misery and transitory vanity a vanity of misery that is in this vain miserable life of mortality I have done with the fourth A fifth thing that followeth in the Text that I may hast on we have Hope we have Hope in Christ we have Hope in Christ in this life our hope in this life is not upon the things of this life for if it were in this life only it were miserable Our life is a misery There is the fifth And this is a certain truth and it will plainly appear to us in many passages if we will believe either the Spirit of God or the experience of the godly I shall not need to stand to proveit You will ask me how it will be raised from this place Thus We are of all men the most miserable because that we are mentioned amongst the number of those that are the more miserable it implieth that all the rest are miserable more or less the very comparison that is used doth manifestly declare unto us that there is a measure of misery to every man living so then there is misery 2. It appeareth out of the Text because here and else-where you shall have man and misery made terms convertible Man is named Enoch and Enoch is misery Man and misery so joyned together that there is no pulling them asunder till death parts them for then there is no more misery 3. Because that misery here our being miserable in this life is mentioned even with the very best things of this life the very best things that are in this life and of this life so long as they look to this life I say they are stiled miserable but the best things even Christ himself our Hope it self say what you can here is Hope and here is Christ in the Text and yet not withstanding here is misery too Now then we reason thus that if the best things in this life be miserable then the rest are no better then so that the best are no better it is plain because let us have what we would have in all the World yet so long as we are here it is misery If this be so then we must come to the conclusion we have made and that is Jacobs conclusion Gen. 47.9 Few and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been it is Jobs conclusion too Mans life is full of misery It is Davids in the Psalms Mans life is full of labour and sorrow it is soon cut off and we fly away our dayes come to an end as a tale that is told they pass away as a shadow and the beauty the best of them withereth as grass It is Solomons he was the Preacher and here is his Text all is vain and vanity Vanity of vanities all is vanity one thing and other every thing under the Sun our life it self our selves so long as we are here we are under the Sun he calleth all vanity And faith the Apostle This I say Brethren the time of our life is short And what is our life saith Saint James But a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away it is a vapour that vanisheth a meoter of misery What shall we say of this now to speak it in few words home to our selves somewhat may concern our selves and somewhat as we respect and reflect upon others In regard of our selves it may have this double Vse First to wean us from the World Secondly to win us to the Lord. 1. To wean us from the World The World considered in it self is so full of misery that there is nothing to be delighted in there is so much bitterness that I warrant it will wean any Child from it that is not a worldling for he indeed is at his own breasts with his own Mother But consider the World as it is in it self and there is nothing in it but true bitterness and false sweetness certain pain and uncertain pleasure tedious labour and timerors rest nothing in the World but vanity and misery for saith Saint John Love not the World he that makes himself the friend of God makes himself an enemy to the World O you lovers of the World saith Saint Austin I wonder at you O foolish men who hath bewitched you for what wrestle why do you strive and contend so much what thing is there in the World that is worthy your labour there is saith he nothing in the World but that which is foolish and frothy and frayl and false and vain and full of danger full of disaster suffer your selves therefore to be weaned from the World And yet notwithstanding all that we can say we know there are some persons that will not be taken off from the Worlds breasts they have a better opinion of it than so Let such enjoy their own errour till they run to ruin and till their own overthrow take them off Yet not withstanding we know that which an Ancient hath that to whom God is once sweet the World must needs be bitter 2. On the other side the knowledge of this serveth to win us to the Lord that as the one draweth us off so the other may drive us on When I consider the mercies of the Lord and the goodness of God in the land of the living when I consider how infinite he is in his love I am ravished in spirit I am taken up in the mind and taken off in the flesh I have set my heart and affections on Heaven and on heavenly things And now when I think on the Lord there is my hope and there is my help and there where my help is there is my love and there is my life and there is my Lord there is Christ at the right hand of God He is the life of them that beleeve he is the resurrection from the dead he is the right hand where there is pleasure for evermore for there shall be no more pain no more death for the first things are past away saith Saint John in the Revelation and all things are become new Oh he that did but know the joyes that are reserved for such as are received to the Lord would soon be taken up from all conceits of the things of this life Think you but of that great convocation house of Heaven that high Court of Parliament that great place of Majesty and honour where all the spirits of just men made perfect are where all the Saints departed live where there are all the blessed Patriarchs godly Prophets the glorious Apostles the blessed Kings and the godly fellowship of Martyrs and Confessors where there are the holy Angels and Arch Angels Thrones and Dominions Seraphims and Cherubins in those glorious Orbs Where there is God the blessed Trinity the King of Glory whose Glory is more then can be seen be said conceived to be where the joy of the Saints is such as eye
