it is death What a world of people run blindly and desperately on they turn to the race of sin as the horse to the battel without fear as if the Psalmists Tremble and sin not were rather sin and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sin in our selves to which so dreadful and woful wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learn as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and misery we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himself For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stipend that we have earned is eternal death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ coming between Gods justice and us Think we then if we can what misery it is that we have escaped as many of us I mean as be in the state of grace we have escaped death the hurt of temporal death we have escaped eternal death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soul for ever unutterable torments company with the divel and his angels and the rout of reprobates darkness blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernal lake that worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sin and that it is not rendred to all sin and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath been already exacted of Christ in the behalf of all true beleevers therefore in their own persons they are discharged how infinitely are we bound in thankfulness to him and how careful should we be to walk worthy of it resolving never to return to the service of sin again but to make it our whole study that we may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such misery as this that we may please him for we had deserved eternal death as well as others and he hath not only freed us from that that we had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to be considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sin Now the reward of the service of God is eternal life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is natural and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spiritual proper to the faithful begun by the union of God and the soul and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when we begin to beleeve and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternal life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our souls being freed from our bodies are withal free from all sin original and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soul shall be reunited we shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever 〈◊〉 could here And this spiritual life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternal life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternal three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternal and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternal for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have but it shall never have an end and this eternal life it is called here The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us only for the merits of Christ For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when he had said The wages of sin is death he doth not add and say but the wages of righteousness is eternal life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternal life meerly for his own mercy not for our merits or else surely the Apostle would have made the latter part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may ask why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness as well as death the wages of sin I answer because there is not the same reason between sin and righteousness For first sin is our own it merits it but righteousness is none of our own it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then again sin is perfectly evil and so it deserves death but our righteousness inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternal life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternal life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ Indeed eternal life sometimes many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercy as well as of justice Nay God is said sometimes to reward his children in justice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himself by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if he had not promised eternal life otherwise he ows us nothing at all much less eternal life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a
rocks that breaks the brazen gates asunder that looseneth the bands of death Therefore unless thou question the power of God no doubt but he is able and can bring all of us to judgement He will do it for the manifestation of his power Secondly as for the manifestation of his power so for the manifestation of his wisdome It is a point of wisdome when one hath made a thing to bring it to the intended end for which he made it Beloved this is Gods intended end in making of us therefore he brought us hither into the world not that we should have alwayes a Being here but that after a certaine time we should be dissolved and put into an everlasting condition therefore Saint Peter speaking of the salvation of Gods elect he calleth it the end of their faith not only the end they aspire but that end that God hath assigned and appointed them to If God should faile of his end we might call his wisdome into question it might give us occasion to say that he undertook that which he was not able to accomplish so that insteed of shewing himself wife he should shew himself weake Therefore except we should call his wisdome into question doubtless he will call us one day to an Account Thirdly for the manifestation of his truth nothing gaineth God more honour then that he is faithful and true in whatsoever he hath promised Now this day of Judgement is the day wherein God hath promised to recompence the faith of the godly and hath threatned to punish the wickedness of the wicked he hath appointed a day for it faith the Scripture Acts 17.31 What though it be a great while since the promise was made for all this we must not think that God is slack as men account slackness the slacknesse of men is when they keep not their promise according to appointment we must not think God is so slack he alwayes keepeth his day that he hath set he never faileth of his promise but when the time is come he keeps touch he breaks not his day As it is said Ezod 22.41 After the four hundred and thirty years were expired that God spake to Abraham the very same day all the children of Israel went out of Egypt How many promises and threatnings after do we read of wherein he never failed of the performance of what he spake the least tittle therefore saith Saint Gregory we have seen so many of Gods promises already verified that we may be confident that those that are to come shall also be accompilshed surely he will not fail in this but as certainly as he hath promised it shall come to pass So that unless we shall deny the truth of God who the Scripture saith cannot it is impossible that he should lie we must of necessity beleeve that for the manifestation of his Truth there will be a day of Judgement Fourthly as for the manifestation of his Truth so of his Justice and Mercy I will put them together It is the property of Justice to render punishment to those that have done evil and of Mercy to recompence those that have done well Now therefore for the manifestation of his Justice and Mercy this day must come It is true here many times wicked men speed better then Gods people A man may sin a hundred times and yet God porlong his dayes and the children of God on the other side are persecuted and neglected so that here he giveth not retribution to every one according to his works Whereas it standeth with equity and justice that well-doers should be rewarded and evil-doers should be punished the stream runneth contrary wicked men speed well and good men ill Naboth cannot have a poor Vineyard but one rich Ahab or other is ready to get it away They â—…at my people as bread and they eat the bread of Gods people they eate the inheritance of the fatherless and devour widdows houses so that here all is turned topsie-turvey as if the world were a thing cruciated tearing it self If this world should last alwayes where were Gods justice And therefore for the manifestation of Gods justice and mercy there must be a day of retribution when for that portion of sorrow that the godly have had here they shall have a portion of happiness and joy and when for that cup of pleasure that the wicked have drank here they shall have put into their hands a cup of trembling and wrath If Dives enjoy his good things here let him look for a day when he shall be denied a drop of water It Lazarus have had his ill things here let him look when the day shall come that he shall be rewarded Except we will divest and strip God of all his Attributes deny his power his wisdome his truth his justice and mercy we cannot but confess that certainly there is a day to come when God will bring us to judgement That is for the first That the day of Judgement shall come In the next place we are to consider as that it shall be so in what manner and how it shall be Briefly the manner of this Judgment is set forth to us in the Scripture in five particulars First the Summons Secondly the Appearance Thirdly the Separation Fourthly the Triall Fifthly the Sentence First the Summons All shall be summoned to come before Gods Judgement seat and this Summons of theirs shall be by the voyce of Christ himself The dead in the grave shall hear the voyce of the son of man and they shall come forth c. Job 5.28 This voyce in Scripture is called the Trump of the Angel He shall send his Angels and they shall gather the Elect together from the four winds Mat. 24.31 The Trump shall blow and the dead shall arise 1 Cor. 15. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangel with the Trump of GOD and the dead shall rise 1 Thes 4.16 At the giving of the Law there was the sound of a Trumpet so when God shall come to punish the breach of the Law the Angel shall blow the Trumpet Trumpets are commonly blown at a Battel or at a Feast at a Feast they sound joyfully when it is at a Battel they sound dreadfully both shall sound here at that day the sound of the Trumpet to the godly shall be as at a Feast but the sound of the Trumpet in the ears of the wicked shall be as a summons to battel If we will have the joyful sound of that voyce then we must welcome the voyce of Christ now God now speaks by men then by Angels Now the Trumpet of the Gospel soundeth then the Trumpet of Judgement shall sound we must learn o bedience to this and then we shall find a great deal of comfort in that there is a Surgite that we must hearken to now arise from sin Come unto me all yea that are weary and heavy laden
seems according to the very notion of the word in use among the Jewes themselves among whom the posterity of Jonadah because of their holiness of life and strictness in religion were called hhasidim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asidaeans 1 Mach. 7.13 as much as Holy-ones Good-men or Saints But not to insist farther upon the translation The name of Saints is given sometimes by the Fathers to holy men departed and reigning with God but so the word is very rarely used in the Scripture but more ordinarily it is given to the faithful in this life and so the notion in Scripture is most frequent So 1 Cor. 1.2 To the Church of God at Corinth called to be Saints or Saints by calling So also Eph. 6.18 Rom. 12.13 c. There is a double sanctity 1. Of outward profession 2. Of inward regeneration and so the word is here more specially understood They are Gods Saints whom he separates to himself or calls unto holiness of life The Saints on the earth such as excell in vertue Psal 16.3 And there is reason for it that there be some Saints in this life because that which makes Saints is attainable here not Popish Canonization but Gods Election Gods Spirit Gods grace the Merit and holiness of Christ as it is 1 Cor. 1.2 Those of the Church of Corinth were Called to be Saints with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ Who was both 1. A pattern of holiness that his people might be so by his example and 2. A foundation of holiness that his fulness might be conveyed to his members Vse 1. If there be Saints in this life it is against the Church of Rome which shuts up all the Saints into heaven and suffers none to be Saints but such whom the Pope canonizeth Bellarmine delivers it 1. That Canonization which is a publike testification of the assured holiness and glory of some by which publike worships are decreed them is pious and lawful 2. That this power of Canonization is only in the Pope 3. That the Popes judgement on Canonization is infallible But Beside that this third proposition is gain-said by men of his own side The practise it self also of Canonization was unknown till Leo the thirds time anno 800. or till fourscore yeares after that till the time of Adrian and it was ever anciently held that no man can judge infallibly of anothers condition or may admit any into the number of Saints The ancient Church had their commemorations of holy men and women departed but without worship So may we honourably speak of such as are with God and we do so Luther cals Thomas Aquinas Saint and Melancthon sticks not at it to call Authony Bennard Dominick and Francis so too We seldome name those glorious Doctours otherwise then Saint Basil Saint Greg. Naz. Saint Ambrose Saint Augustine And so we use to commemorate the holy Apostles the blessed Martyrs and the Fathers And think we have as much liberty as the Church of Rome to call godly men of our late acquintance Saints as I remember a learned and reverend Bishop of ours to have called Master Greenham But withall as the Scriptures do so we may also call the living beleevers and they are so before they come to heaven Vse 2. If there be some let us all aspire unto that honour to-be such as excel in vertue to be put in Albo Sanctorum and to have our names in the Calender or roll Let us follow the foot-steps of Christ and holy men learn of me faith Christ Mat. 11.29 for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you Joh. 13.15 And let us follow them that have followed Christ to take out the patterns that have been set us by Apostolicall and holy men In the ancienter times of more pure and servent zeale people were ready to run to any lights that did burn and shine among them to take example from them how to regulate their lives Hence came many religious professions though since much degenerate and corrupted who were won to the immitation of those practises of self-denyall contempt of the world mortifying of voluptuous affections c. which they saw in them We might make a profitable use of the lives of holy men and Martyrs of old or of late to copy out their sanctity And let it be an incouragement to the study of piety and religion to consider what honour it brings along with it it Saints us so that we need not be at that extream expence and charge which we read some have been at in the Court of Rome to procure Canonization Vse 3. If their be some such here and they be men holy and religious then take we heed that we speak not ill of such that we abuse them not that we open not our mouths against heaven against them that are Incolae coeli Inhabitants of heaven either by an actuall possession of glory or here by an heavenly conversation Devout and religious men whose thoughts and hearts are above do not count this their Country they do but sojourn with us abuse not strangers then especially these strangers for their country sake We use to say De Sanctis nil ni si bonum we should not speak any thing to the prejudice of the Saints The Romanists are presently upon us that we forget this rule Sanctos Dei non esse peculiari honore colendos docent omnes hodierni haeretici So Lorichius accuses us for we know whom he means The truth is we dare not give them divine worship nor make them Gods as the Papists when they have wearied themselves in fitting their distinctions of latreia and douleia to little purpose do it roundly enough and the people in their practise But we give them their due and as much as themselves would be willing to receive as we gathered from the behaviour of the Angel that was sent to John Apoc. 19.10 But in the mean time while they make a thriving trade of the flattering of the Dead they neglect and abuse the living Saints not only writing a Dele in their Indices expurgatory upon the testimony of Pius or Prudens given by some more ingenuous men of theirs to some of our Divines in particular but also traducing the whole estate of our reformed Churches for schismaticall and heretical Vse 4. If there be some Saints of God here let us choose to be of their acquaintance and keep their company because they do best of all know the way to heaven and it is good to go safely that journey by direction of the best and most skilful guides lest we miss it in those places where the way turns or where the path is not so well beaten as the other Road. 2. Gods Saints do also die The Death of his Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness frees not from death Abel Noah Abraham Moses David the Prophets the Apostles the Fathers are all dead
