our hearts The hands as Ant. Guevara observes do work the seet do walk the tongue speaks but it is the heart only that weeps The eyes are but the spunges of the heart through which its affections are drained and dried up An afflicted heart hath neither hands to labour nor feet to walk nor can it find a tongue to speak but tears are all that it hath to tell you what it wants And therefore we ought to reserve these for some greater thing then our dead friends which our heart ought much to be affected withall As our Saviour said to the women of Jerusalem when he was going to the most cruel sufferings so might our friends say to us when they are a dying Weep not for us but weep for your selves if you be dead while you are alive Mourn more then you do if you have not yet mourned for your sins and amended them But if you have then rejoyce in the favour of God and bless him for his Son Jesus who is better to thee then ten Sons or all thy friends which thou lamentest Are our sins dead as well as our friends have we buried them in the grave of our Lord are we risen again to an heavenly life let us go then to God and pray to him and praise him and this will give us ease But if we be troubled for sin then sure we shall not add another sin by immoderate sorrow and forgetfulness of Gods goodness If it be sin we hate then mourning complaints and discontents must all be hated Would you indispose your self to pray to praise God and meditate in his sacred Word Would you render your self unfit to receive the Sacrament of his most blessed body and blood If not then mourn but so much as will not hinder any of these and you have leave to mourn as much as you please Stop but here and there is no man will lay any restraints upon you But then how short your mourning must be you will soon guess and the Sun must not go down upon your grief no more then it must upon your wrath But if you take no great care whether you disturb your souls or no then you have most reason to mourn for that carelesness and neglect Go then and bewail your unkindness to God your unthankfulness for his mercies and unbelief of his Gospel for you can never take your hearts in a better time then when they are so sad and inclined to be sorrowful Tell them that now they are very well disposed for a necessary business and bid them look if there be not something else to bewail that is more considerable Ask thy self hast thou not deserved this and ten times more Wilt thou add another sin when thou shouldst cease all sins Hast thou not been careless of seeking God Hast thou not foolishly wasted thy precious time and art thou not troubled at all for that Yea art thou now impatient as if God dealt hardly with thee and wilt thou spend more time badly when thou art taught by the death of thy friend how short it is It is most incongruous thus to bewail the death of a child or acquaintance when thou art like to die thy self both body and soul And when thou hast mourned for thy sins thou wilt be taught thereby how little thou oughtest to mourn for thy losses For even our tears for sin must not be immoderate and therefore much less must we dare to let them flow in abundance for our losses So you know the great Apostle commands the Corinthians to comfort him that had been guilty of a great sin and receive him again into the Church now that he repented lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow 2 Corinth 2.7 I wish all those who are ready to destroy themselves with grief would seriously confider this that we may not over-load our hearts with grief for our sins themselves which are the causes of all other sorrows We cannot please the Devil better then by discontent He would fain oppress every good man with some passion or other let us take heed how we joyn with him against our selves If we have left his service that is enough to provoke him If we have bid defiance to his pleasures this doth incense him and we must expect that he will endeavour to overcome us with griefs The Devil is mad against all good men and therefore let all those who have irritated him against them beware how they now prove cowards and execute his vengeance for him with their own hands Let us take heed as Photius excellently expresseth it lest we be good at stirring up and provoking the envy and rage of our adversary but naught at resisting and overcoming him by patience and perseverance to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if we must needs weep for the loss of something here let it be for the afflictions of the people of God Let us mourn to see the Church sit like a widdow in her black garments Let it pitty us to see the blood of Gods servants shed like water upon the ground If our own sins do not trouble us let us weep to see the wickedness of the world and let our eyes run down with tears to think that men do not keep Gods Law Some such channel we should cut for our tears and not let them spend themselves on this fashion about our own personal troubles This is a method both to stop our tears and likewise to make them useful to us while they run It is a way to ease us of our present grief and of all others also We shall exchange that sorrow that would have troubled us for a great deal of joy and comfort Whereas our worldly grief would have left the heart sad this will leave it light and merry Believe throughly that the Lord Jesus lives III. The life of our Lord Jesus gives us the greatest comfort against death and so thou maist both expect a resurrection from the dead and likewise hope for comfort from him when thou art left sad and desolate The Body it self doth not die any more then corn doth which dies that it may live and spring up again with large gain and advantage Are we loth to throw the corn into the ground and do we not patiently expect till the harvest comes Why should we then bury our friends with so many tears seeing they are but laid in the womb of their mother again that by the power of God they may have a better birth The Heathen could say much to comfort themselves but they knew not this comfort for indeed they were rather contented then comforted Those that did think themselves most wise and judged that they had the best supports did only dream that the soul might take another body and shift its place at several times But we know that there will be a time when even our scattered ashes will fly into one anothers embraces again and a new life
