all blessed Simeons do see their salvation future as present so doth faith prevent time and is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Luk. 19.9 This day is salvation come to thy house as when Christ called Zacheus from the tree salvation is actually begun then in a believing soul who is said to have his conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 while he is below Whence he looked for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.18 And when death comes believers do not dye but sleep nothing of them dyes but their sins their imperfections and afflictions yea the very being of sin is done away as when the house is pulled into pieces all the ivy roots in the wall are destroyed Reason 3 Death opens a door to believers to be received into Christs armes into the bosome of glory Our loosing from the body is to be joyned to Christ 2 Cor. 5.8 and that is very sweet here is a mysticall union to Christ but no glorious presence no that 's the crowning mercy which is kept till after death Now judge you here you are a prison there enlarged here you are absent from your head your husband your Lord and King eternal but by death the soul is put into the hands of the blessed Angells and by them is presented to Jesus Christ to be for ever with the Lord in glory This Simeon foresaw and therefore said Lord now lettest c. Which dvides itself into these Reason 4 three heads 1. The conflict between soul and body in death 2. The necessity of death in regard to soul and body 3. The blessed advantage which soul and body finde in death 1. Great is the conflict oft times the spirit may be willing when the flesh is unwilling which two twins do a great while stand at loath to depart Jacob was not by Ge. 45.26 and by willing to leave his Countrie and the Land of Promise to goe to his Joseph Israel not by and by willing to go out of Egypt Exo. 5.21 though it were to terminate a long and tedious captivity in Egypt Exo. 12.40 Phil. 1.23 of 430 yeares Pauls Cupio dissolvi did not by and by break forth till the weight of sin carnal conflicts the buffettings of Satan and manifold persecutions did load and weary his pretious soul together with a tedious mortality but then this gratious servant of the Lord became willing to put off his body of sin and death together and with Simeon to say Lord now lettest c The same hand which doth take down our earthly Tabernacle doth build for us a surer and eternall habitation made without hands in the Heavens at which change 2 Cor. 5.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 12.7 the soul is taken to God that gave it till the last day when soul and body shal be made capable of those higher enjoyments which Jesus Christ hath dearly purchased and prepared for them a tast whereof our Lord was pleased to give unto Peter Mat. 17.2 James and John in the transfiguration and unto St. Paul when he was raptured into the third heaven 2 Cor. 12 2 both which some have thought to be more comprehensive then this vision of old Simeon here and yet all the dear Servants of God do in some aspect see Christ before they die and amidst some fears and misgiving thoughts do abundantly long to see him more 2. the necessity of death in regard to soul and body No mortall wants any thing so much as immortality and wants do necessiate men to desires stormes drives many goodly shipps into harbours war doth force the stoutest men to holdes and forts so the soul and body of the Lord 's gratious ones much pinched with the sence of their wants of glory to come and of their beatificall fruitions promised them be necessitated with blessed Simeon to desire to die that they may passe over troublesome Jordan to enjoy the promised blessings of celestiall Canaan where soul and body shall be refreshed enriched Ps 24. and eternally glorified with Jesus Christ their everlasting King of glory which thing our Saviour doth sweetly breath out by St. John Joh. 17.24 in that prayer of his Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory q. d. that they may behold my transforming glory 1 Cor. 13.12 Can the glory of grace that comes by Christ represented to us as in a glasse so transforme a soul as Simeons in the text hath the glory here by mediums such a power then what will it be when we shall behold it without meanes Something Simeon did reach after in his holy wish which he could not comprehend here below though he had his Lord Christ in his armes but he will rejoyce in God his faviour he will believe Job 14.14 and hope well he will expect and wait with holy Job till his change come when he knew his joy shall transcend the joy of harvest or that of men dividing the spoile 1 Pet. 1.8 it being a joy so unspeakable and full of glory See then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that death is necessary to prepare the soul and body for immortality of which more in the third branch of this fourth reason as followeth 3. The blessed advantage which soul body find in death after death Phil. 1.12 presently the soul begins to be in it's prime for whilest she was in the corruptible body she was ruled by corrupt sence and violently carried by loose appetite driven and compelled against it's own gratious desires to give way in some part to a body of sin for she can hardly look out at the eys but looks upon a baited hooke nor hear by the eare but there is the serpents voice nor the tong taste but there is some gall in that honey nor the hand touch but there is a defilement nor the foot tread but there 's a net and every sense a member of the body ready to be a Judas to the soule to betray her with a kiss Now what wise Simeon will not be willing to depart to exchange a dungeon for a pallace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copper for gold base beggery for high honour a short lease of base heath of barren and craggy rocks Gen. 3.23 1 Pet. 1.4 for the garden of Eden a paradice nay for an inheritance inmortall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and incorruptible For as one said to live here is to be halfe dead at least death hath the all of a great part of our lives and dead works I think have above the one halfe of the most sanctified ones here who yet do die dayly 1 Cor. 15.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 7.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may live the more to Jesus Christ For the body the body of death as Paul calls it is but let