a Sarah for obedience Rebecca for wisedome Mary for piety Martha for houswifery a true Lydea she heard and God opened her heart that she attended to those things she heard A true Dorcas full of good works they that knew her knew her so far as wisedome and discretion dictated to her full of charity of good works and almes-deeds But her life was a vapour that appeared for a little while and then vanisheth away She verified my Text too truly in that it pleased God suddenly to call her even in the prime and strength of her years she was but a young woman and she dyed in Child-bed You that are Child-bearing women I wish you to set this pattern and example before your eyes and learn by this spectacle to see how neer you walk to the brink of your grave when you come to be delivered of child I wonder therefore by the way that any should find fault with that solemn thanks-giving that is appointed by the Church to be rendred to God for women for his preserving them from the great danger of Child-birth there is but a step between you and death you should then have a care to prepare for your death I see a great deal of time spent to prepare all brave and fine God may quickly turn all your chambers and hang them with black and turn your jollity into mourning therefore you shall rather prepare for your winding-sheet and for your grave for undoubtedly she did so and I may in some sence apply that litterally of the Apostle to her In bearing of children she is saved It is true the Apostle gives that as an argument of comfort to women because before he had preached obedience to them a doctrin that they do not well relish yet he gives two reasons because Adam was first made and she first sinned that is another reason yet lest she should be too much discouraged with that of the Apostle and because the pain of child-bearing was threatned to women for a part of their curse the Apostle adds that as a comfort In bearing of children they shall be saved Notwithstanding the pain and sorrow of child-bearing was inflicted as a punishment upon them yet under that curse there is a way of salvation opened if they be such women saith the Apostle as continue in faith and charity with holiness and sobriety These vertues being eminent in this dear Christian sister of ours no doubt but in bearing of children she is saved that is she found under that curse a way to a blessing an everlasting blessing of salvation How she disposed her self in the time of her sickness those of the family well know truly I have not oft scarse ever heard of a woman of her rank and quality for she was a woman well descended and well bred and yet I never heard of a woman more beloved and more bewayled her Husband complains of his loss never man lost a better wife all the servants never any had a better Mistriss and all the neighbours never any had a better neighbour Concerning her in the time of her sickness they can give a better and more particular testimony then I I only did one office and service to her when in the absence of your reverend Pastor I was called I visited her an hour or two before she went when God knowes she was faint and weak and able to breath but a few words but they were sweet I told her I hoped and doubted not but that as she had made a Christian profession in her life time so now she would seal it up she answered I have endeavoured to serve God but with a great deal of infirmity and weakness I rest not upon that I rest upon my evidence and there is my comfort I doubt not but he that hath given me the evidence will also give me the inheritance I think these were the last words she spake Thus she is gone to her rest her body to rest as a prisoner of hope till the Resurrection her soul rests in the arms of God I have no more to say to her or of her then that Christ said to the woman in the Gospel Woman go in peace thy faith hath saved thee SAINT PAULS TRUMPET OR AN ALARM FOR SLEEPY CHRISTIANS SERMON XXVI ROM 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep THe holy Apostle in this Chapter he delivers a number of precepts and general rules for satisfaction and enforceth them with sundry reasons Among them all the words that I have read they are one principal both Precept and Reason enforcing it Considering the season it is time that ye arise from sleep These few words may be called Saint Pauls Trumpet to rouze the sluggish Christian They were the occasion of the conversion of that famous instrument St. Austin as he saith in the eighth Book of his Confessions the last Chapter He reports that when the time of his Conversion came near he was in a marvellous great agony and conflict beset with a number of Temptations whereby Satan would still have detained him in the spiritual sleep he was in being in this marvellous conflict he could not but go from his Chamber to his Garden and there he prostrated himself on his face before the Lord and earnestly and ardently called upon God And in his Prayer as himself records he seemed that he did hear the voice of a Child speak to him Tolle lege Take up the book and read Hereupon running back again to his study his Book being open the first place that he cast his eye upon was this Verse It is now time considering the season that you awake ouâ—… of sleep And saith he with the end of the sentence I found an infused life He found in the reading of this sentence as soon as he had read it the life of grace infused into him and his conversion was compleat This place of Scripture hath been famous in the Church for the conversion of that famous instrument I would to God as we do not despair that the Lord would bestow the same blessing among some of us who not only hear these words read but are now to be expounded in your ears For the understanding of which we are to inquire of divers things for the meaning of the words First we are to inquire what is here meant by sleep It is time to awake out of sleep Secondly what is meant by arising or awaking out of sleep Thirdly who they be that must arise or wake out of sleep Fourthly and lastly why the Apostle doth bestow this exhortation upon sleepy persons that cannot hear what he saith For the first of these what is meant by sleep Sleep in Scripture is threefold Natural Moral Spiritual Natural sleep is that spoken of Psal 3.5 I will lay my self down to sleep and rise again This natural sleep is the rest and restitution of nature Moral sleep is natural death
in the subject too not only a certainty that those that are in Christ shall live but it is certain to you make account of this make this conclusion for your selves build on it know it for your selves as he said to Job it is certain if you be in Christ you are dead with Christ and you shall live with Christ make account of this Lastly the efficient cause of this great change exprest in these terms it is Jesus Christ our Lord make account of this if you be in Christ there comes a vertue from Christ an effectual working of Christ by his spirit in your hearts such a powerful work as will conforme you to Christ dead and to Christ risen that you shall be dead to sin and alive to God not by any sttength in your selves or any excellent endowment in your own natures not by any natural inclination and ability but through the vertue and power of Jesus Christ our Lord working in you Thus you have the Text opened We will speak first of the Analogy and proportion the agreement between the metaphors here used and the things exprest by them That which the Apostle would express is that there is a marvellous spiritual real change in all those that are in Christ from what they were before Now let us see how sitly it is exprest in these words that he saith you are dead to sin and alive to Ged that he chuseth to express it by life and death Had it not been fit to have said thus much you are changed in your dispositions in your inclinations in your intentions in your actions you are changed in your conversations you are other kind of men in the inclination of your hearts you bring forth other fruit you lead other lives then you were wont to do But he expresseth it here yet more fully that is by that that includes all these and if there be any thing more may be added it includes that too ye are dead and alive Then we will consider First generally how death and life express the state of them that are in Christ Secondly consider them in their particular application how death expresseth the first part of a mans change in sanctification and life the second part First we take them in general and let this be the point that A man that is indeed effectually changed by vertue of his union with Christ he hath such a change wrought in him as in a dead and living man as in life or in death Now first take it in general you know life and death they imply first a general change when a man is alive or when a man is dead there is not a change in some part only but in the whole So it is here when a man is effectually changed from what he was by vertue of his union with Christ A member may be dead and yet nevertheless the man alive but if the man be dead there is a general change that goes throughout it possesseth every part every member so that now there is no member of him but death rules in it then he is a dead man So it is in this when a man is dead spiritually there is not a change in some particular actions only in some particular opinions only there is not an alteration of some of his old customs only but it is a general change so it goes through the whole man It is a change in the understanding he judgeth things otherwise then he was wont to do And there is a change in the will the inclination of it is to other objects then he was wont to be inclined to And thence there is a change in his intentions he propounds other ends to himself then he was wont So there is a change in respect of the whole the Word is the rule of all a mans actions There is a change from particular evils from one as well as another that when any thing is discovered to him to be a sin to be a transgression of the rule he is turned from it So likewise when any thing is discovered to him to be a duty agreeable to the rule according to the will of God revealed in his Word he is a vessel of honour prepared for it and that is it the Apostle especially means when he compares them to vessels and he describes them thus they are vessels of honour fit for the service of their Master prepared for every good work So that now as the Apostle saith there remaineth no more conscience of sin That is there remains not now any sin to cleave to the conscience to defile it to cleave to the conscience so as a ruling enemy would do that would take away all true and perfect peace all boldness and access to the throne of Grace there is no such conscience of sin This making conscience of every sin is that that frees conscience from being defiled in that sence with any sin so much for the first Well secondly it is expressed by death and life to shew the orderliness in the proceeding of this change When a man is changed by the efficacy and working of Christ to whom he is united it proceeds in such a manner as the change in death or life You know death or life begin within first it begins in the inward man in the heart first And as in natural death or natural life there is a dying first of the root and a quickning first at the root So likewise in spiritual death or life it is an orderly proceeding it begins first within Our Saviour Christ gives this direction First make the inside clean and then all will be clean against the hppocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees that looked more to outward actions So this change it is not only a meer civilizing of a man a conforming of him to that society he converseth with in outward actions but renewing of a man in the spirit of his mind Rom. 12.2 So the change begins from within Hence it is that first he is good and then he doth good according to the speech of Christ make the tree good and then the fruit will be good we will not stand upon it you see the Analogie and agreement holds between these two in general Now we come to take them apart more specially First how this being dead to sin agrees with that change that is in a man that is in Christ from sin Reckon this saith the Apostle make account of this that you are dead to sin that is now there is such a change and turning from your evil courses from whatsoever it is that is truly and properly called sin in Scripture you are changed from it Now in whatsoever sence a man may be said to be dead in that sence a man in Christ is changed from sin there is somewhat in his change expressing that death Now there is a threefold death A Civil Death A Judicial Death A Natural Death We begin with the judicial first
rendring unto him his due That is the first Vse Secondly let it stir up every one of us to a care of his duty of embracing opportunities And when we perswade you to take opportunities we would draw you a degree higher not only to take them but to seek them for how shall a man obtain the advantage of taking opportunities if he first seek them not and therefore we perswade you to that We see Abraham sitting in the door of his Tent that he might observe opportunities of doing good he stayed not till the men knocked at his door for reliefe but took notice of their passing by that he might call them We see a good old man in Judges 19. As he perceives a stranger passing the streets first takes occasion to question his wants and forbears not till the man complain so willing was he to administer to his necessities and to embrace a fit opportunity of doing him good We see David expressing his thankfulness to God and to Jonathan He enquires if there were any of the house of Saul that he might shew him kindness for Jonathans sake So should we do Is there any of the houshold of Faith as the Text faith and as the Scripture calls them unto whom I may shew kindness for the Lords sake He hath been better to us then Jonathan was to David and yet we are much more backward to Retribution and expressions of thankfulness then David was to Jonathan But the Scriptures are plentiful in this we need not stand on it I say this is a duty that every one should discharge this task not to stay and forbear till the reports of mens wants are brought to them but to be circumspect and seek for all accasions that may deserve the extent of their goodness If you live in a Parish wherein happily there remains not many poor yet you live in a City there are many there if there be not many in the City you live in a Country in a Kingdom doubtless where there are many if there be none there yet thou hast further means to extend thy charity Thou livest in a Church is there any member of the Church in all the World dispersed in Bohemia in the Palatinate in any place of the earth where the poor abide enquire after them that you may know their wants and relieve their necessities I come now to the second from the determination of time to the declaration of duty while we have time Let us do good I told you what this goodness is in the intent of the Apostle in this place Doing good is a releeving those that are in necessity for that is the Apostles meaning as we may see in the context and coherence of these words with the former So then the main Point is no more but this It is the duty of Gods servants as to make advantage of their times so to employ themselves in releeving of others Take it more briesly It is a doing good to releeve others that is the duty of Gods servants and it well becomes them to be employed in this work while we have time on earth and means to do it to employ our selves in doing good and relieving others And there is familiar appearance of this in Scripture and by reasons also By Scripture it is commanded in precept and commended in practise of the Saints If any of thy brethren among thee be poor faith God thou shalt not harden thy heart thou shalt not shut up thy hand against thy poor brother The not opening of the hands to relieve him God accounts that as proceeding from the hardness of the heart Thou shalt not harden thy heart against thy brother c. Cast thy bread upon the Waters for after many dayes thou shalt find it Is not this the fast that I have chosen for a man to give his bread to the hungry and that a man should release those that are in Captivity and to let the oppressed go free The Apostle wisheth that as they abounded in knowledge and in vertue and in faith and goodness so they might abound also in this Grace of God The Grace of God that he there speaks of is the willing readiness to the doing of good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased You see thereby doing good he means distribution the latter word doth prove the former and both explain this Text. You have it likewise commended in the practice of the Saints I need not be large in discoursing to you the carriage of Abraham of Lot of David of Job the practice of Cornelius yea of Christ himselfe The Scripture is plentiful in this I and that which is more to be observed that although Christ himselfe were relieved by others yet out of that he gave a share to the poor It wil appear likewise in reason that this is a necessary duty and these may be taken First from the equity of it for it is equal you should thus employ your time and estate and those advantages of life which God hath made you doner of partly to that purpose and a man commits an injury in neglecting these holy duties and is not only become an unmerciful but an unjust man and so in the plainest phrase a dishonest man he is not just that doth not thus Therefore with-hold not the good from the owner thereof faith God when it is in thy power to give The poor is owner of the estate of the rich so farr as his necessity requires it and it proves but a matter of justice and equity to bestow his riches where it ought to be bestowed and a man is unjust in that respect if he do it not Riches are called unrighteous mammon as hath been expressed before when they are unrighteously with-held from them to whom they should be given as well as when they are unrighteously gotten So that detaining it from those unto whom it is appointed by Gods direction converts that riches perchance honestly procured into the mammon of unrighteousness Secondly as it becomes a matter of justice so it proves likewise a matter of wisedome a man makes wise provision for the present and the future also by this course And therefore it makes way for the felicity of the servants of God to employ their endeavours in the execution of this duty and to lay fast hold on the forehead of opportunity First it proves a consequent of wisedome for themselves in procuring their own good Blessed is the man that judgeth wisely of the poor why so The Lord will consider him in the day of evil and he will not give him over to the will of his enemies What is the thing that a man is most subject to fear in this World but that which David faith concerning Saul I shal fall sometime or other by the hands of some enemy of some mischievous person or malicious person or other You
comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and business and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinful cause of this fear of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him fear Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the fear of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ The want of this assurance makes death fearful for now they look upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylor either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforrs or as a Jaylor to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would fain escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospel This night they shall fetch thy soul from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soul of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he cometh to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he look upon Death as a Jaylor so Christ saith Agree with thy adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judg and he give thee to the Jaylor and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the utmost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylor that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judg of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall give up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvel if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captains and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lamb because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa 14. there is crying out concerning the coming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their fear who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remain with cousuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrour and wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cometh upon them Now mark hypocrites stand all together unreconciled and therefore it is no marvel if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of fears Again a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their souls and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whither go we I go now out of the body and whither then I go out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I go to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I go to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in misery or in happiness They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their own state to come whether they shall be in happiness or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the fear of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these fears and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the fear of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but we must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with fear and sadness of spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wilderness they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voice of faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the success is doubtful sometime as it was between Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed and Israel had the worst sometime Israel prevailed and Amalek had the worst so somtime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and sometime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it self to the servants of God So we see David in the 23. Psal Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou Lord art with me And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall do it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he looks on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith works in that measure fear of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to