Minister that was with her asking how she that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and many other comforts could be willing to forgo so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is dear and my Children are dear to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgo Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicity then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his own protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have we spoken all this what that we might add any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like duty Some may think it impossible there should be such activeness in doing of good and such unwearedness in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgment against you and condemn you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Do good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who took her time and opportunity to do good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Go thou and do likewise DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITY CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait to my change come THis Book of Job comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryals Though goodness deliver from Hell yet it priviledgeth not from temptatious or crosses yea the more eminent Holiness is many times the more it is exposed to sharp and manifold assaults Job is set upon on all sides he found the Devil a fore enemy and his great estate a suddain shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to pieces He had but three Points of Land to look at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment than to lessen the storm His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his grief was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsels and compassions should have been an easie harbour and tender relief they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his own testimony he served and feared with singular uprightness and whose bowels are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance he thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not only a stranger but an enemy and this went deep that even Mercy it self seemed cruel and Kindness so unkind and harsh But what was his behaviour under all these For the general sweet and heavenly For some particulars sad and weak when saith did work he was above all his storms In the deepest calamity saith can settle and compose the soul and fill it with the sweetest comforts When sence and nature did work then he was much impatient and the wind had the better over him In the one be shews himself a Christian In the other a man In the one Job is beyond himself in the other below himself According to the time and manner of these several workings he is like or unlike himself Thus it is with the best whose outward change doth not more vary but their inward carriage doth as much change At length Job after many disputes with his friends and conflicts with himself concenterates his thoughts in two main Points 1. One was still to trust in God let him be what he will and let him do what he will though he should continue his present trials yea and exceed them though he should kill me yet saith he Chap. 13.15 though he stay me I will trust in him and there he disposeth of his soul 2. Another was to prepare for death all the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change come and there he disposeth of his body Many arguments he layeth down in this Chapter which did occasion him to these thoughts and resolutions The first is the brevity of mans life Vers 1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not He saith not years nor moneths nor weeks but dayes and these dayes not many but few and these few dayes not long but short as quickly set as the shadow as quickly cropt as the flower Secondly the misery of that short life in the same place and full of trouble as if every Article of life were replenished with sorrow even as every vein of the body is with bloud this his own experience could tell him Thirdly the certainty of Death The Sun hath his appointed race which in the Winter is short in the Summer long but in both it hath a certain time of setting so the race of mans life to some it may be shorter to some longer but the night will come and all must be closed up in Death vers 5. His dayes are determined the number of them they are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which be cannot passe and if so then high time for Job to think of it and prepare for it Death began in a manner to seize on him already in several parts in his feet for his wealth was gone in his loynes having lost his children in his heart his friends leaving him