bee assured of mirth without mourning of life without death of an immortal crown without any cross at all The fourth concerns thy consolation Consola and so bee comforted who tookest all due care to walk as a Christian with holy tender and abounding affections towards thy dear friend when and while he or shee lived with thee ask thy self what Christian communion thou had'st what care and watching over thy friend in all good offices of love didst discover thy self a friend to his soul did'st admonish exhort reprove or comfort him according to thy best ability and his necessity wa st much in prayer by humble seeking God to beg every blessing which thy friend did want did'st do all the offices of love to thy friend in his sickness or under any need of thy help if thou wast sincere in this matter thou mai'st be comforted and blesse the Lord who gave thee such an heart and now that the Lord hath taken thy friend into an higher story of divine favour be better perswaded well knowing that God calls thee now to other work upon which to attend and leave thy friend to the Lord betake thy self to serve his good providence among the living who do survive Somewhat wee see of this in David 2 Sam. 12. while the child was very sick David besought God for the child hee fasted and went in and lay all night on the earth nor would he bee raised from the earth by the elders of his house neither would he eat bread with them On the seventh day the child dyed of which when David had heard then he arose from the earth he washed and anointed himself changed his apparell and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped and when hee required they set bread before him and he did eat At which carriage of his his servants much marvelled saying what thing is this that thou hast done thou did'st fast and weep when the child was alive and when it was dead thou did'st arise and eat bread and David answered while the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said said who can tell whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee that the child may live but now hee is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him baek again I shal go to him but hee shall not return to mee And David comforted Bathsheba Thus there is a time to be born Eccl. 3.2 and a time to dye a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance Fiftly our dolorous mournings 5. A sweet mixture of joy and sorrow in our mourning must not be without some mixture of joy the losse of beloved friends may seem desperate and irrecoverable and the sorrow is the more exuberant but yet there is joy again which doth surmount in the gracious soul to allay it's bitternesse who can loose nothing of the creature but it is made up in God repaid in Christ with a great overplus therefore sorrow may not alwaies abide upon his spirit if he sorrow that any stream of his comfort is cut off it is but turning him to the fountain and he hath all made up to him again and he rejoyceth blessing God who saith to him as Elkanah to Hannah am not I to thee instead of more friends so says God to the mourner I am to thee instead of all more then all And thus as fast as doth thy sorrow abound so fast and faster do thy consolations superabound That dear friends be dead that is sad to hear of or to see but that mortality is put off to put on immortality that 's joyful that death hath swallowed up our friends may grieve us but that death is swallowed up of life that doth rejoyce us that friends be departed seems to begin a desolation but that they be delivered from their body of sin from grinding pains from destroying diseases from unruly lusts and sinful passions from strong and dangerous temptatitions from fiery darts from Satans wiles and methods all this is matter of joy you who exceed in your mournings for your loving parents and dear friends taken out of this world I may fear you believe somewhat in this worlds glory to be very lovely and truly good and more excelling then the Scriptures ever spake of and therefore you so mourn at your friends being bereaved of and taken away from that good when as indeed all that is below and sublunar is fading and perishing and all that is below Jesus Christ and the glory to come Eccles 1.2 stained vanitie emptinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a melancholly lump of vanity and vexation of spirit which made the Psalmist say that every man in his best estate is altogether vanity you seem to forget that the whole creation groans under this vanity and travelleth in pain together till now and not onely they Rom. 22.23 but our selves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodyes when God sees good to take away our gracious friends he takes them from such vanities and perturbations as under which they do groan that we might not onely be satisfied with his dispensation but blesse God and say be it so Lord according to thy word When you think of your friends long languishing sickness sore pains wearisome days and nights and of the cruell stroak of death then like Heshbons pools our eyes be full of water and like house-spouts tears run down our cheeks but man of sorrow recollect thy self and wisely consider that by deaths hand all pains sicknesses and sorrows are finallized and there shall never be one tear sorrow or pain more thy body is laid to sleep as in a sweet bed of roses till the generall resurrection and thy soul is at perfect rest and ease is carried by the blessed Angells into thy Lords armes of sweatest embraces and hath the same entertainment as Christs humane soul and body had after his blessed ascention whom the Angells brought to the Antient of days Dan. 7.13 so doth Christ present the souls of his Saints departed to the father Do'st grieve and canst not be comforted Oh change thy minds affection as thy friend is changed for he is received into heaven with the same acclamations as Christ himself was welcomed only it shal be according to thy measure and capacity By this time I hope I have wiped off all tears from thy eyes put a sweet handkerchiefe into thine hands to do it thy self Then meditate much and say it oft blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord or rather that sleep in the Lord that they may live for ever Pretious soul do not mourn unmeasurably for such who are triumphant in heaven being cloathed in long white robes and washed in the blood of the Lamb who at the generall restauration of all things shall claspe and imbrace