it is for good use as well to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I go on to tell ye what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dim light of Nature The scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it cometh and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it tellech us the remedy against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can do little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It telleth us how that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to be but takes asunder awhile the soul from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to be though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappiness and destruction there is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle room so Death either leadeth them down to the place of unhappiness or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessedness This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plain in The rich man dieth and his soul is carried to Hell the poor man when he died his soul was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soul out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happiness or more misery then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuity and continuance of it self that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortal to continue for ever and should not have died but sin came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sin and of all misery that by little and little draweth to death I say sin the first sin of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equal mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of works and the disanulling of it that sin let in Death at a great Gap and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soon and that he that is the Lord of all creatures should be inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unriddleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that he might and should have lived for ever but Sin coming and coming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortal and when sin entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poor and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equal that death should follow sin for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himself for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continuance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himself Ye see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plain It is appointed for all men once to die and after death cometh judgment Narure never dreamed of judgment after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a judgment after Death Judgment what is that Judgment ye know is a calling of a man before Authority a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether he be a sinner an evil-doer and if he find him so to passe sentence according to his evil deeds When God hath took the soul from the body he takes the soul first and after both soul and body and presents them before his own Tribunal and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience looks deep into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancy to his last breath and findeth out the things that he hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Indgment hath two degrees First assoon as a man dieth No sooner is the soul separated from this case as it were the body but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becometh the Gospel of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and bliss for the present more then tongue can express Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfnl man a wicked man a hyyocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquity nor live according to the Gospel of Christ and then he is delivered up to Satan to be hurried down to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickedness This particular judgment passeth upon every soul assoon as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universal Judgment when soul and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath been is or shall be every man shall appear in their own persons their whole lives shall be laid open all secret things shall be made known for God faith the Apostle shall judg the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never do The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedy against the ill of death It is a pittiful thing to hear of mortality and sickness if there were not a good Potion or Phisick prescribed to ascape the ill of it To hear tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to hear of a remedy it is woful tydings and would wring tears from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not only tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what means we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can do Nay by what means we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficial to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in
not but this I am sure of that there have been too many unkind passages where the fault is your selves know But this is to be taken into consideration that God removeth them from ye as if ye were worthy of none If God send us these helps and Lampes that waste themselves to shine to us and to break and dispence to us the bread of life shall we not give them incouragement in their studies that they may go on quietly and peaceably A word is enough for that Howsoever some of ye would not suffer him to rest God hath taken him to his rest There is more might be said but I will not say too much For the other since I came from my house I had information at my first footing in the Parish they said she was as good a woman as lived At my first footing in the house they said she was a very good woman Those that have lived in the Parish they testifie that she was a woman most eminent for her piety and vertue Shall she want a memorial I asked of those that have known her of old they say she was a righteous woman for the righteousness of piety and a merciful woman for the righteonsness of mercy She had respect to both tables to her duty to God to her Neighbour For the mercy of charity she was good to the poor she was a lender to those that were in necessity and a giver too For the mercy of piety she was very compassionate to those that were in afflictions she sympathized with them visited them and comforted them For the mercy of peace in time of contention she laboured to set all strait she had a soft answer co pacifie wrath She was a merciful woman and God hath given her the reward hath took her to his rest She was a lover of peace he hath taken her to the place of peace She was one hat studied happiness and he hath taken her to a place of happiness He hath took her from these evils that we are reserved to and that we may fear That is the difference between a godly and an impenitent man Impenitent men if they be took away they are taken to further evill if they be left alive they are left to further evil Merciful men if they be took away they are taken away for the eschewing of evil and if they be left on the earth it is for the diverting of evil They divert them while they live and shun them when they die As they labour to honour God in their lives so God gratifieth them in their death he takes them to himself This consideration and occasion is a proof of the Text. As it is proved in all the Text let us disprove it in our selves that this word may never go in the course it lieth here but in a contrary course That righteous men perish and men do lay it to heart let it be said so and merciful men though they be took away yet there are those that take it into consideration I have done with the last part and with the occasion THE GOOD MANS EPITAPH OR THE HAPPINESSE OF Those that Die VVell SERMON IX REVBLAT 14.13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them THE Scripture will afford us many Texts for Funerals Me thinks there is none more fit nor more ordinarily preached on than two and they are both of them voices from heaven One was to Isaiah the Prophet He was commanded to crie The voyce said Cry And be said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field You will say That is a fit Text indeed So is this here A voyce from heaven too But Saint John is not commanded to cry it as Isaiah was he is commanded to write it That that is written is for the more assurance It seemeth good to me faith Saint Luke in his preface to his Gospel Most excellent Theophilus to write to thee of these things in order that thou mightest know the certainty c. It did not please God for many generatious to teach his Church by writing The Fathers before the flood he did not teach by writing They lived long their memory served them instead of books and they had now and then some Divine revelations They needed no writing But after that the dayes of man grew short as they did in the time of Moses the man of God the dayes of our years are threescore years and ten then I say when the dayes of man came thus to be shortned it pleased God to teach his Church by writing And although the whole will of God all things necessary to solvation be written yet God did appoint some special things above all others to be written some passages of divide truths As that same history of the foil of Amalek in the wilderness Scribehoc ad monumentum saith God to Moses write this for a memorial in a book So God commandeth Isaiah to take to himself a great roul and to write in it with a mans pen. So to Exekiel Son of man write thee the name of the day even of this same day the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day And Saint John to go no further though he was commanded to write this whole Epistle and all the Visions he saw yet there is some special thing that God in a more special manner would have him to write And here is one Write this same voyce this 〈◊〉 that came down from heaven write it Though that writing addeth nothing to the Authority of the Word For the word of God is the same Word and is as well to be obeyed and as well to be beleeved when it is delivered by tradition as when it is by writing yet notwithstanding we are to blesse God that we have it written How many Divine truths have been turned into lies And how many divine Histories have been turned into fables when things have been delivered by tradition from hand to hand and from man to man Tradition was never so safe a preserver of Divine truths We are to thank God I say for the whole Scripture for every part of it for whatsoever is written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope But what comfortable thing is this that here Saint John is commanded to write Write what Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord so saith the spirit they rest from their labours and their works follow them In the which you have five things First you have a Proposition Dead men are blessed Blessed are the dead Now because this is not generally true therefore Secondly you have a Restriction all Dead men are not blessed But who are blessed then
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
doth in gaining the world he loseth himself He that will lose his life shall save it and he that will save his life shall lose it Mark 10. A man never loseth a shadow more then when he followeth it the faster he pursues it the faster still it runneth from him such is the pursuit after anything out of God the more a man pursueth iâ—… the more he loseth himself he is driven so many paces from heaven so many degrees from his own happiness This is the folly and madness of the world whereby Sathan deludeth men leading them after vain shewes of earthly delights in carnal security flattering themselves in the pursuit of the world dreaming of happiness and comfort and in the conclusion imbrace nothing but a shadow and emptiness and comfort and in the conclusion imbrace nothing but a shadow and emptiness This I say is the misery of man Now put both together Consider what we lose that that is truly good that that is blessedness indeed and what we get that that is but a shadow that that is emptiness indeed Men lose that they seem to have 〈◊〉 and want that they pursue after A secret judgement of God because they sought not that that they should do Thus we see the point opened I hasten to the application The first use is for Convictionâ—… Since there is such a truth as this that no man that professeth himself to be in Christ that professeth himself to be a beleever should live to himself that is do any action of his life ayming at himself as the uttermost end in those actions It serveth in the first place to convince us that profess our selves to be Christians and beleevers to be such as know Christ though with these differences some are more weak and some more strong yet I say it convinceth every man to stand guilty before the Lord that if he live to himself he is none of Christs This is the property of every true Christian even of the weakest aswell as of the strongest for the Apostle speaks of all None of us saith he whether weak or strong Christians live to over selves if thou therefore live to thy self thou art none of those the Apostle speaks to thou art none of those that live and die to the Lord thou art none of those that are the Lords whether in life or death Let us therefore first be convinced of this that there is such a sinful disposition in the hearts of men that profess themselves to be Christians and yet live to themselves That is the first thing I would convince you of at this time Secondly I would shew you that whatsoever this disposition is it argueth a soule and sinful heart None of us do so saith the Apostle other men that have no part in these priviledges and comforts they do so they live to themselves Thirdly we will convince you of this life that it is simply necessary That so without delay every one â—…hat is convinced that he liveth to himself may now begin to leave that course to live to himself and hereafter live to God For the first of these To convince us that there are many amongst us that professe our selves to be Christs and yet are thus disposed and have this sinful affection to live to our selves Take this first in the general If there were not such a disposition in mens hearts the holy Ghost would not thus have directed the spirit of the Apostle in expressing this as a note of difference between them and others and as an argument that a strong Christian should beare with the weak because they do not live to themselves The Scripture giveth not rules in vaine But that yet we may see it more clearely you shall find this very thing complained of sometime and sometime forbidden Complained of Phil. 2.21 All seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Such a disposition there was in them that they sought their own they lived to themselves And forbidden 1 Cor. 10.24 Let no man seek his own but every one another mans wealth A thing expresly and in termes so clearely forbidden as no man can hide himself from the light of it He is certainly guilty of the breach of this command that seeks after his own that seeks himself But how shall we know that we may be more sensible of our own case whether it be thus with us or not whether we live to our selves and not unto God I will give you two general rules and tryals whereby a man may discern whether he live to himself or not The first is this Consider when a lust and an occasion meet together how you are I shall shew it in divers particulars Take it thus Sometimes you shall see that a man is put on to a good duty by incouragement sometimes he wants those incouragements Mark now how a man determineth and resolveth to act or to cease his action by vertue of these incouragements Sometimes you shall see that there is a command to a duty but no outward incouragement to that duty that may satisfie the desire of a mans heart in self-respects He must obey God in this command but he shall gain nothing in the world by it he shall neither grow rich nor get more esteem among men or have a more easie or pleasent life in outward things all self-respects fail in this action The question is what a man resolveth upon in this If now his heart start aside from God and fall off from the duty because he wants those incouragements that a man looks after a way for himself fulness to himself then it is evident thou hast respect to thy self Jehu all the while that his zeal to God might further him and the better settle himself in the kingdom of Israel he can call others to come up and see his zeal for the Lord but when his zeal had no such baiteâ—… and allurement to those actions then Jehu turneth against God and falleth to Idolatry and other sins Jehu is not now the man when these incouragements faile that he was before You have abundance in John 6.10 seeking Christ that still discovered a living to themselves in it You seek me saith our Saviour because of the loaves they had some outward advantage by him and therefore so long they sought him So the Lord discovered them in Hos 7. to be such as lived to themselves even in holy duties You cry unto me saith God but it is for corn and wine and oyle for this they cryed but when they had corn and wine and oyle what zeal had they then He that should have been upright when he waxed fat he kicked with the heel as the Lord speaks under the name of Jesurum to Israel That is one case Consider when things come thus that sometime those worldly advantages fall off from a man in the profession and practise of religion if he fall off from the duty