in his bosome for his wife was a discomforter nay in his very life it self so much as was wrapt up in the outward part of his body for that was diseased in his speech and spirits they grow hoarse and faint all these were the harbingers of a future dissolution Well therefore might Job conclude ever I must not live and long I cannot live therefore though in much misery and in had dayes I will think of Death and fit my self for a good end and apply my self seriously and wisely for a good work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Which words contain in them two parts First his future dissolution which he calls a change and a change that is coming upon him as if he had been the next man till my change come Secondly his present disposition I will wait he thinks of death before death and prepares to die while yet he lives Neither was this a death pang a sit a humour which began quickly and expired suddenly Nay he will make it a serious business as if this should be his every dayes work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait Some read it of my appointed warfare and others of my appointed labour they all intimate that he means by his appointed time his appointed life the lease or term of breathing which
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
telleth us that as the Spirit and the Bride say come so he that heareth saith come that is not only the Church of God that is now present here upon the face of the earth but the successive parts of the Church in all future Ages they are all of the same mind having received the same Spirit they all say come Whosoever heareth this Prophesie whosoever heareth of these promises in any Age or Country of the World all they having the same spirit they must needs say come he that heareth saith come he that is acquainted with the promises that cometh to the knowledge of them and doth mingle them with the faith of his soul this man must needs say come to the accomplishment of them And lastly He that is a thirst saith come too that is whosoever hath tasted of the sweetness of Christ in any measure whatsoever and thereby hath wrought in him a vehement thirst after more this man will say come Whosoever hath such a sense of Christ in his promises as to taste of the sweetness of these never so little as he that hath tasted a drop of hony wisheth for more so he that hath tasted of the sweetness of Christ a drop of his grace and mercy this setteth upon his spirit a heavenly thirst he saith come he would have more he is never quiet till he have the promise accomplished to him These are the persons every particular member of the Church that hath the Spirit the whole Church in general not only the particular part of the Church now in the World or in any Age but the several parts of the Church in several Ages whosoever is a thirst that hath tasted of Christ must needs say come Even so come Lord Jesus These are the persons The second thing is the matter of this acclamation of the Church First the matter contained in it it is a vehement and earnest desire of the people of God after Christs most happy return in these words Amen even so come Lord Jesus The matter of it therefore is either infolded and implicite in the word Amen even so or unfolded and explicite in the latter words Come Lord Jesus It is infolded I say in the word Amen This word signifieth in the Scripture either the Author of the truth himself or else it is an affirmation of the truth In the Revelation thus saith the Amen the faithful and true witness here Christ himself is called Amen because he is the Author of all truth and verity the faithful and true witness Sometime this word is used and most frequently in Scripture for the affirmation of the truth either witnessing of the truth or wishing the truth For the witnessing of the truth as in all those vehement speeches of our Lord and Saviour Christ Amen Amen I say unto ye or verily verily I say unto ye this is a vehement asseveration and a witnessing to the truth which a man ought to believe or would have to be believed Or otherwise for a wishing and earnest desiring of the truth to be accomplished So in the conclusion of the Lords prayer and all our prayers we add this word Amen that is so be it or Let it be so we wish it with earnestness of affection and desire and with a confidence and faith of our hearts we hope and believe that this shall be so This is that we profess when we say Amen In this place this word is used both for affirmation and witnessing of the truth and likewise it is a vehement wish and desire of the accomplishment of these promises with an earnest and certain hope and expectation of faith that all these promises and good things shall be accomplished to the soul of a Christian Again the matter of this Acclamation is unfolded and explained in the latter words Come Lord Jesus Where there is both the Action and the person to be considered The Action Come Christ cometh to his Church many wayes He cometh in his Word He cometh in his Spirit He cometh in his mercies He cometh in his Judgments and Justice None of these are here meant But he cometh to his Church in person and appearance even in the appearance of his body and humane nature Thus Christ cometh two wayes to his Church in person First in his Incarnation he appeareth to the world in the similitude of sinful flesh he came in humility he came to suffer to die That is not here meant for that was past when as the Evangelist Saint