is well to consider their inconstancy and that our happiness is in something better It was a good rule which Pythagoras gave to all his Scholars and is the same that I would have you learn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not walk in the high way i. e. Do not follow the common opinions be not led by vulgar and popular apprehensions Rectifie the ordinary conceits which you have carelesly entertained of things and judge of them as they are in themselves and not as they are reputed of If we would do thus then that which is the cause of our sorrow would be the cause of our tranquillity because nothing hath left us but that which we knew would not stay with us We mourn now because things are so inconstant but then we should not mourn because we knew them to be inconstant If we could make it good that any of these things are ours then I might avouch it that they would never have left us But if they were not ours why are we offended that God doth what he will with his own And besides shall we who are so inconstant oblige all things besides our selves to constancy shall we whose desires are so restless and uncertain expect that all things but only we should be stable and quiet No let us look into our selves and we shall find so much difficulty to settle them that we shall not wonder that other things are unsetled And again if things be so mutable why should we not think as I have already said that they will one day change to what we would have them But suppose they should what are we the better If our opinion be not turned too we shall be as much afraid to lose them again seeing they are so unconstant as now we are desirous to have them by the benefit of their inconstancy We must therefore alter our esteem of things now else we shall only change our trouble but not be rid of it when things are changed Adeo nihil est miserum nisi cum putes c. So certain it is that nothing is miserable but when we think it is so and that nothing will make us happy unless we think that we are happy And we had better think so now then stay to be taught this lesson by the dear experience of a great many troubles Let thine estate be never so prosperous yet if thine heart be unmortified thou wilt never be the nearer but rather the further off from settlement For they that have the greatest abundance are the soonest disturbed by every trifle because they are not used to have any thing go contrary to their humour But if thou wilt take any comfort from the unconstancy of things let it be this That if thou thinkest thy self therefore unfortunate because those things are gone that were joyful then thou mayst think thy self happy enough seeing the things that are unpleasant are going away also And think I beseech you once more and be of this opinion That there is nothing better in this world to thee then thy self As long therefore as thou hast thy self why shouldst thou be troubled especially if thou thy self thinkest never the worse of thy self because thou art poor and destitute of friends For these take away nothing of thy self nor can any thing in the world deprive thee of thy self And as Boethius well saith This is the condition of humane nature that it then only excels all things here when it knows it self But when it doth not it is below the very Beasts For it is natural for them to be ignorant but for a man it is the basest vice especially when he is ignorant of himself There was a Fable among the heathens which wise men understood to contain in it great Philosophy In the midst of this sad discourse it will please you perhaps if I relate it and it will please you a great deal more for to learn and live by it After Jupiter had made the world he thought that men would not be restrained from sin without rewards and punishments and so he made two great barrels the one full of good things the other full of bad to be sent down among men as there was occasion Pandora being very desirous to know what was in these barrels did one day broach them and all the good things flew out towards heaven and all the bad towards hell Hope only and Fear remained in the bottom of these Casks the former in that of Evil things and the latter in that of Good When this was done Jupiter threw down these empty Tubs to the earth and all mortals ran at the rareness of the sight to see what they could find in them Some looked into the one and some into the other and though both of them were empty yet they thought verily that the one was full of good and the other full of evil And ever since it came to pass that here below we have nothing but a fancy or conceit of Good mixed with fear and jealousie and a meer conceit of evil with some hope in the compound of it The Moral of it is this I hat the things of this world are but seeming Goods and seeming evils They are our own opinions that trouble us with the shadow of evil and that flatter us on the other side with a fair shew of Good All real Good is in heaven and all real misery is in hell If we go to heaven we are wâ—ll enough whatsoever we loose if we fall into sin and so into hell we cannot be well though we should enjoy all the world Let us turn our minds then toward these heavenly things which they did but dream of in the dark ages of the world Let us heartily believe the Gospel which hath brought to light eternal life And then we shall think our selves happy enough if we lose not those things and perhaps the death of our friends and such like crossâ—s befall us that we may not lose them When the dayes of mourning do come II. Our tears should be kept for that which is the cause of death and all our tears Turn thy sorrow for thy friend into sorrow for thy sins Remember that thy tears may be due to some other thing and the cure of that will cure all thy other griefs If thou art not a Christian then it is thy duty to mourn neither for one thing nor other but only to bewail thy self Let the dead bury their dead as our Saviour said do thou presently follow after thy Lord with tears Take no care of funerals think of no earthly thing but only how thou mayâ—st be a Christian And if thou art so thâ—n thou oughtest to rejoyce that thy sins are pardoned and that thou hast not the greatâ—st cause of griâ—f and this joy sure will swallow up all thy sorrows There is scarce any thing so considerable in our bodies that is seen as our tears for they are the most notable expressions of what is in