live to himself is bound to serve every man with every gift he hath If God have furnished a man with inward gifts the graces of his Spirit If a man have knowledge and faith or experience or comfort whatsoever graces of the Spirit he hath there are duties appointed and a Communion of Saints exprest that men may be stirred up to exercise those graces in that communion for the good of all the Saints Therefore we are said to have knowledge to profit with And gifts to edifie with All that a man hath God hath given him for this end that God may be glorified by it Hercin is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Men have much benesit by the graces of the Spirit in others when they are improved as they ought they are as lights amongst men in the world Grace when it is opened like the Box of oyntment raiseth a desire in others after it Grace exercised and communicated to others it sheweth the amiableness of it Christians should therefore do it that they may make Christianity lovely that they may make the profession of Religion amiable to the world that is by communicating the graces of God to others This every man should do in his place in his person take all advantages this way And as it is good for others so it is good for a Mans self to do thus a man increaseth his own store Liberality we say is the best husbandry There is no promise in the Scripture for hoarding up there are many to distribute I say it is the best husbandry in the world especially in spiritual things it is as the oyl increased in the pouring out like the loaves the more they were broken the more they multiplied still We see the hand noursheth it self by administring food to the mouth so a Christian not only exerciseth but increaseth grace in himself by communicating grace to others And what I say for spiritual I say for outward things If a man have wealth or honor or any of these outward things and an opportunity he should imploy them for others that it may appear that he doth not live to himself He that layeth up riches only for himself and his family liveth to himself He that followeth his calling only for himself and his family liveth to himself He doth that which a man out of Christ would do but a man that would live to God he must glorifie God with his estate To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased Heb. 13. Charge them that are rich in the world that they be not high-minded but ready to distribute to the necessities of the Saints 1 Tim. 3. It is a charge laid upon all to glorifie God with their estates with their Authority as they are magistrates as Job faith I was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind a father to the fatherless a husband to the widow He did all things for the good of others All men are ambassadours sent from God for the good of the bodies and souls of others Am I a neighbour it is for the good of the body and soul of every one that converseth with me according to the manifold gifts bestowed upon me and I live no further to God then I do extend and communicate all my particular gifts to the good of others both for soul and body Thus you have the point opened and pressed concerning living to our selves as a mark of those that are Christs that they do not live to themselves I beseech you brethren let this be the advantage of Funeral Sermons that are preached upon the occasion of the death of our deceased brethren to teach us how to live Let every man hereaster resolve to lead a profitable and fruitful life to do all the good he can while he liveth that for much good done to many thanks may be given by many on his behalf THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME OR THE RIGHT USE OF TIMES SHORTNESSE SERMON XI 1 COR. 7.29 30. But this I say bretrhen the time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fassion of this world passeth away THat I may briefly come to open to you the sum of that that I have to deliver out of this Scripture I desire you beloved in the Lord in few words to take notice of the drift and scope of the holy Apostle in this place and that is this The Corinths as it seemeth in the beginning of this chapter had written a Letter to Saint Paul wherein they did propound to him divers Cases of Conscience and did intreat him that he would send him judgement concerning those points Some five or six we may gather they did write to him about One was this whether he thought it either a lawful or a fitting thing for a man to marry The second was Whether if a man were married his Wife and he might not separate themselves one from another The third was If they did live together whether it were lawful for the one to deny to the other matrimonial benevolence The fourth Whether if one of them being a Beleever and the other an Infidel it were lawful or convenient for the beleever to remain a yoke-fellow to the Insidel These and divers other cases of concience they intreated Saint Paul to resolve them in Now the Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter writeth an Answer to every one of these Questions they propounded To some of them he answered thus Indeed I canuot give an absolute determination what is to be done but I suppose this and this is best And to another I advise such a thing I cannot directly determine the will of God but I have received mercy of God to be accounted faithful and if you would know my opinion it is this And so he giveth divers doubtful answers to their Questions only he telleth them this is fittest for the opportunity When he hath done all he cometh to this I have read But this I say brethren c. As if he should say The Questions I have given you an Answer to I think you know not what to resolve upon because I say only this is my counsel or this is my opinion But this I am peremptory in that is That they that have wives be as if they had none they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not This I do not come to say I suppose and I think it sit or I give my advise or for the present occasion it is fit to be thus But brethren herein I am consident and
the little time we have to continue below should be a marvellous means to take us off from the world and to put us upon the study and thought of better things Well now let me briefly apply this unto you that so I may come to that I principally intend Oh that we had learned this excellent lesson that the Apostle teacheth the Corinths here what wondrous happy people should we be You shall find evermore in the Scripture the Spirit of God putting the neglect that is amongst men and carelesness of heaven and all the wickedness of their lives upon this the not serious meditation of that small time they have to continue below If a man come to those that are not brethren as Saint Paul bespeaks the Corinths in the Text they will say It is true it is a good point to be prest upon a man that is in a consumption on one whom the Doctors have given over to tell him that he cannot continue a week that his time is short But for our parts we are but in the beginning of our voyage it may be we are but twenty years old we began but the other day to be furnished with a stock we are but newly entred and do you think that we are striking sayle Or another that hath lived forty or fifty years in the middest of a full trade that beginneth to get something in the world do you think that he is striking sayl Thus people put it off Alas what is thy time What is all thy life Let God decide it doth not he say it is a vapour a dream a tale that is told like a Ship that sayleth by and is gone and that in the turning or a hand almost If thou have no more time of life here but only while a little sand is running out of a glass while a Ship is sayling out of sight while a short tale is told God saith it is no more wilt thou account that thy voyage is yet scarcely begun I beseech you beloved all go home and often think of this point Say within your selves How long Lord am I like to continue below and what is there for me to do before I go out of this world But the truth is men dare not think of this and the Devil laboureth for nothing more in the world then this to make men put off the serious consideration of the brevity of their lives and that they have longer time to continue here then they have because he knows the truth of this that I have spoken that the meditation thereof will stir them up to make clear all reckonings with God before they gohence and he seen no more You may find this to be true in your own experience how loath men are to entertain thoughts of their latter end Go to one that lies sick of a Consumption and he will tell you the Docters say that I may live and I doubt not but I shall get up again such a one hath been brought as low as I and he is recovered and why may not I I once knew one that when the Phisitians came and told him that he must die Good Lord saith he what a deal of work have I to do I have all my seed to sow all my evidences to seal that my soul should he saved c. Such thoughts should enter into us now pitch on them seriously buckle to them soundly We may learn this point of wisdome of the divel himself He because he knoweth his time is short he is so much the fuller of rage and malice and plies his work with so much the more eagerness Wo be to the Inhabitants of the earth and the Sea Revelat. 12.12 for the divel is gone out amongst men having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time So should we do Think with thy self the seventh Angel will come ere long and sweare by him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall be no more time but GOD will have an account for the time past What if the Angel should come now and swear as ten to one but there is some man or woman in this Congregation concerning whom GOD hath determined that they shall have no more time before a week be at an end Put the case it should be any ones case thine or mine that God should say Go fetch such a man I will give him no more time It is true I give him some but now his voyage is at an end his sayl is struck and then we should have all to seek no Christ no true faith no evidence for Heaven when we must come and give an account to God What have you done with all your time will God say I must have a reckoning of it And then cometh in Imprimis so much time in drinking so much in revelling so much in dressing my self every day And then God shall say Were these the things I give you time for Did I bestow time on you for to be spent about such things as these No it was for Heaven Beloved how could we answer to these things It is good and profitable seriously to consider of this betimes say to thy self I have not long to live after awhile I must go hence and be no more I must give an account and a reckoning unto God of all that I have done whether it be good or evill But this is not the principal point I have to speak of therefore I pass it briefly I come to the Exhortatiou it self It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though thy had none and they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it c. In a word I take the sum of the exhortation to be as if the Apostle S. Paul had said thus Brethren you are ready to cast anchor trouble not your selves be stedfast gird up the loynes of you minds let your care be greatest for heaven as for these things that are here below if you have wives be as if you had none think assoon as you are ashoar you shall have none if you be sick or under any cross or affliction be as though you wept not suppose you be as a fellow that is fain to plie the pump all the day assoon as he is ashoar he is free if you rejoyce if you be in prosperity if you be as the Master of the Ship that hath great preferment be as if you rejoyced not Why you are almost come ashoare therefore be as if not in all these I will briefly open the meaning of all these particulars and then put all into one point of instruction and so come further to apply it unto you as God shall enable me What therefore is the meaning first Let them that have wives be as though they had none To that I answer A man
comfort if he have carried it well and much sorrow and griefe if he have carried it ill Thus a religious heart carrieth it self in this duty Now a worldly man doth the duty too but how as if not that is he hath none of this care before he cometh to it he hath none of this trouble when he is at it he hath none of this perplexity when he hath done if he have miscarried in it if he be able to come off it is well enough though it be performed in never so ill a manner Why his mind is after other things he intends greater matters as he thinks The Minister hath taught him to pray and he can say his prayers and so he doth the duty but still as if not Or again suppose a man whose heart is set upon Mammon put this man to recreation he may perhaps find time to play at Bowles or Cards or Tables with a friend but how he cares not whether he wins or loses he whiles away the time but this is not the thing his heart is set upon that giveth him contentment but that which his mind is on is his commodities his trade his merchandize his business in the world Just thus beloved it must be with every true beleever in the using of all the things of this life that is without care without fear without perplexity without distraction and if they come on so if they go so he must be pleased if he have them and content if he want them and howsoever his thoughts must be carried higher and better To think thus I am the servant of God I have a Calling here I will follow it in obedience to God I have a Wife I will use her as a wife should be used I have children I will have a care of their education But I must not come to be distracted about my calling about my wife and children and servants and good name or any thing that is here below I am here to day it may please God I may be gone to morrow my hearts desire must be to be content with this that God is my all-sufficient portion if I be in prosperity to be as if not if in affliction to carry my self so that in the middest of sorrow and trouble to be as if God freed me from all remembring still that my portion is in another life Thus you have seen both the lesson arising from the Text and what that is that in it is required of every true beleever And this point I am now to prove and still I must use the compellation of the Apostle Brethren for as for others I have little hope of I will as I promised make it plain out of the Scripture That a true beleever that would have comfort of it that he is a true believer must be as if not in all the things of this world There is one eminent place for this purpose viz. 1 John 4.10 Saith the Apostle there Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Hence I argue thus He that must so use wife children credit freinds good name prosperity without loving of them it is likely he useth them as if not for love is the great wheel that setteth all the faculties awork Now the Spirit of God doth directly forbid all Christians to love the world or the things of the world as they do the Scripture absolutely injoyneth that we should not love them that is that our hearts must not be fixed on them Another place you have likewise in Colloss 3.1 Set not your affections on things below Now as I said before if any man do any thing that his affections are not upon that he doth not love and joy and delight in that he doth not take care for and the like certainly that man useth it as if not but so must every true beleever use the things of the world so as that he must not set his affections upon them Other Scriptures I might give you to make good this point but I am somewhat afraid to be straitned Two or three arguments I will add to make it plain Why every true beleever must be as if not in all these things First because all the things in this world which are contained in the Text they are all but empty poor things to a beleever To another man who makes them his God in his conceit they are full but to a true beleever these things are well known to be but empty things I need give you no better proof to make this evident then that which followeth in the Text For the fashion af this world passeth away The fashion of the world What is that That is a thing that is a shew without a substance Nay the world signisieth such a fashion as is in a Comedy or stage-play where all things are but for a while to please the eye A man it may be acts the part of a King that is no better then a begger or a varlet so all things in the world are no better then shadowes and empty like a piece of a stage-play and no marvel if beleevers that know this use them as not Secondly another argument why beleevers must in all these things use them as if not is because they are none of a beleevers and being none of his it is a meer folly for him to set his heart upon them How are they none of his you will say First for the truth of it these things below they belong to the men of this life but the treasure and estate of a Beleever is laid up in another life he is but as a stranger and pilgrim here below and therefore they are none of his And then likewise they are none of his because he hath resigned them all up to God in the day when he made the bargain for Christ For when we come to be Christs we must sell all to buy that Pearl and in selling all we sell not only our corruptions and lusts but wives and children and pleasures and credit and all we have them not now to have and to hold to do what we will with them but now that we have Christ we return all to him and have them as Coppy-hold to be tenants at will to that great Land-lord we have only a little time in them And if it be so that every beleever hath no more to do in this world but thus that he is meetly at the pleasure of God and can properly call nothing his own but God and Christ then certainly he must use all these things as if not Conceive it thus A Traveller goeth a long journey hee cometh at night to his Inn when he is there he is woundrous glad of his table of his bed of his fire of his meat and drink and every thing and he is woundrous welcome but he doth not so delight in them as the
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore faith Jacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear by Christ This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infalible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to look for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ Without this there is little love to Christ The Church in Cant. 1.2 sheweth her love to Christ Draw me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming of Christ When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall here a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and Promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion
still a generation to praise God their Creator and so being a temporal thing ordained for the office of this life it ceasoth when Death cometh there is nothing but Death and that which Christ speaks of in the Gospel can make a separation when death cometh all relations cease and a wife is no wife and a husband is no husband Behold out of this the infinite love of God in Christ that hath made all things all unions and contracts hath made all to be void but his own for our Lord Jesus in life and death is our Husband our Lord our Master our Father as well in the one as in the other whereas by the intercourse of death all things are dissolved two of the best friends that are may part upon discontent and body and soul must part at Death and Husband and wife the Symbol of Christ and his Church must part one from another yet when all societies and contracts part Christ doth not part from us but he is in the Grave as well as in the highest heavens our Husband and Lord and Spouse and we are his Church still we keep the same relation and as strong bonds in death as in life My Dead Yet not withstanding though she was not Abrahams Wife yet she was Abrahams dead This must teach a man after he is freed by Death to the combination and contract yet that there is a care remaining from the Dead a love to that though not as to a Wife the respects of Man and Wife are carnal and fleshly Death cometh and cutteth down the flesh therefore cutteth off that respect too but because she was dead and there was such bonds hetween them formerly therefore a man is bound to lament and sorrow for his dead as Abraham did here to love the memory of the dead to speak well of the dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their vertues to use the friends of the dead as far as is in their power with all courtisie to be good to the children of the Dead those that the mother hath left and not to cast them into the hands of a furious woman a new Wife that neither careth for dead nor living but to have a special regard to the bonds and familiarity and that spiritual acquaintance that God made in this life and so to be good to all that come of that issue for their sakes Let me bury my dead Lastly it followeth why he would bury his dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight Was his grief so aggravated as he could not still behold her face or was it necessary that the carkasse it self must be conveyed away must it needs be that the body being now no way amiable but noisome must be conveyed out of a mans sight The best friend in the world cannot endure the sight of a dead body it is a gastly sight especially when it cometh to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evil savour and smell as all have when they are dead then to keep themselves in life and health it is necessary to avoid them to bury their dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the world as Sarah The great Kings of the world set her as a Parragon and she came no where but her beauty enamoured them she was a sweet prospect in all eyes every man gazed on her with great content to see the beauty of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every eye that looked upon her before now winks and cannot endure to look upon her she must be taken out of sight Oh bethink your selves of this you that take pride in this frail flesh that prank up your selves to make you graceful in every eye you that study to please the beholders you that are the great Minions of the world you that when age beginneth to purle your faces begin to redeem your selves with paintings think of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest woman in the world is loathsome to her husband her sweetest friend therefore I heseech you in the fear of God leave these fooleries and vain fancies remember what danger Sarahs beauty cast her into though it were a great gift of God yet she had better have been without it then to have that hazard of soul and body that she was brought to by Abrahams travels and necessity and know it that your best beauty is to please the eye of God to look beautiful in his sight for the sight of God is never weary the sight of men will be weary of you the best friends you have will loath to see you dead you will then be grisly in the eyes of men but the eye of God it is all one even in the dust and nothing can make you so ill-favoured but God will like you therefore labour to please Gods eye that never ceaseth nothing will make him after his affection whereas the eyes of men this life is so full of foul alterations as the least sickness bringeth an abomination unto them I see the time prevents me I will speak a little to the present occasion We have here a depositum a gage a pawn of a dear Sister of ours a woman known to you all to be of a holy Christian conversation a neighbour full of peace and quiet and of good works according to her calling She was also in the spiritual part a woman of a very good inclination loving the Word of God curious and attentive in the hearing of it She was much delighted in it and desired to communicate the knowledg she had in the Scriptures to others and to speak of it as often as occasion permitted By this study it pleased the Lord to work a constant and lively faith in her to put all her trust and considence in him She was now taken upon the sudden therefore the Lord hath left her as a pattern for us to look upon to take heed to our selves that we may make our peace with God and look for death every moment because we know not how soon we may be arrested She was indeed a woman of great trust and faith in God and one whose mouth was full of his praise still admiring and recounting the wondrous grace of God to her in all the course of her life in sparing her in giving her comfort in her conscience concerning the pardon and forgiveness of her sins and providing for her worldly helps which she thought never to attain to and in many other particulars She did open the grace of God according to her best understanding still giving the praise to his holy Name and no doubt if the stroke upon her had not been so fatal and as deadly as now it was we should have had the like fruit more abundantly at this time Howbeit she was not as one altogether destitnte but she called for and craved