John wrote this prophesie But the Second coming in person of our Lord and Saviour Christ is his coming in the flesh in glory in exaltation to judge the quick and the dead to shew himself a mighty God from heaven This is the coming which is here meant Christs second coming to Judgment in glory That is the Action The person is described by these two Titles Lord Jesus Wherein the Church desireth that he may come both as a Lord and as a Jesus That he may come as a Lord to vindicate the Church and revenge him upon his enemies to destroy the kingdome of darkness the kingdome of the Devil the kingdome of Antichrist which hath been a great argument in this book of the Revelation And not only come thus as a Lord but as a Jesus to save his Church to vouchsafe to her comfort and peace and joy that he would come to cloath her with immortality and glory which she cannot expect on earth in a mortal state This is the sum and substance of this Petition and request that the Lord would come in majesty and glory both as a Lord against the enemies of the Church to destroy them utterly and as a Saviour to bestow upon the Church even all saving mercies especially that great mercy of everlasting blessedness that is not mixed with sin and corruption that is not mixed with any infirmity and defect whatsoever This is the sum and substance of the Text which I have in few words shortly explained to ye Whence the point I observe wherein we will insist by the grace of God at this time is this That it is the nature and property of every true member of the Church of God earnestly and longingly to desire the second coming of Christ for the full redemption of his Church The Spirit saith Come and the Bride saith Come and whosoever heareth saith Come whosoever is a thirst saith Come therefore every godly man that hath the Spirit of God that is a part of this Bride that is partaker of those promises that hath a caste of Jesus Christ every one of these must necessarily say Come Even so Come Lord Jesus This is so proper to believers and to every one of them as they are all of them described by this property in Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 The Crown which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not only to me but to all them that love his appearing The Apostle he might have said to all saints
this was in their eye this bore them out against all the threatenings and sufferings of the World this was that that did give them encouragement and comfort above all discouragements And to conclude above all let us encourage our selves by the fruit and recompence of all this expectation what is that the Apostle Saint John saith that when this hope shall come into our hand when our faith shall meet with fruition then we shall see Christ so as to be like him here is such a sight of Christ as never the eye of flesh saw nor can see to see Christ and to be like him to see him as he is here is such a sight as would ravish us if we knew what it was and we cannot know while we are on earth eye hath not seen that which we shall see in Christ but when we shall enjoy this expectation we shall see him as he is and see him so as to be like him Father saith he John 17.24 I will that where I am they may be that they may see my glory Wicked men see his glory what priviledge then between them and the godly It is true indeed wicked men see the glory of Christs person and they shall see and feel the glory of his justice but the godly see the glory not onely of his person not onely of his justice but the glory that no wicked man ever shall see the glory of his Mercy and goodness and grace here is the difference God getteth himself glory upon Pharaoh in drowning of him but God getteth himself the glory of his Mercy in Israel in saving them in the bottome of the Sea so the godly they see the glory not onely of the person of Christ and that is infinite and surpasseth apprehension but they see the glory of his Mercy of his eternal goodness and they see it so as to be like him to be translated into that glory to get a part and share of it as much as they are capable of they make themselves all glorious with his glory and shine with his brightness and beauty Alas brethren all the sight we can get of Christ in this world it is like the sight of the blind man that Christ cured he bad him look up and lift up his eyes and he saw men walking as trees an imperfect sight so we have here but an imperfect glimpse of Christ we see him through a glass through the Word and Sacraments and these means that he hath appointed an imperfect sight till Christ give us a clear sight and makes us see perfectly and this is in the day of his return All the sight and vision of Christ in this life it is but to see him in a glass faith the Apostle as in a looking glass but then we shall see him face to face we shall see him as he is What difference there is between the shadow in a glass and the face it self so much difference there is between the sight of Christ here and hereafter when we shall see him as he is when we shall see him with open face and not in a mirrour Therefore let this incourage us and stir up our hearts to expect and wait for the coming of Christ with vehement and daily prayers with fervency of spirit with the Church and the Bride and the Spirit to say Even so Amen Come Lord Jesus FINIS DEATHS PREROGATIVE SERMON XXXXVIII GEN. 3.19 For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return AS