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. by outward fashions and modes by their external forms and molds into which they are cast or by professing a body of Notions differing from others in the world but by the renewing of their minds by the peaceableness of their thoughts by charity and heavenly love c. And if we behold in their minds as in other mens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great shakings or Earth-quakes unsetled thoughts and reasonings unbelief confusedness trouble trembling fearfulness all these words he uses they are fast bound to worldly things they have not attained the end of their Christianity and are but a little bettered by their new condition That Christ came to discharge the mind of all these troublesome guests the Text and many other verses of the ensuing Chapters plainly tell us The sense of which is this Do but believe that I am from God and that what I say is his mind and you need not be troubled The Faith of Christ is an antidote against all evill Peace is the proper result of the Christian temper It is the great kindness which our Religion doth us that brings us to a settledness of mind and a consistency within our selves Our Saviour when he spake these words was just going to leave his little flock and you must needs think that his Patients who were yet under his cure could not but take the news of his departure very heavily therefore as a wise and tender Physitian he prescribes them the best directions that he could and leaves them in their hands assuring them that every precept of his was a soveraign medicine every promise of his a Cordial to relieve their fainting spirits and particularly telling them that he would send the Comforter and that they should be under the Regiment and care of the Holy Ghost These heavenly Recipe's they have transcribed and transmited unto all succeeding Ages so that over the Gospel we may write what the Aegyptians did over their great Library 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Hospital for sick souls after all our search something will trouble us unless we have recourse hither or if nothing do our case is so much the worse and that which now would be only trouble will hereafter be tribulation and anguish That which I intend for the Subject of my discourse is this That A Christian heart ought not to be troubled Or That it doth not become a Christian to be troubled By trouble I understand that disorder in the soul which arises from the prevalency of these passions Fear Carefulness Sorrow Anger and the rest of their kindred which have Evil for their object These Passions are raised either from something within us or from something without us our Saviour chiefly speaks of the latter and so shall I also yet so as to have some regard to the former that so I may in all particulars leave the mind well satisfied That I may not spend so much time in other things as to have none remaining for that which I mainly intend I shall not tie my self to the laws of an exact method but make my discourse consist only of these two general parts 1. Of some Reasons why a Christian should not be troubled 2. Of some Rules to keep our hearts from trouble CAP. I. FOr the former let us consider That trouble is a great disparagement to the Promises of the Gospel which give us ease in every case unless we refuse to become Gods Patients and will not use his remedies In the case of sins prevalency it saith Rom 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you Rom. 8.2 3.11 c. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free c. 1 John 2.1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father c. which supports our spirits under the thoughts both of what we admitted and what we fear we shall admit To the poor man and the persecuted it saith Heb. 13.5 6. Let your conversation be without covetousness c. So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear c. And Mat. 6.33 Seek you first the Kingdom of God c. Mat. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are you when you are persecuted c. And that I may not enumerate all particulars it saith to every Christian whatsoever condition he be in Be careful for nothing Phil. 4.6 7. but in every thing by prayer c. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding c. When we sit down therefore desponding either under the power or the guilt of our sins and think that they can never be forgiven or never overcome when we murmur or are dejected because we are mean despised and afflicted when we are impatient for the loss of our friends or our goods c. we do only betray our own Ignorance or Vnbelief or Idleness We either know not what the Gospel speaks or we do not believe it or we resolve not to be the better for it if it will put us to any labour either we or the Gospel must bear the blame of our trouble and disquiet either that cannot relieve us or we do ill to behave our selves as though it could not I know every good Christian will accuse himself not that but let him consider that he cannot do it nor his Saviour honor but by ceasing his discontents for others will think that He is no better Physitian then the rest who hath no better success in his cures It is a great disparagement to the Providence of God which rules the world If there were no providence I confess we were destitute of the greatest reason that man hath against fears and cares and sorrows and he that is troubled would be less unreasonable because all the care would lie upon himself and his own shoulders must alone bear the burden of every accident But seeing we acknowledge an eternal wisdom an infinite unprejudiced understanding that governs and superintends in all affairs it is the greatest folly to be disquieted and to deport our selves as if we and chance ruled all Some have satisfied themselves with this single thought that it is in vain to be troubled since things must not be as we will but as that Almighty Being pleases A cold comfort one would think to be content upon necessity and yet this some Heathens have mainly insisted upon as their support Thanks be to God that we have something better for to quiet us and that is this That the World is governed not meerly by Gods will but by his wisdom He disposeth all things according to his pleasure but it pleaseth him to do all things for the best He rules the world not as an absolute Lord so that we should be sensible only of his power but as a Loving Father so that we should be confident of his goodness And therefore his children should not be displeased as if they were none of