the prayers of Gods people that they would lift up their hearts and hands and voyces to the Lord to look upon her and release her of her misery and trouble either by life or death for she was content either way She had some touches also of Divine Scripture as occasion offered themselves As when the light was brought in she desired to have the light of Gods countenance to shine upon her And when her eye-strings were broke that the tears did distill down she desired the Lord God to put her tears into his bottle and many such Luminations there were that came from her Her surcharged spirits were so taken and strucken as a man might perceive at the first there was no way but one her self drawing her self within as though that in the outward man there were no room for the soul to dwell there or to have a fit and opportune habitation I must needs advertise you of one thing that this cnstome of praising and commending of the dead is very full of danger because a man may be a lyer and a flatter before he be aware when he never intended it But truly for ought that I could discerne this Sister of ours was one that was very well deserving of a quiet and moderate spirit intentive and careful to govern her house and children and no way exorbitant for any thing that I can hear It is true that all are not of one Model as the bodies of men and women are not of one height and colour so the souls and spirits are not all of one elevation neither but we esteem the children of God according to that they have received and not according to that that they have not received as the Apostle speaks I say therefore according to the grace she had received I verily beleeve she was faithful and true to it that she received not the grace of God in vain she sought by all means to nourish and cherish it from one degree to another and to proceed from grace to grace And therefore I conclude in the judgement of Charity that we have very strong hopes and great probabilities of her happy translation She was a Daughter of Sarah as Saint Peter speaks of Women that he would have them demean themselves as Daughters of Sarah and such a one she was in her habit and attire in the manner of her life and society and company and therefore I doubt not but she inheriteth with Sarah the place of blessed mansions that the Lord hath made infinite specious and wide and capable for all blessed souls that put their trust in him Now this let us make use of to our own souls In that she had not that largeness of time she supposed to have had but was surprised so soon and vehemently as she could not dispose of her self in that manner as we know by experience she would have done it should be a lesson to us to be ready for God to be acquainted with God We have had two Corses one after another one a man another a woman both taken suddenly in respect of the time though they had thought to have made an overture of themselves to the world and thought to have made all things fair and easie by the confession and expression of their faith to the world but they were not suffered to do it So all presume to have time to make the world know that they be humble and penitent and to make their confession but many put it off till it be too late Let us not be put off with vain presumptions the Lord giveth and the Lrod takes we know not how soon We were born we know not when we shall die we know not when The Lord prepare us all for it GODS ESTEEM OF THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS PREACHED At the Funeral of Mr. John Moulson of Hargrave at Bunbury in Cheshire By S. T. SERMON XX. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints THe Psalm was composed by David to be an acknowledgment of that favour and grace of God which himself had experience of at some time or other but when or what the particular occasion of it was we are uncertain Some refer it to that escape which he made when Saul and his Troops had compassed him about upon the discovery of the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23.26 27 28. Others because Jerusalem is mentioned in the Psalm and Jerusalem at that time of Saul was not built as they conclude well against the time of the penning of it so they find also another occasion his escape from Absolom and that great plot 2 Sam. 15.14 Others include also his spiritual Conflicts his combattings with Gods wrath and his dispairs because of his sins together with some sicknesses and strong diseases accompanied with griefs and anxieties of mind In all which he found God benevolous and merciful unto him in the sense of which he rejoyces and as it was in his duty gives thanks and praises unto God He saith in the fourteenth vers he would make publique business of it and would pay his vowes corum populo in the presence of all the people and good reason he had for God hath oft releeved him and taken much care to preserve his life as he is ever tender of the safety of all his people for Pretiosa in oculis Jehovae c. Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The words are a Simple universall affirmative proposition wherein 1. The subject or thing spoken of is The death of Gods Saints 2. That which is spoken of it is That it is precious in the sight of the Lord. Which proposition may be resolved into these three observations 1. That there be some that are Gods Saints 2. That Gods Saints do also Die 3. That the Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight 1. There be some that are Gods Saints Sanctorum ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the vulgar latine reads it Misericordium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Pagnin after S. Hierome Bonificorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Piscator Piorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Mollerus The Kings translators have rendred it in our last English His Saints though they have given themselves a liberty in other places to render the Hebrew that is here by our English Holy as Ps 16.10 hhasideka Thy Holy one and the Hebrew word that properly signifies holy by our English Saints as Psal 16.3 Kedoshim To the Saints The Saint in the Text is in Hebrew hhasid and hhasid is beneficus and but in a secundary sence Sanctus Yet whereas it is rendred by the Septuagint once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerandus venerable which our English translates The good man Mic. 7.2 and once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverend or as our English hath it Righteous Prov. 2.8 Yet in all others places it is translated by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctus Saint or Holy and it
comparatively describes it and sets it forth he saith It is like a vapour that appeareth for a little while and vanisheth away According to the method that the Apostle hath laid down so shall my Discourse go on and first I will say something of the question he layeth down And then I will say something of the words of the Text. First to let us see what a poor uncertain thing we trust to when we build upon life the Apostle throws out this question Your life saith he What is your life Where first the Apostles phrase he speaks in is worthy to be observed your life not ours yours that make such accounts and reckonings as these promise to your selves what you will do in following your worldly business and increase your worldly gain What is your life The life of Worldlings the Apostle would secretly tax as some Expositers collect noting a difference and disparity between Christians in their wayes and Worldlings in theirs Worldlings are altogether for this Life and the things of this Life they never dream of any other to come Post mortem nihil c. as the Epicure in the Poet. Death that is an anihilation and after death there comes nothing Therefore all their projects and practices draw downwards they project for a worldly Life their buyings and sellings and markettings and profits these are the things they mind and seek after all the thought of their hearts are bent upon these cares all the dayes of their Lives are spent upon these things but there is another manner of Life that Christians look for There is a life hid with Christ in God they know there is another Life to come after this therefore their hearts are set upon other manner of objects They are not such as have their affections set upon the World they make not account of themselves as men of this World Plato being asked the question what Country-man he was he said he was a Citizen of the World a Christian is not so he is no Citizen of the World but a Citizen of Heaven therefore it is said We have our conversation in Heaven Phil. 3.10 The Greek word properly signifieth Citizens or Burgesses therefore Saint Jerome in his Epitaph upon Neapotian renders it so and Beza pertinent to the sense though not proper to the Text We carry and behave our selves like Citizens or Burgesses or Free-men of Heaven they have all their affections 〈◊〉 all their thoughts and desires bent that way if they can obtain that they have as much as they desire to crown their wishes withall they care for no other buying but of the truth they fear not selling but of their Souls they wish no gain but Heaven And indeed this Life doth only deserve to be called a Life this Life which the Saints which Christians live the Life that they live to God and this Life is that that must prepare them for a better Life the life in Heaven Of any other Life but this we may ask the question in the words of the Apostle What is it what is it It deserves not so much as the name as he saith though in name it be a life indeed it is a death but pretermit the disparity and difference between lives some are comparatively and other simply considered The Life simply considered is the subject of the Apostles question What is your life Questions alway in the Scripture are emphatical whether they tend to magnifie and advance or to the villifying and abasing of what they aim at this here is most emphatical to shew us how poor and base a thing Life is like that question in Job to shew how poor and base a thing man is Job 7.17 Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or settest thy heart upon him So David Psalm 8.4 Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou desirest him He shews how poor and base a thing man is and he himself gives the answer to it Psalm 114.6 Man is like to vanity Nay more plainly in Psalm 39.6 Surely man is vanity nay surely saith the Prophet man in his best estate is altogether vanity What could have been more emphatically spoken there is not a word there but it hath its force Man is vanity Every man is vanity Every man in his best estate is vanity Every man in his best estate is altogether vanity and then there is a word of asseveration by which he seals and buckles up all Surely every man in his best estate is altogether vanity If the Apostle had but barely and nakedly said what he had to say concerning the uncertainty and shortness of mans life it had been sufficient if he had said thus Your life is a vapour that appears for a little while c. but he fetcheth it in with a Quere he puts it to a question as if he would demur and have us to pause and consider of it he brings it in with a What is your life By the Apostles leave we may be bold to quit another question with him what the Apostle means to express it thus Surely it is to inculcate that into us more throughly and to make us pause upon that more seriously such questious as these make a great stop in a mans way as Amaza's body in 2 Sam. 12.12 it stopped the passage of the people that they could not get forwards so the interposing of such questions as these make a stop in our wayes and proceedings they make us take new thoughts and think again they make us enter into new cogitations whether it be better for us in that we are doing to persist or to break off Let the consideration of it teach us wisedome especially in perusing and foreknowing of our worldly business when we are about it let us ponder and pause and suppose and put the question whether do I well to do thus or what is it that I thus eagerly pursue what is it that I seek after Is it honour that I am ambitious of why what is our honour but a breath a height that many are raised to out of favour rather then desert like Phaetons Chariot or Icarus Plumes a Pinacle of honour upon which he that stands must expect advancement or ruin to some it is a cloud of smoak that the higher it mounts the sooner it dies Is it riches that we set our hearts upon let us ask the question what is riches but thick clay as Habakuk tearms it red and white earth as Bernard faith or the baggage of the earth as another expresseth it as baggage is to the Army so is riches to men it cannot well be left behind but alwayes hinders the march and sometime loseth the battel in the getting of them there is a great deal of labour in the keeping of them a great deal of care and in the foregoing of them a great deal of sorrow a man may have them and not be happy a man may
want them and yet be contented Is it pleasure we are in love with and dote upon let us ask the question what is pleasure as a rose senced with thorns as a honey combe filled with stings there is sweetness you will say but it is very dangerous forward it casts smiles but backward it throwes darts that joy is like the cracking of thorns when it goes out it is as the snuff of a candle there is a great deal of bitterness sometimes in the greatest joy we have Lastly is it life we build upon ask what is your life the Text answers that It is a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanisheth away If we could thus ponder and pause with serious meditations upon those worldly businesses that we so eagerly pursue and put these questions to our selves in the pursuing of them Beloved they would peradventure help us so far to see into the vanity and vexation of them as that the edge and heat of our desires would be abated and pulled down I have done with the Question the Apostle propounds What is your life Now I come to the words of the answer It is even a vapour that appeareth c. Wherein the shortness and uncertainty of our life is set forth in the description of it observe two things First what Secondly wherein First what it is compared to A vapour Secondly wherein it is compared to a vapour In two things The shortness of abiding The suddenness of departing First the shortness of abiding a vapour that appeareth for a while Where first observe that the Apostle faith it appears only he saith not it is but it appeareth so it rather appears then is any matter of substance And then this appearing is but short for a little while it tarries not And then the suddenness of the departure as the abiding is but short so the departure of it is sudden it is gone ere we are aware and when it is gone we know not what is become of it there is not so much as any print or memory of it left To what our life is compared that is the first point I am to speak of it t s compared to a vapour If the Apostle had given no answer at all to the question he puts we might have imagined his meaning and from other places of Scripture have abundantly supplyed it How many times and places of Scripture sets forth the shortness and uncertainty of our life by sundry similitudes and comparisons sometimes it is compared to a dream sometimes to a span sometimes to a shadow sometimes to a weavers shuttle sometimes to a swift post sometimes to a short race sometimes to a watch in the night sometimes to a flower in the field sometime to a tale that is told All these are significant expressions to shew the shortness and uncertainty of life so that from other places of Scripture we might answer the Apostles question though he had said nothing but his own answer expresseth it fitly and fully by a pregnant and pertinent resembling it to a vapour The Philosophers observe differences between vapours and exhalations though both are drawn from the earth yet the matter of an exhalation is moist and hot the matter of vapours moist and cold Exhalations rise from the superficies of the earth Vapours lie in the earth exhalations continue longer vapours shorter but I need not stand upon Philosophical distinctions your life is a vapour Observe how the resemblance holds between the one and the other First a vapour is nothing but a breath therefore it is called so of a word that signifieth blowing or a breath or nothing but smoak therefore Act. 2. it is called a vapour of smoak and such is our life a vapour because breath is nothing but the breath of life So Moses called it in Gen. 2.7 and when a man dies it is said his breath departs from him Therefore the Prophet Isaiah he brings it as an argument to shew what a vain thing it is for a man to trust upon one that hath no more hold of his life then so Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils what account is to be made of him yea it is even as smoak his dayes pass and vanish away as smoak Secondly vapours are ingendered in the earth and they lodge in the caverns and hollow places of the earth that is their mansion house where they have their being such a vapour is our life for this body of ours wherein our life is it is a body of earth Man hath his foundation in the dust Job 14. and there God hath provided a receptacle and dwelling place for our life to be received into and contained it is said when God gave it Adam first he blew it into his nostrils there he made a lodging for it therefore man is said to have his breath in his nostrils in regard of which there is no trust to be given to him nor no account to be made of him Thirdly Vapours are drawn out of the earth by the Sun into the ayr some to higher regions then others are yet when they are all at their highest they have no fixing nor setling but are carryed and agitated and tossed by the winds till at last they be dissolved in showers and dewes and fall back to the earth so it is with our life we come all at the first as vapours out of the earth and there we have suns that draw us up the favour of Princes peradventure or great persons some to higher regions then others some are drawn to high places of honour but when they are there they have no setling no fixing as vapours in the ayr they are hurried and tossed and carried to and fro from one wind to another and after a long and restless motion at last they fall down to the earth again out of which they were taken Fourthly where the earth exhales many vapours the earth is not so pure and wholsome as other places for by experience we find the healthfullest places are in the hilly high Countries but moarish low grounds have least health and shortest lives because of vapours our life is a vapour in this respect Many ill ayres continually exhaled in our corrupt natures the world is full of inordinate concupisence and the Divel poysons every place where he comes so that while we live here we live in a Moarish ground and full of ill vapours and ayr and therefore the higher we climb the safer as God faith to Lot in another case when he bid him get him to the Mountains and there he should be safe so if we can get up to the Mountain the mount Sion the place and habitation for God and his blessed Angels for ever there we shall dwell in safety for there are no foggs and mists of temptations there are no ill ayrs there is nothing that favours of sin or misery either to breed us anoyance or threaten vexation So you see the first thing