the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Pro. 12 10. or the seeming cruelties at the highest but severities of the God of Heaven have much of mercy in them Witness this carriage in this Chapter towards our first Parents not to speak of his mercy of mercies obvious to every eye Christ the Second Adam promised before the first Adam was punished the woman is sentenced in sorrow to bring forth Children It might have been better and better whereas it is Bitter-sweet though sorrow yet she shall bring forth Chrildren Travellers will assure us that there is a small Island nigh Nombre de dios in America where no woman as yet could be delivered of a child and therefore when neer their time are conveyed over to the neighbouring continent whether this proceedeth from the Astringency in the Aire Earth or Water or any other occult Quality let the privie Counsellors of Nature discuss and deside God might have extended the Malignity of this Island all over the World Caine might have been the Ben-nony to Eve but his goodness was so merciful that her comfortable pain was for the time abated with the hope for future forgotten with the fruition John 16.21 That a man was born into the Word Secondly for Adam he is censured vers 17. In sorrow to eate of the ground all the dayes of his life In sorrow there is Justice shall eat there is mercy God might have made the Earth Deaf and Dumb to the desires of the Husbandman ut non parerent arva colono Man might have Fallowed and Stirred and Plowed and Sown and Harrowed and Rouled and Weeded and Mown and yet not have brought home to the Barn or not have eat of what he brought home How easily can God make an ill conditioned and unseasonable autumn defeat the promises of the most pragnant Spring and Summer How may a Snowy January Frosty February Dusty March Showry Aprill Windy May Warm June Hott July all very kindly in their kinds be married with a constant and continued raign in August even to the famishing of all man-kind had not God gratiously promised that man should though in sorrow vers 17. and in the sweat of his face vers 19. eat bread from the ground A Second favour is herein conferred on Adam that God in his due time would put a period to his painful life his toil trouble and turmoil occasioned by his tilling the earth and other interveining afflictions should not last alwayes but end and expire with his life for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return This text I may tearm the GRAND LEVELLER as which equalleth Showels and Scepters Penknives and Swords Scholars and Souldiers Captains and Captives Princes and Peasants high and low rich and poor one with another Saint Paul 2 Tim. 4. compareth mans life to a race I have finished my course and Heb. 12.1 Let us run with patience the race that is set before us let us improve his Metaphor into an Alegory and it will serve us very conveniently for the deviding of our text wherein we may observe 1. Carcer the Bar from whence we do start for dust thou art 2. Meta the mark to which we run and unto dust thou shalt return Be it here remembred that this Metaphor is confined to the Terrestial and earthly part of man without the least reference to his best moity I mean his Soul man consisteth of two parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul and dust the former not
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 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
sight and Contemplation he found it so sweet that it was good to be there longer 3. Lastly To all this may be added Immortality as the Diamond set in the ring of all the rest their Mortality hath put on Immortality the Body never more after it is cloathed upon therewith being subject unto Corruption Death it self is then struck dead and swallowed up in a final Victory unto all Eternity To which purpose ye may do well to meditate at leisure those very apposite and pertinent Scriptures 1 Pet. 5.4.2 Cor. 5.1 Rev. 2.11.1 Cor. 15.54.55 compared with Hos 13.14 and to this purpose the places of blisse are styled c mansions or abiding and resting places John 14.2 And this is the reward couched under this Metaphor of a Crown the Bliss whereof indeed transcends the skill and tongue even of Angels themselves to express Saint Paul speaking of the excellent goodness was treasured up but in the gifts and graces of Regeneration in this life saith even of them that the natural eye hath not Seen nor the ear Heard nor hath it entred into the Heart of an unspiritualized man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 Much less surely can this be done Excellent glory above in Heaven Wherefore the joy thereof being so incomprehensible as it is when it could not enter into the faithful servant mentioned in the Gospel then he was bid to enter into it even into that joy of his Master Mat. 25.21 And thus far of the remuneration it self at large both in the Certainty and the Dignity thereof It is a Crown of Rightiousness I come next to consider the Donor or the Bestower of the same the Lord set forth unto us here under the periphrasis of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous Judge Where note saith the Roman Catholique that the Reward is a Reward of Justice not of favour rendeâ—…ed as a due debt not given as a gratuitous benevolence so Cajetan on the Text Dicendo reddet Justus Judex debitum jus significate and so by consequent the good works to which its rendered are properly meritorious and God shall be unjust if he deny them his due reward even due of debt But whilest these overweening spiders suck poyson the Humble Bees draw honey from these fragrant and sweet flowers To Cajetan though none of the meanest Schoolmen we may oppose Primasius who hath this more solid expression quomodo â—…st acâ—…rona bebita redderetur nisi prius illa gratuita donaretur How can that Crown be said to be rendered as due unless first it was bestowed as free and again oper a Bona sunt Dei bona The Lord in crowning our good deeds doth but reward us with his own gifts in this case we must be all constrained to say as David on another occasion 1 Chron. 