comfort our selves with hope we shall see our friends again that die in the Lord. That seeing we must die too and others must weep for us by our life we must leave them something to comfort them in hope that we are better then if we were with them We must often consider how much of our grief depends on meer fancy and not on things We were perhaps at a great distance from our friends while they lived and did but seldom see them The case is not much altered now that they are dead If we have sustained a loss we do but double it by losing our own quiet and comfort also And yet there is more cause of thankfulness then of repining both that we had them so long and also that God hath taken away only them Our grief at last must cease and that which will end it then may end it now Or if it must end it self by it its own weariness it is a shame that Religions reason cannot do more then meer length of time can doe It is but as we our selves would have it who would have been loth to have died first Or else it is as they would have it who would have been loth to have out-lived us and been so sad as we make it necessary for to be They are not quite gone away but only gone before And by sorrow we may tread too fast upon their heels Let us henceforth place our chiefest comfort in God for if one be taken away then so may another There will be every day new matter of trouble and unless we be better provided against it we shall be every day miserable This world is the place of sorrow and therefore seeing there are things enough to trouble us let it not be our work to create trouble to our selves Trouble is a thing that will come without our call but true joy will not spring up without our selves If any sorrow should oppress us it must be for our sins And when we mourn for them let us be sorrowful we were no more thankful for such enjoyments as we have now lost And lastly Let these tears teach us to take off our affections from worldly things all the pleasure of whose possession is scarce big enough to compensate the trouble of parting with them FINIS These several Books following are Printed and to be sold by Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet THis same Author has a Sermen preached at the Funeral of Mr. Jacomb And a Treatise on the Sacrament of Baptism and another on the Lords Supper Mr. Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest quarto His Apologie containing Exceptions against Mr. Blake The Digression of Mr. Kendal Animadversions on a late dissertation of Ludiomous Colvinue alias Ludovinus Molineus An Admonition to Mr. Eyrs with Mr. Crandon's Anatomy quarto Confession of Faith quarto Christian Concord quarto Defence of the Worcester-shire Petition quarto Advice to the Parliament quarto Letter to Mr. Durry for Pacification quarto Concerning the Saints perseverance quarto The Quakers Catechism quarto Of Infant-Baptism against Mr. Tombs Thirty two Directions for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace octavo Against Popery Octavo Lawson's Examination of the Political Part of Hobbs his Leviathan Octavo The Libertine school'd Or A Vindication of the Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion quarto A Soveraign Antidote against those sinful Errours that are the Epidemical Disease of our Times quarto A pleasant Walk to Heaven on Ephes 4 1. quarto The Blessed Peace-maker Or A Christian Reconciler intended for the healing of our Divisions quarto Innocents no Saints Or A pair of Spectacles for a dark-sighted Quaker by E. Dâ—d quarto Man's Duty in magnifying Gods Work A Sermon preached before the Parliament on the occasion of the Victory obtained against the Spanish Fleet By John Row Preacher of the Word at the Abbey-Church Westminster quarto The Perusal of an old Statute of Death and Iudgement A Funeral Sermon by Mr. Bedford quarto Communion with God the Saints Priviledge and Duty twelves The Will of Man subjected to the Will of God octavo A Commemoration Sermon preached at Pauls on the 5th of Novemb. 1646. quarto A Voice out of the Temple Being also a Sermon on the 5th of Novemb. quarto An Assise Sermon Preached by Tho. Gilbert quarto Barton's Translation of the singing Psalms twelves Sydenham's for Infant-Baptism octavo Râ—nedeus Dispensatory in folio Spencer's Similies in folio Dr. Robinson's Endoxa in octavo Dr. Marrison's Spiritual Logick in octave The History of Dreams By Mr. Philip Goodwin Minister at Watford octavo The Three Theological Graces by Mr. Ward octavo Biddle dispossest in answer to his Challenge twelves Habbington's Edward the 4th in folio His Observations on History in octavo Allen's Henry the 7th octavo Buck on the Beatitudes in quarto Eurialus and Lucretia octavo English Law By Charles George-Cock folio Gospel-Ministery and Gospel-Light and Life By Dornford in octavo The Rise Fall and Ruine of Antichrist By Haughton octavo Orders of Chancery octavo The Bloody Inquisition of Spain twelves Hughs Abridgement of the Common Law large quarto His Abridgment of all the Acts and Ordinances quarto Several Works of Mr. Murcot Minister at Dublin in Ireland with his Life quarto A Catalogue of the Chancellours of England quarto A Scripture Chronology By Mr. Allin Minister in quarto A Catalogue of most Books vendible in England of Divinity History Law c. quarto Annotations upon Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon By Arthur Jackson Preacher of God's Word at Faiths under Pauls quarto