service of God our reward shall be eternal life not that we deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AIM IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their own pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousness and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiency in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious Inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withal jointly and together as might be manifested by the allegations of Scripture as be not slothful but be ye followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in the Epistle and more especially in the 10 11 and 12. Chapters In the latter end of the tenth Chapt. you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary means to attain everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soul The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessity of Faith to an acceptable walking and well-pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting down the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for then Faith by which saith he they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posterity standing out to this day also many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them be at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle have spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessary to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithful managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessary uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us run the race that is set before us and run with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithful are to make account of sufferings in divers kinds in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunity in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud vers 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his several administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I do but touch upon these things hast ening on to the main thing I intend only desiring to give you a plain and brief Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drink many times of a cup of bitterness yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proof of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take such a course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his dear love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth vers 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all his children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their souls that they are his adopted ones and such as he will one day acknowledge for to be his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth between God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verily for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in several particulars and the preheminency the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First We have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have been contented to undergo the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of
spirits meaneth to keep us under his discipline suppose it be all our time and perhaps it shall be so yet all that is but the time of our minority and therefore if we have been content to submit to our earthly parents their discipline for a few dayes shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits to his chastisement though it be for our life-time for the disproportion is infinitely greater between the time of this life compared with the state of maturity and ripe age which the Saints shall come to hereafter and the time of our minority and child-hood compared with the state of full age and man-hood in this life for alas how short are our dayes they are spent even as a tale that is told But lastly that the Apostle might over-power the spirits of the godly and quiet their minds and make them compose themselves to a patient waiting upon God and a willing submission to whatsoever condition he shall bring them into Our earthly parents saith he according to their pleasure and many times in the strength of passion and with over-much unadvisedness and heat of bloud not so much respecting the weak condition of their children chastened us but he that is our heavenly Father the Father of spirits for our profit and what profit that we might be partakers of his holiness This is an Argument I conceive very sutable to the occasion of our meeting together at this time in regard of those whom more especially and neerly it concerneth the Parents of this deceased young Gentleman whom the Lord is pleased now deeply to afflict and to reach out to them a bitter Cup I shall endeavour therefore to speak somewhat in this Argument And though it concerns them in a more special manner yet it is a meditation that concerns us all to take knowledge of and such a one as if we belong to God and that the Lord hath a purpose to bring to heaven we shall have occasion in our time to make often use of Passing over therefore other things let us come to consider of this latter part of the verse and of the latter part of the comparison here framed by the Apostle in order to the strengthning of his main Argument whereby he urgeth his exhortation to the patient bearing of those Afflictions that God shall be pleased to exercise us withall Our earthly Parents for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but He the Father of our spirits for our profit that he might make us a partaker of his holiness In the words themselves we have to consider these particulars And the main pillars of our discourse for the present letting passe the rest shall be these severals First we are to take knowledge of this point in the general viz. That God Almighty is graciously set to procure and further the good and profit of his people Secondly and more particularly That in all the afflictions and chastisments he bringeth upon his people his eye and aim is at their good Thirdly The great profit and benefit that God aimeth at and intendeth to his people in all his fatherly administrations especially of castigation is that be might make them partaker of his holiness I begin with the first and the more general point You see the Text importeth it plain enough that God Almighty is graciously set for to procure and promote and further the good and benefit and profit of his people of such as fear his name of such as he is pleased to receive for his own his heart I say is set upon them to do them good he is studious of their profit he hath a due respect to their benefit in all his dealings and administrations to them Next to his own glory which is dearest to him of all things else and good reason too for that is better then salvation and eternal happiness But I say next to his own glory and the glory of his beloved Son Jesus Christ the main thing that he aimeth at is that he might make his people happy with him and that they might be every way profited and advantaged both in soul and body and furthered to eternal happiness This will appear to us if we consider first The ordinances of God which he hath appointed in order to his peoples good Secondly if we consider his commandements and impositions And Thirdly if we consider all his various administrations toward them All which will clearly manifest to us that Gods aim in all is at the profit and benefit of his people I shall touch but upon some particulars and on them neither I shall but onely glance because I would keep my self within the compass of the time First consider the Lords ordinances that he hath provided for his people and calleth them out to give attendance upon they are all with respect to his peoples profit and an eye to that As for instance That great Ordinance which God hath set up in his Church namely that of preaching and dispensing of the sacred misteries of the Gospel it is with respect to his peoples profit To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ That they might be brought into the fellowship of this mistery and be inriched with all the treasures of the Gospel And the Apostle saith that all Scripture which this ordinance of Preaching is to be conversant about that Scripture which we are to break abroad among you this way it is profitable Profitable for Doctrine for reproof for instruction for correction and it will make the man of God perfect So profitable as that it is able to perfect a man to make him wise to salvation and we need no more wisdom The like might I speak concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It is instituted of God with an eye to his peoples benefit that they may come to be made partakers of that profitable flesh and bloud for so I may justly call it of the Lord Jesus It is not the bloud of Bulls and of Goats it is not the bloud of all the men in the world that is profitable for such purposes as the pacifying of the wrath of God the quenching of the flames of his displeasure the purging of the conscience from dead works of those we may say as David in another case what profit is there in my bloud But there is profit in the bloud of Christ and with respect to that this ordinance is provided in the Church that the people of God attending thereon according to his institution may come to be made partakers of the vertue and benefit thereof having the remission of their sins thereby sealed up to their consciences through faith in that bloud The like Instance might I give of Prayer and the rest of those holy ordinances
whipping his people to hold them under such sharp discipline it is for the profit of the children so the Text expresseth it but he for our profit Which first of all implieth that afflictions and chastisements are a means conducing to the profit of those that undergo them A point plain in the Text and the Scripture abundant in the proof of it and the experience of the Saints in a plentiful manner confirming it It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted And Joseph giveth this honourable testimony of God The Lord saith he hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my afflictions and thereupon giveth his child a name sutable Afflictions and chastisements they become profitable as the furnace to the gold to purge out the dross to make a separation between the pure mettal and the ore Profitable as physick to the body to purge out the malignant humours Profitable as sope to the cloth to fetch out the stains to take out the greasie spots it is the Scripture expression their hearts are as fat as grease to make them white Profitable as the Thunder to the Ayr to purge it to make it more commodious to breath in Profitable as the wind to the water to make it the purer by its ventilation Profitable as the pruning knife to the tree to make it more fruitful These and the like metaphors we have and by them we are to conceive of the good and benefit that comes to us by Gods castigation and fatherly exercising of his people with his discipline and rod of Affliction But what are these blessed fruits what is the profit accruing to the soul of the people of God by this means I can but name part of them Besides that which is exprest in the Text that we might be partaker of his holiness there are these gracious effects of afflictions Weaning from the world a bringing us into more acquaintance with God Manasseth when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and then saith the Text he knew that the Lord he was God God by this means makes us know our selves the vanity of the creature the sinfulness of sin the sweetness of the Word the excellency that is in the promises makes us more compassionate to others keepeth us from hell and many other fruits there are of afflictions But to pass this A second thing implyed in the Doctrine is this that as afflictions are means conducing to our profit so God in exercising his people with them mainly intendeth it The Lord saith Moses led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought where there was no water suffered thee to hunger brought thee into hard straits but what was Gods aim in this that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at the latter end By this saith the Prophet speaking of the afflictions of the Church shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin This I say is that which God intendeth by the afflictions of his people and this is that which the servants of God by faith have been able to apprehend and to interpret the Lords meaning in all his sharp dispensations towards them As the Propbet Habakuk having made a terrible description of the Babylonish rod he concludes in the twelfth verse of his first Chapter Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God We shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Judgment and O mighty God thon hast established them for correction This is that likewise which the Saints of God have looked for and expected that while the winds of afflictions have been blowing some ship or other should come home richly fraighted So David when that storm of cursing came from the mouth of Shimei Oh saith David let him alone let him curse it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day So when Rabshaketh came up against Jerusalem Let him alone saith Hezekiah answer him not a word it may be the Lord will hear the words of Rabshaketh whom his Master hath sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord hath heard It may be the Lord will open his ear upon this rage and blasphemy and consider his people and do them good The Saints of God I say have expected good and benefit from Gods afflicting of them For the use of this and so to draw to a conclusion In the first place Seeing this is Gods intent in all his administrations to his people especially in his castigations of them and reaching out unto them such sharp and bitter potions It may serve to check and controul all those hard thoughts that we are apt to suffer to lodge within us concerning Gods dealing with us in the time of our distresses Apt we are to speak foolishly and unadvisedly concerning God and to misconster his administrations This hath been the frailty of Gods dearest servants in their affliction I shall one day said David perish by the hand of Saul Woe is me saith Isaiah for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips The Lord saith the Church hath broken my teeth with gravel stones and covered me with ashes he hath removed my soul far off from peace and I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. The Lord hath forsaken me saith Zion and my Lord hath forgotten me Job though for a good while he carried himself very fairly and demeaned himself very warily toward God yet when he began to be wet to his skin then he speaks foolishly and unadvisedly falleth to the cursing of his day not to the cursing of his God as Satan thought he would but of his day though that was too much and ill beseeming so holy a man The Saints I say are apt to mistake themselves this way and to over-shoot themselves in this case We should therefore humble our selves before the Lord for this distemper of soul and labour to keep down such unquiet thoughts and hard disputings that are apt to rise within us against God and his dispensations And consider that whatsoever our thoughts are yet the Lord knoweth his own thoughts concerning us as he himself speaks in Jer. 29. howsoever saith he you may think that I intend to cut you off for ever yet I know my thoughts that I think towards you even thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Again secondly it may serve to comfort the godly concerning all the means and instruments of their sufferings whether they be men or devils Wicked men and devils whom God useth as a Rod to chastise his people their malice is great and their
and remediless torment upon body and soul for ever Thirdly the Saints have here consolation against the mortality and corruption whereto they are subject here in this world wherein their condition is common with the condition of all for that that befalleth one may befall every one in regard of the outward estate and condition All must die Nay further here is consolation against the distresses and afflictions and pressures whereto the Saints are subject above others for their profession sake in this very respect they are hated they are persecuted all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven Where is now there comfort surely this that is set before us you heard that natural men are dead while they live but those that are in Christ do live while they may seem to be dead Jonah lived when he was cast into the Sea swallowed up by a Whale and was even as it were in hell so the Saints though swallowed up as we may say in the tempestuous sea of this world by cruel Whales yet notwithstanding they stil live that life that is begun here in the world whereof you heard before And to this purpose the Apostle Saint Paul in 2 Cor. 4.9 10 11 12. sheweth plainly that though they are given up unto death daily for Jesus sake yet they are not destroyed not clean swallowed up but that they live in Christ and that Christ liveth in them We are perplexed but not in despair perseouted but not forsaken c. And this is it that doth comfort them both the fruition of that life that they have here and their expectation of the accomplishment and fulness thereof in the kingdom of heaven Now my brethren this is the rather to be observed of us because of all others the Saints seem to be most subject to death And the truth is here is matter of admiration in regard of their happiness that notwithstanding that condition whereto they are subject there is a life they enjoy in this world there is a better life prepared for them hereafter And what can be more desired Life of all things else is most esteemed Men are ready in sickness and in other distresses to spend all that they have as the Woman that was troubled with the bloudy issue spent all that she had upon the Physitians to preserve life to recover health Solomon speaking according to the conceit of men saith that a living Dog is better then a dead Lyon any life better then a death thus they imagine and Satan well knew mens account of life when he could say Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will be give for his life Now if so be that this temporal life here that is but a flower but a bubble but a blast but a breath yea that life that in the shortness thereof is subject to so much perplexity as it is be notwithstanding so highly esteemed what is the life here promised that while here in the enjoying in regard of the first fruits thereof is accompanied with such a peace as passeth understanding accompanied with the very joy of the Holy Ghost and in the consummation thereof such contentment such glory as the tongue of man cannot express the mind of man