26.14 All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee Wherefore Saint Paul the great Assertor of free grace hath styled most fitly life eternal it self wherein consisteth the absolute consummation of all graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free gift Rom. 6.23 a word not used in any Heathen Author but peculiarized to the inspired penmen of Holy Writ besides the manner of the Apostles expression is very remarkable even in this very Text where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is laid up and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall give both these expressions imply a free donation no meritorious purchase at all elsewhere our reward in heaven is called an inheritance Ephes 1.14 Act. 26.18 which is a thing comming freely by descent unto the rightful Heir Moreover works meritorious according to the determination of the Patrons of merit themselves They must be 1. Nostra our own works wrought out of our own strength and done by our own power whereas the Evangelical Prophet hath otherwise assured us Isa 26.12 Thou O Lord faith he hast wrought all our works in us He means gracious works Alas we are not such Silk-worms as to spin a thred of Felicity out of our own bowels we must remember that the highest style which the Scripture gives the Saints is but to be Vessels of Salvation to receive the graces of God distilled into them from above Not Springs or Fountains to derive them to our selves and by the very Schoolmen themselves the graces of the Spirit are called Habitus infusi Habits not acquisite by frequent Acts as moral vertues are but infused by God into the Heart Every good and perfect gift descending from above as Saint James saith Jam. 1.17 Yea it was the positive assertion of our Saviour himself John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing He means Acceptably He doth not say as Saint Austin observes sine me difficulter potestis or non potestis persicere without me ye can hardly do any thing or ye are not able to bring any act unto perfection but simply and expressely thus Without me that is without leaning upon me having my special and gracious assistance Ye can do nothing at all that is good and gracious and our Apostle also elsewhere professeth that all our sufficiency namely in things supernatural is meerly and solely of God alone 2 Cor. 3.5 Therefore we may well conclude that whatsoever good works there are in us they be none of our own Secondly As they must be our own so likewise are they in the sense of those grand Impostors of the Christian world to be perfect as in which nothing is to be found defective nothing redundant whereas all our righteousness as it is inhaerent in us Alas it is but as a defiled nasty and polluted menstruosity Isa 64.6 the highest pitch or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of perfection that whilest we are clad with the raggs of our vile flesh we the very best of us all can attain to in this life is as I have shewn elsewhere but to see and to acknowledge our imperfections as in the clearest serenity of the Firmament some speckling cloud may be discovered so in our most accurate and exact performances either in the Matter or in the Manner or in the Degree measure or end of doing we all prove some way defective even the very best things that we do have enough in them to be pardoned if the Lord should discusse them without mercy in a rigorous severity and be so extream as to mark what in them is done amiss To this effect the forementioned School Divines have styled the greatest Saints as they are yet Members but of the Church militant on earth but Viatores walkers in the way whose motion is but only progressive not Comprehensors till actually instated Members of the Church Triumphant above in glory in the mean while that maxime in Divinity is Orthodox and solid Successivâ—…rum non simul est esse perficere Those things which admit of a succession in their motion or degrees of growth their being
the say this but Baruch When men cavil against any part of Gods word or hide any truth from themselves and with-hold the truth in unrighteousness Here is a man living to himself How many points are there in Religion that many men are willingly ignorant of And when they cannot but know them how do they labour for distinction how do they dawb over the matter that they may hide the truth from themselves that it may not work upon their consciences to make them leave their profitable fins Some would have the keeping of the Lords day according to Judaisme though it be revealed to them that there is a broad difference between the Jews observation and the Christians keeping of it Another man he will not understand Usury to be a sin because his course is usurious he will not know this willingly because he would not disadvantage himself Another will not