cannot conceive It is noted of the Apostle Saint Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven and saw but a glimps of this life he did there see they are his own words unutterable matter things that cannot be exprest And therefore in this respect he saith and that which he saith may be most fitly applied to this the things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man are such as God hath prepared for them that love him This is that Life which we are so to consider of as it may make us say with the Apostle I account that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be campared with the glory which shall be revealed in us for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory It will be here said whence cometh this or what may be the ground thereof My Text telleth you It is stiled here Grace of Life Neither will I here insist upon the divers acceptations of grace as it is in man as it is Gratis data or as it is in God as it is Gratis faciens making us accepted with himself It is more clear then need to be proved that eternal life it cometh from divine grace Grace is the ground of it Being justified by grace saith the Apostle and again by Grace you are saved And indeed all things that bring us thereto are in Scriptures attributed to Grace And needs must it be so For First out of God there can be nothing done to move him to do this or that as if it should be done for our sakes either meriting or procuring of it He is independant and we are depending upon him and whatsoever we have is out of our selves and cometh from him Again in Man there can be nothing What is there in man but misery whatsoever man had or hath if there be any good thing he hath it from this fountaine of goodness all our sufficiency is of God And this is briefly to be noted against that proud and arrogant position of our Adversaries concerning the merit of mans works as if man by any thing in him could merit or deserve this life it is not the merit of life but the grace of life Surely they know not God they know not his infiniteness his all-sufficiency they know not man his emptiness his impotency his vileness his cursedness they know not this life they know not the reward the excellency of it the disproportion between any thing that man can do and this life that is thus graciously bestowed that have such a conceit Let them therefore pass with their foolish opinion For our own parts it affordeth to us another ground of comfort and that in regard of our unworthiness for as we are creatures we are less than the least of Gods mercies but as we are mortal creatures dust and ashes much more unworthy of any favour but as we are sinful creatures having provoked the Justice of God most most unworthy of any grace of any life most worthy of all judgements and vengeance of eternal death and damnation Where is now our hope what ground shall we have that have nothing in our selves surely this the ground of this life the grace of God What God doth he doth for himself for his own names sake Grace is free And these two joyned together give evident demonstration of God to be a God in the thing that he doth confer upon thee and in his dealing of it the greatness of the
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge from all both former and following miseries and that is this if in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
of poor people at Macedonia being so poor that the Apostle bears witness of them they gave above their ability We see a poor man and yet an heir of heaven lying full of sores and in want at the gate of Dives that was after thrown into hell An heir of heaven and yet on earth a Beggar You see then beloved the point is true now we will descend and see how it appears to be so and for what respect it comes to pass by Gods providence First it becomes so that there may be a conformity between the head and the members for Christ that was rich for our sakes became poor saith the Scripture even Christ that was rich and Lord over all became poor and in the form of a servant unto all for our sakes so poor that we see the foxes had holes and the fowles of the ayre had nests but our Redeemer had no shelter no not so much room as to rest his head Now there must be a conformity between Christ and his members if the head be poor necessity makes the other members partake of the same Cup. Again secondly if you observe and look on the condition of Gods Saints of the houshold of faith on earth here you shall find small occasion to marvel at their simple estates considering they are a company of travellers and Pilgrims in this world I beseech you as Pilgrims and strangers c. They are not only strangers which may have riches conveyed unto them after some certain stay in a place But they are Pilgrims and time will not permit their abode in one place upon any condition of advantage for their profession compels them from one place to another On whom our Proverbe may truly be verified that a rouling stone gathers nothing They are Pilgrims and Pilgrims desires extend no further in this life then a staffe and a scrip This is the brood of travellers saith David that seek thy face Thirdly there followes another reason and that proceeds from the opposition they find in the world against their course the world labours to make them poor and having prevailed like an imperious Jaylor to a distressed prisoner endeavours to keep them under And it comes so to pass in regard of the natural enmity and division that is in the world in opposition of the wayes of God You shall find that our Saviour intending to go to Jerusalem made his way through Samaria and dispatched some before to provide him lodging But the Samaritans understanding or suspecting that he was minded to go thither refused to entertain him They would not receive him saith the Text Why Because he was going unto Jerusalem Beloved thus deals the world with the members of Christ if they would rely on the world and make that their end as they do then riches should flow in in abundance and their estates might arive to be as eminent and mighty as others But if their minds be resolved for Jerusalem and their eyes reflect that way Let them seek their own entertainment for they shall receive no benefit nor enjoy any contentment by their permission Lastly God disposeth it to be so by his wondrous providence that his glory may be so much the more conspicuous and open in providing that they of the houshould of faith should endure the scourge of poverty on earth that so the work of his grace may appear the more in them by the means of their poverty for when doth grace make it self more manifest in the heart then in the middest of such extremities The stars make the brightest reflection in the obscurest night and grace appears most glorious chiefly in distress You have heard of the patience of Job had not Job endured much sorrow and been exercised in many afflictions the world had been ignorant of his vertues he was first deprived of his substance and suffered the torments of his body before he expressed his patience You have heard of the faith of those people which wandered in sheeps-skins and goats-skins But how could you have been acquainted with their faith if you had not heard of their clothing you see them in sheeps-skins and goats-skins enduring contempt of the world to preserve faith and a good conscience and so you became acquainted with their faith also Is it so then that Gods servants are thus then let the world wonder their fill at it and let not us account it a strange thing saith Saint James for it befalls others of the Saints So say I when we see of the houshold of faith in poverty account it no strange matter that God bestows not riches in this world to one that is rich in grace You see a multitude of believers stript of all they had and yet they were holy and religious Secondly condemn not their wayes for the entertainment they meet within the world Like not the worse of the wayes of God because he afflicts his servants you should then judge evil of the generation of the just You know Job was a man beloved of God from heaven he witnesseth his goodness He was an upright and a just man one that feared God and eschewed evil Notwithstanding you see how he was environed with troubles and made destitute of means and the society of his friends insomuch that his three familiar acquaintance did conclude that therefore he was an hypocrite and that God had found him out in some sin But the ensuing displeasure of God towards these men though it took no effect because of the righteous invocation of his servant Job will tell us there belongs a Judgment to those that censure the Children of God by their afflictions weighing their sins their sufferings both in one scale together But beware of incurring Gods displeasure by accusing the generation of the just in respect of their unprosperous events in this World Thou seest one man disgraced in much trouble it may be in extream necessity for want of these outward blestings presently thou concludest something is amiss in his life Thou perceivest another grows rich having riches and honour and applause in the World notwithstanding he goes on in a prophane course yet thou concludest certainly God loves this man these are dangerous conclusieâ—…s Cain and Esau were beloved of God if this be a sign of love now God himself said that He hated Esau Esau whom God hated had twelve Dukes to his Sons enjoying abundance and superfluity of all things and therefore forbear to reprove the just man or call his integrity into question because of his outward poverty Thirdly take heed you despise not the Houshold of Faith for outward poverty think not meanly of them nor the worse of Grace because of their simple outside for this is to have the Faith of God in respect of mens persons when a man comes in gay cloathing you say sit here in a goodly place but a man in meaner apparel stand thou there
quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either from a word signifying to stretch because death stretcheth out the body or from words signifying to tend upwards because by death the soul is carried upwards returning to God that gave it In Latine Mors either quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our fatal portion or as Saint Austin will have it a morsu because the biting of the Serpent caused it The letter or word is but like the bark or rind the sence is the juyce yet here we may suck some sweetness from the bark or rind From the hebrew Muth we learn that our tongues must be bound to their good behaviour concerning the dead we must not make them our ordinary table talk or break jeasts upon them much less vent our spleen or wreak our malice on them we must never speak of them but in a serious and regardful manner de mortuis nil nisi bene From the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenuem in 〈◊〉 aspiratam we must learn to extend our hands to the poor especially near death which stretcheth out our bodies and to send our thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the things that are above whether if we die well the Angels shall immediately carry our souls From the Latin mors so termed quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divido we are to learn to be contented with our lot and bear it patiently considering first that we brought it upon our selves secondly that we gain this singular benefit by it that our misery shall not be immortal O Death to which Death speaketh the Apostle for the Scripture maketh mention of the first and second death and Saint Ambrose also of a third The first Death with him is the death of nature of which it is said they shall seek death and not find it The second of sin of which it is said the soul that sinneth shall die the death The third of grace which sets a period not to nature but to sin The Death here meant is the first death or the Death of nature which the Philosophers diversly define according to their divers opinions of the soul Aristoxemis who held the soul to be an harmony consequently defined Death to be a discord Galen who held the soul to be Crasis or a temper Death to be a distemper Zeno who held the soul to be a fire Death to be an extinction Those Philosophers who held the soul to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Tully interpreteth it continuam motionem Death to be a cessation The vulgar of the Heathen who held the soul to be a breath Death to be an expiration Lastly the Platonicks who held the soul to be an immortal spirit Death to be a dissolution or separation of the soul from the body and this is two-fold 1 Natural 2 Violent 1 Natural when of it self the natural heat is extinguished or radical moisture consumed for our life in Scripture is compared and in sculpture resembled to a burning lamp the fire which kindleth the flame in this light is natural heat and the oyle which feedeth it is radical moisture Without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either natural heat or radical moisture fail life cannot last 2 Violent when the soul is forced untimely out of the body of this Death there are so many shapes that no Painter could ever yet draw them We come but one way into the World but we go a thousand out of it as we see in a Garden-pot the the water is poured in but at one place to wit the narrow mouth but it runneth out at 100 holes Die Some 1 By fire as the Sodomites 2 By water as the old World 3 By the infection of the Ayre as threescore and ten thousand in Davids time 4 By the opening of the earth as Corah Dathan and Abiram Amphiraus and two Cities Buris and Helice Some meet with Death IN 1 Their Coach as Anteochus 2 Their chamber as Domitian 3 Their bed as John the Twelf 4 The Theater as Caligula 5 The Senate us Caesar 6 The Temple as Zenacherib 7 Their Table as Claudius 8 At the Lords-Table as Pope Victor and Henry of Luxenburge Death woundeth and striketh some With 1 A pen-knife as Seneca 2 A stilletto as Henry the Fourth 3 A sword as Paul 4 A Fullers beam as James the Lords Brother 5 A Saw as Isaiah 6 A stone as Pyrrhus 7 A thunderbolt as Anustatius What should I speak of Felones de se such as have thrown away their souls Sardanapalus made a great fire and leaped into it Lucretia stabbed her self Cleopatra put an Aspe to her breast and stung therewith died presently Saul fell upon his own sword Judas hanged himself Peronius cut his own veines Heremius beat out his own brains Licinius choaked himself with a napkin Portia died by swallowing hot burning coals Hannibal sucked poyson out of his ring Demosthenes out of his Pen c. What seemeth so loose as the soul and the body which is plucked out with a hair driven out with a smell fraied out with a phancy verily that seemeth to be but a breath in the nostrils which is taken away with a scent a shadow which is driven away with a scare-crow a dream which is frayed away with a phansie a vapour which is driven away with a puffe a conceit which goes away with a passion a toy that leaves us with a laughter yet grief kild Homer laughter Philemon a hair in his milk Fabius a flie in his throat Adrian a smell of lime in his nostrils Jovian the snuff of a candle a Child in Pliny a kernil of a Raison Anacyeon and a Icesickle one in Martial which causeth the Poet to melt into tears saying O ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquae what cannot make an end of us if a small drop of water congealed can do it In these regards we may turn the affirmative in my Text into a negative and say truly though not in the Apostles sence O Death where is not thy sting for we see it thrust out in our meats in our drinks in our apparel in our breath in the Court in the Country in the City in the Field in the Land in the Sea in the chamber in the Church and in the Church-yard where we meet with the second party to be examined to wit the Grave O Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the language of Ashdod it signfied one thing but in the language of Canaan another The Heathen writers understand by it First the first matter out of which all things are drawn and into which they are last of all resolved So Hippocrates taketh the word in
the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withouâ— blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then
of the Creed concerning the happiness of the dead and the glorious estate of the Tryumphant Church and the life of the World to come If we desire to be informed concerning the affaires of the Abissens or those of China Sumatra or Japan we confer with those that are of the same Country or have travelled into those parts and for the like reason if we desire to be instructed concerning the state and condition of the Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem their insinite number their excellent order their singular priviledges their everlasting joyes their feasts their robes their palmes their thrones their crowns we must enquire of them who either are inhabitants there or have brought us news from thence nothing but a voyce from Heaven can enforce our assent to these heavenly mysteries Now as all words of Kings are of great authority but specially their Edicts and Proclamations so all voyces from Heaven are highly to be regarded and religiously obeyed but especially Decrees and Statutes which are commanded by the authority of the high Court of Heaven to be written for perpetuity such as this is in my Text I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write with a Pen of Diamond in letters never to be oblitrated write it so that it may be read of men in all succeeding Ages even to the last man that shall stand upon the earth Here I cannot sufficiently admire the boldness of Cardinal Bellarmine who to disparage the necessity of holy Scripture and cry up unwritten traditions which are the best evidence he can produce for his new Trent Creed blusheth not to publish it to the World in print that the Apostles and Evangelists had no command from God to write their Gospels or Epistles but that they wrote upon the entreaty of some friends or some emergent occasious Were there no other Text in all the holy Scriptures but this nor word in this Text but this one Write it were alone sufficient to convince him of gross ignorance if not rather giving the lie to his own knowledge But yet farther rather to confound him with shame then convince him with evidence doth not the Apostle affirme in general of the whole Scripture that it is given by Divine inspiration and what is inspiring but a kind of dictating to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost and doth not he that dictateth to another both tell him what he shall write and bid him write it Besidesin the 1 of the Apocalypse vers 10 11. Saint John heard a great voyce as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a Book Thirdly besides the general command of committing the whole Word of God to writing and a special mandate for the writing the Apocolypse we have a singular precept for the writing the precise words of this Text and must not that needs be thrice worthy our observation which is written by a threefold command and what is that Blessed are the dead If the dead are blessed the dead are for an argument a terito adjacente ad secundum ever holdeth if the tearms be taken in the proper sence The Metaphisicks demonstrate non ent is nullus esse affectiones that such things as have no existence have no qualities nor real attributes but blessedness is here attributed to the dead the dead therefore are And the Philosopher who being demanded whether the living or the dead were more in number answered that doubtless the living quia mortui ne sunt quiedm because the dead were not to be reckoned upon in regard now they are not at all spake without book and uttered that which is most false as we learn from the mouth of Truth himself who not only affirmeth that the dead are but that they are also living though dead to this World yet not to the World yet not to the World to come dead to men but not dead to God have ye not read saith our Saviour what is spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him but are all the dead blessed the Text answereth all the dead that die in the Lord That die in the Lord Yea but you will say those that are already dead cannot die what then is the meaning of this phrase the dead that die in the Lord Saint Ambrose answereth he that is dead already cannot die in the same sence that he is dead but he that is already dead in one sence may be said to die in another he that is dead to the World as all the regenerated who have mortified the deeds of the flesh may afterwards die to the body and so die in the Lord that is breath out his soul into the hands of the Lord. This is sound Divinity and a true proposition but no true exposition of this place in which the latter seemeth to be a limitation of the former as God is near to all that call upon him yea all that call upon him faithfully so here blessed are the dead what all dead howsoever they die no but all that die in the Lord. There is much variety among the interpreters about the interpretation of this phrase to die in the Lord. Some will have the meaning thereof to be those that die for the Christian faith and seal the truth thereof with their bloud And they alleage for themselues first parallel texts of Scripture wherein the preposition in is put for pro for as Gen. 18.13 Omnes in te benedicentur all Nations shall be blessed in thee that is for thee and in thy seed that is for thy seed and Gen. 28.18 servivi Berachel word for word I served in Rachel that is for Rachel Next they alleage the antecedents together with the occasion of these words verse 12. here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keep the commandements of God and the faith of Jesus Christ and truly the main scope of the Text seemeth to be to arm the godly with patience and to encourage them to fight against the Beast upon whom before God execute vengeance if it so fall out that many of Gods faithfull servants loose their lives Yet that none should be dismayed therewith because all that so die are blessed for they exchange a temporal life in this World for an eternal in another Thirdly say they it cannot be well conceived how any can die in Domino in the Lord who is the Lord of life if we take the preposition in the proper sence for though in the natural body a member may be cut off and die the head being alive yet it is not so in the mystical body of Christ no true Member thereof can be cut off much less die while it continues in that body by dying in the Lord therefore we must understand dying