understand what he is bound to do to the glory of God with his estate in what measure according to all the good that God hath blessed him with to honour God and give the first fruits of all his increase nor in what manner that he should be ready to every good work to contribute willingly to the necessities of the Saints what he should do to pious and merciful uses what for publike what for private occasions he would not willingly know these things he should have less ease he makes account Thus when a man is not willing to be informed in any thing to sift the truth to the bottome to the uttermost to know any thing concerning a duty in any kind when he laboureth not to convince his heart to this end that he may be brought in every thing to obey God when he standeth out with God in any one point this man liveth to himself and walketh not as he should according to the rule of God Now then beloved let us be convinced of it I beseech you take it home and let every man consider of it with himself Sometime in the actions of religion there cometh matter of glory in the world and this setteth me forward much when these things are spoken against and when I shall suffer disadvantages I cannot hold out At another time though all things be well yet if it cross me in such a course I murmure as if it were an unprofitable thing to serve God And then again when God revealeth his will my froward and rebellious heart hath hung back and been unwilling to submit to Gods will in this point all this while I have lived to my self And if it be true If a man be in Christ he liveth not to himself then it follows if a man liveth to himself he is out of Christ If the weakest Christian live to Christ then the best that liveth to himself is out of Christ Be convinced of this first Secondly Be convinced as it is the case of our selves so it is an ill estate for a man to live to himself You see still it is the whole drift of wicked men to took to themselves Haman aimed at himself when the King asked him what should be done to the man whom the King would honour He thought whom should the King honour but himself He looked to himself Here was the difference between Haman and Mordecai both had honour in the world Haman seeks himself in all his honour Mordecai seeks God and his glory and the welfare of his Church in his honour A great difference Saith Nabal shall I take my bread and my drink and give it to a man that I know not Here was a man that lived to himself Compare him with Job He was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind he continually fed those that wanted food A great difference Job lived to God and therefore he honoured God in releeving many with the estate that God hath given him Nabal lived to himself therefore he regarded none hut himself and his own house and sheep-shearers and those that depended upon him This is the property of a man out of Christ to seek himself and live to himself in all things Again consider others that have gone further in matters of religion yet they have still turned out of the way as far as they have halted in this Matt. 6.22 If thine eye be single the whole body is light but if thine eye be wicked the whole body is darkness A wicked eye is supposed to a single eye a double eye is a wicked eye What is a single eye That that looks but upon one object upon God and God onely and God principally and on all other things in him and with reference to him Now the double eye is that that though it looks to God and do many things in obedience to God yet it looks to somewhat else and takes other things as greater incouragements this is a wicked eye and such a man walketh in darkness when he looks to God he hath light in the duty when he looks to men and other things then he turneth aside and runneth to by-wayes And therefore a double-minded man is unconstant in all his wayes What is a double minded man He is a double-minded man whose mind is set upon more things then one first on the world and then on God as far as he sees it is profitable he will serve God or else not This man is an unconstant man You see it is an ill estate So much for the first Use for conviction Secondly therefore As many as are guilty of this labour to get out of it not to live to your selves any more Let it be enough that you have lived thus long to your selves that you have desrauded Christ of his due that hath puchased you with his bloud and not served him in holiness and righteousness so many dayes of your life Now for the time to come let us serve him better And that you may do thus I will give you two sorts of directions or helps I can give you but the heads of them First be convinced that our good is in God and not in our selves our life is in God and not in our selves our selves are in God and not in our selves that as the beams of the Sun are in the Sun more then in themselves so a Christian is more in Christ then in himself Whatsoever is good and comfortable to him is in Christ he hath all by vertue of a union with Christ he is not at all happy or blessed further then he is in him If then all our good lie in him it is great reason all our actions should returne to him that he should be the Center where all our lines should meet the mark whereto all our actions should aym Let not the strong man glory in his strength or the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his riches but he that glorieth let him glory in this that he knoweth me that I am the Lord. Jer. 9.24 What