ill in this fain he would stisle the light in his conscience which if he would open his eyes would clearly discover unto him a future tribunal yet sometimes he cannot smother it and therefore as Tully who saw a glimering of this truth observeth he is wonderfully tormented out of a fear that endless pains attend him after this life Well let the flesh and fleshly minded men deem or speak what they list concerning the state of the dead the Spirit of truth faith that all that die in the Lord are blessed But where faith the Spirtt so In the Scriptures of the old and new Testament and in this vision and in the heart and conscience of every true believer First in the Scriptures let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like unto his refrain thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy works shall be rewarded and there is hope in thine end faith the Lord precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the Righteous shall wash his foot in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous Christ is in life and death advantage for I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Secondly in this vision for Saint John heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write it as it were with a Pen of Iron upon the Tomb of all that are departed in the Lord for so faith the Spirit Lastly the Spirit speaketh it in the heart and soul of every true believer lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibber or on the saggot did not the Spirit seal this truth above all other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortaility they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jaws of it When Job was in the depth of all his misery the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shal I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my rains be consumed within me offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O death where is thy sting Mors nonest stimulus fed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feel none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himself spake in him He is come he is come You have heard where the spirit faith so give ear now to a voyce from heaven de claring why the Spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well pain as pains broyls as toyls as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek so pain and pains in english are of kin for labour is pain to the body and pain is labour to the spirit and therefore what we say to be punished and tormented with a diseafe the latine say laborare morâ—…o and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing we call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortality granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from pain and pains taking What then may some object do the dead sleep out all their time from the breathing out their last gasp to the blowing the last trump as they suffer nothing so do they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a room and filled up a blank in the Roman fasti Nam bibulo factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuam without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect act or as Tullie renders the word a continual motion as the word is taken in that old proverbial verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more be and not work then the wind can be and not blow the fire and not burn a diamond and not sparkle the sun and not shine therefore it is not said here simply that they rest from all kind of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toilsome labours sore travels and again from their own labours or works not the Lords They keep an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their own works but Gods they rest from sinful and painful travels but not from the works of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soul is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it self with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soul unto return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Bodies rest in thier proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continual work and their work is their life and their life is their happiness which the Divines fitly express in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifyeth them God glorifieth them bycasting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light back again and casting their crowns before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having born the heat of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatory for blessedness cannot stand with misery nor
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
the reverse or back part thereof was dark toward the Egyptians In the best men there is such a mixture of light and darkness who with their vertues have may fanlts failings and infirmities Well let the Egyptian walk by his dark side follow his faults whilest the Israel of God all pious people endeavour to imitate his virtues directed in their conversations by the lustre of his godly examples That so as Herod hearing of the same of Christ conceived that John Baptist was risen again from the dead so let us labour that our vertuous lives may give just cause for others to conceive that those righteous men which have perished in their righteousness those champions of Christianity and worthy Heroes of holiness long since deceased are revived again and have in us a miraculous resurrection THE RIGHTEOUS MANS SERVICE TO HIS GENERATION SERMON LII ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own generation after the will of God fell asleep c. IN this Chapter Saint Paul doth demonstrate the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour by three several places of Scripture foretold and now fulfilled The Law saith in the mouth of two or three witnesses the truth shall be established Two may Three must do the dâ—…ed Two make full measure Three make measure pressed down and running over And such doth the Apostle give us in the proof of this point The first place he citeth Psalm 2.7 Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee The second Isaiah 55.3 I will give you the sure mercies of David The last Psalm 16.11 Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption It is observable That the same Text Acts 2.31 is also alledged expounded applyed and pressed by Saint Paul to prove the Resurrection of Christs body uncorrupted See here the holy Harmony betwixt the two Apostles Though Peter and Paul had a short and sharp contest at Antioch Galat. 2.11 where Paul withstood him to his face yet here their hearts and hands and tongues meet lovingly together in the improving of the same portion of Scripture Both of them shew first negatively how it could not litterally be meant of David whose body was corrupted and his Sepulchre remained amongst them unto that day and therefore positively must be meant mystically and prophetically of Christ Now as I am charitably confident that all who hear me this day are satisfied and assured herein That our Saviours body saw no corruption so give me leave to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie for fear some mistake the cause of this his incorruptibility and bottome it on a false foundation Some perchance may impute it to the shortness of the time he lay in his grave being but a day and two pieces of a day numero rotundo though currente stilo they commonly be called and counted three dayes These do ponere non causam pro causa for the time was long enough in that hot Countrey to cause putrefaction considering that our Saviours body was much bruised and broken with the whips nails and spears besides the effusion of much blood which would the sooner have invited corruption Others perchance put the untaintedness of his body upon the account of the great quantity of Myrrh and Aloes about an hundred pound weight and other precious spices wherewith Joseph and Nicodemus John 19.39 imbalmed it This also is an unfound opinion for all the spices of Arabia cannot secure a corpse from putrifying though they may preserve it that such putrifaction shall not be noysome to others in the ill savour thereof not keeping it from corrupting but from offending The true reason is this Though Christs soul was parted from his body and where disposed of God only knows during his remainder in the grave yet the union with the Deity was never dissolved which priviledged his corpse from corruption So that had it been possible which was impossible as is inconsistant with Gods promise and pleasure for his corpse to have lien in the grave till this instant they had been perpetuated in an intire estate whilst it is true of David as it is in the Text after he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell on sleep and was laid unto his Fathers and saw corruption Observe in the words four principal parts 1. What a generation is 2. What it is to serve ones generation 3. How David served his own generation 4. How we after his example are to serve ours Of these in order and first we will consider what a generation is A generation is a company of men and women born living and dying much about the same time I say much about the same time for seven years under or over sooner or later breaketh no squares herein but that the said persons are reducible to the same generation Thus Mat. 1.17 All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen Generations Now all generations are not of equal extent so admirable the Longevity of those before the Flood compared to our short lives since God for our sins hath contracted the cloth of our life to threescore ten years and all is but a course List which is more then that measure Psalm 90.10 And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and weâ—…ie away It is remarkable that Three Generations are alwayes at the same time on foot in the world namely 1. The Generation rising 2. The Generation shining 3. The Generation setting For should God clear the earth of all men at once mankind could not be recruted but by miracle besides neither humane Arts nor Sciences nor could the Scripture handsomly be handed and delivered from one generation to another God therefore of his goodness doth so order it that rather then any empty Interval should happen betwixt them one Generation should fold and lap over another These three degrees were most visibly conspicuous in the Levites which till five and twenty years of age were learning Levites thence till fifty acting Levites as being then in the strength of their age imployed in the portage of the Tabernacle and after fifty had a Writ of ease from bodily labour though they may be presumed to be busied in the teaching of others Pass we now to explain what it is to serve our Generation To serve it is to discharge our consciences according to Gods will in his word to our superiours equals inferiours all persons to whom we stand related in our generation And the more eminent the person is in Church and State the more are his references multiplyed and the more publick and ponderous the service is which he is to perform Nor must it be forgotten that David was a King in which respect it was proper for
Scriptures pretended for his conceit Apostolical Traditions and by reason of the venerable name of Antiquity it is not to be denyed but that some of the ancient Fathers received some tang of the same opinion from him as may be seen or collected of Justin Martyr and in the end of Trajans time Apollinarius Tertullian too much misled by Montane and Lactantius who were in part spiced with this Millenarisme so perilou a thing it proves to the Supine and out of a secure or careless disregard to suffer Humane Tradition to become a Diotrephes and to have the preheminence above the infallibity of the undoubted Scriptures which sacred and unerring written Word of God doth hold forth as of certaine credibility inspired by the Divine and first verity that can never deceive no such clear truth that the Lord Christ shall in Person before the General Resurrection come visibly and corporally upon the earth and as by a first resurrection cause all those who died in and for him to arise and with him in a peaceful tranquility and glory to reign and to beare sway over the wicked as Vassals for a thousand years which date of time being expired immediately shall ensue the General Resurrection and the day of the last Judgement No such evidential verity is demonstrated in Holy Writ as of Absolute Necessity to be believed unto salvation But whatsoever is alledged out of the propherick Scriptures for the stablishing of that opinion is to be understood either of the first coming of Christ in the flesh or of the state of the N.T. in general or else of the glorious estate of the Church triumphant to be expected hereaster in the eternal Kingdome for ever in Heaven as Gerard judiciously I have not time to alledge or you patience to hear on this occasion the several Texts cited by the Chiliasts or of the Orthodox many reverend and renowned Divines have eased us all of that labour let it suffice at the present to take notice from our Saviours own lips that his Kingdome is not of this world John 18.36 but within us Luke 17.21 and from Heaven and besides we find in our Creed which is founded on the Scriptures and may in every article thereof be proved by them we find I say in our Creed mention made but of two visible comings of Christ the first in Humility to suffer and to be judged the other at the end of the world but not before in the glory of his Father to judge the world both quick and dead in righteousness and unto them that look for him faith the great Apostle shall he appear the second time without sin that is without suffering any more as a sacrifice for sin unto salvation Heb. 8.28 Leaving then those Millenarian conjectures to such as abound with leisure rest we in the solid determination of Orthodox and stable judgements who resolve by the day and by the appearing here mentioned in this text to be meant the last great day of the general Judgement according to that Scripture Acts. 17.31 and the Lord Christ his second coming upon that day in glorious Majesty unto the judgment of all the world so that however those who labour in the Word and Doctrine meet often with so great discouragements that they seem to labour all in vain and spend their strength for nought as the Prophet speaks Isa 46.4 yet surely their Judgement is with the Lord and their work that is the reward of their work is with the Lord his goodness is laid up for them O how great Psal 31.19 In the mean time let it be our delight and contentment that we do our Masters work not as by constraint but willingly sith indeed such a vertuous service ever carryeth its own reward with it as being a thing to be desired and embraced for its own worth and certainly that sweet comfort and complacency that a righteous soul findeth in the sincere discharge of this duty within its proper station in conscience of God is infinitely more valuable than all the treasures the earth can afford without it only as the Husbandman we may not anticipate the season of the Harvest but we must wait and then in due time we shall reap if we fant not Gal. 6.9 Heb. 10.36.37 and when the reward actually cometh it being so large will abundantly recompence all our work yea end all our patience too sith the manner of it will be the more manifest and conspicuous before all in that great day when all of all sorts both great and small shall upon the general summons stand before the last Tribunal and then upon the appearance of the Chief Shepheard we shall raceive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Hereof S. Paul had a particular assurance in his own person when he faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness and if for him why may it not be also possible for others to be in like manner assured of the same especially provided that we are such as do love his appearing This question I confess is solid yet such as wanteth not its intricacies The Roman Catholicks in this controversie are wont to resolve thus that indeed for so great a Saint as S. Paul was this assurance might be possible yea was attained to by Revelation extraordinary by means of his sides privilegiata his special and priviledged faith which as an Apostle and a chosen vessel of honour he was endowed and adorned withall from Heaven for that God had a great service for him to do who was selected as it were to take up the Gauntlet in the quarrel of the Gospel against the manifold fierce and potent Adversaries of the same so that as I said in the beginning to steel his resolution with the greater courage he was fortifyed before-hand and armed with an extraordinary assurance of a glorious reward after his work and warfaring therein was over But now whether this assurance be possible for an ordinary Christian by the use of ordinary lawful means to attain is the next disquisition To which the resolution is affirmative the thing is possible though confessedly very difficult and this possiblity is both Certitudine Objecti and also Certitudine Subjecti both as it is sure in its self as it is determin'd by God and likewise in the particular evident and special experience of the same in the soul of a true believer and this is proved partly from those Scriptures which exhort unto a diligent endeavour after it 2 Pet. 1.10.2 Cor. 13.5 Now the nature of Evangelicall precepts and exhortations in a contradistinction to those of the Law is that they carry a spirit a secert energy vertue and power with them inabling through grace unto observation therefore the Gospel is called life and spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and I can do all things