dye I must O my celestiall soul tho halt also great cause to curse thy wretched body for being so ill a servant to thee so pretious a piece of Gods creation in that thou art now affraid to depart at thy great Lords command As the parting of soul body is violent and very sad so more sable shall be their meeting at the resurrection when the sin-accusing conscience shal deliver up soul and body to the righteous judge of quick and dead Act. 10.42 when that judg shal deliver the guilty sinner and the law shall judge and bind him over to death eternall and to hell where the worm dyet not Esa 66.24 Mark 9.43.44 and the fire never goes out but must abide an eternity of weeping howling and gnashing of teeth Pretious Saint far otherwise and â—ull of blisse is the state of every blessed Simeons soul and body in the approach and very article of death when he shall sweetly sing or use this Prosopopoeia or words to the same effect Thou body of mine the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be with thee in thy departure in thy death and in thy grave for hee hath shut thine eyes and bound thy jaws and bid thee abide a while in peace bee thou content to sleep in death and to rest in hope on such a bed of roses for er'e long thy dust and clay shall live and thou shalt arise with Christ's blessed body Isa 26.19 thou that dwellest in the dust shalt awake sing for thy dew is as the dew of herbs the earth shal cast out the dead in her And thou my happy soul shalt return a glorified soul to be united for ever to thy incorruptible immortall and glorified body to be joined to the great Congregation in heaven where God Christ and the Spirit and all Angelicall natures shal for ever honour thee and all other glorified ones with that very glory which Christ Jesus had with the Father John 17. before the world was Suffer this exhortation then I beseech you to take hold on your hearts sweetly to submit to your all-wise God and Father even in every state and condition of life and death which I shal amplifie under these three heads 1. Of health 2. Of sickness 3. Of death 1. In our health and prime of our life whil'st green and flourishing like a bay tree must be an holy resignation of our selves into the hands of so good a God Eccl. 12.1 1 Chron. 28. betimes wee must remember our Creator in the days of our youth then we must learn to know the Lord God of our fathers as good David gives in counsell to his young son Solomon and this submission must bee a totall resigning of soul and body to the Lord a lesson not taught in any school below heaven none of the Moralists none of the Philosophers could attain it being onely found in the school of grace which among other things doth teach Psal 34.9 10. Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 12.9 Isai 41.10 Isai 33.16 that no good thing shall be wanting unto such and that bee our condition never so strait yet God and Christ are with us and his grace shall be sufficient for us he will uphold us and help us with the right hand of his righteousness and our amunition is made of rocks in pregnable round about us Isai 27.9 and lastly God will so order all his good providences for us that they shall all work together for our good as Israel's pressures in Egypt Joseph's casting into the pit and twice selling to bee a slave as the rod of Ashur and the furnace of Babylon Now in thy submission to the good pleasure of thy heavenly Father thou must not be over hasty after fruition but with an holy patience must possesse thy soul during thy stay in this world for as thou so those fore-named promises have their set determinations by an unchangeable decree as Noah's time in the Ark Gen. 8. Job 14.14 and Job waits his appointed time all his days and so did Simeon here in the text 2. In sickness wee must submit to the Lord's visitation and say Lord it is thy hand and thy holy wil be done in me upon me I wil use the Physitian a good ordinance of thine but I will recumb in thee alone I will honour the Physitian for my necessity but I do commend my self to thy all-wise dispose who if thou shalt please to add to my days and to piece out my frail life a little longer I will by the assistance of thy grace indeavour to live and to be an instrument of thy praise but shalt thou see it good to end my pilgrimage and to take me home Oh that 's best I will sing Hallelujahs to thee for ever But by the way consider the poor and the Lord will strengthen thee upon the bed of languishing Psal 41.1.3 10. and will make all thy bed in thy sickness and bee mercifull to thee and raise thee and requite thee men may visit thee deceitfully flatteringly speaking good words unto thee and whispering evill in their own bosom and say when shal he dye v. 5. v. 8. and his name perish an evil disease say they cleaveth fast to him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more but the Lord shall visit thee upon the bed of sickness with a visit speaking pardon of sin peace of conscience thy reconciliation to himself with joy in the holy Ghost even joy unspeakable and full of glory Giving to the poor though it be thy duty Pro. 19.17 yet it is called a lending to the Lord who will repay it with more consideration then the principal it self Thou puttest thine almes into the poor mans hand and the Lord makes thee payment ten thousand-fold into thy heart and soul But least I be thought to digresse this sick man or woman must submit patiently readily unto the gracious hand of the all-wise Lord God and that in the name and worthinesse of his sweet saviour Jesus Christ devoutly praying as David did in the words of faith Psal 71.1 In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Deliver me in thy righteousness Correct me not in thine anger O Lord nor rebuke me not in thine indignatioÌ„ Jer. 10.24 Psal 6.2 heal me O Lord for my bones are vexed Psal 22.11 Bee not far from me for trouble is nigh at hand lay no more on me then thou shalt give me strength to bear 1 Cor. 10.13 Cast me not away when my strengh faileth mee and so will the Lord answer Because he hath set his love upon me Psal 71.9 therefore will I deliver him I will be with him in trouble Psal 91.14.15.16 I will deliver him and honour him With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation And for thy comfort know who hast a mansion with God that thy God
and father doth ordinarily fit his children for death in their sickness presenting to them the unloveliness and vanity of all things below the blessed interest which the Saints do enjoy in their Christ the happy change which they do make who dye in the armes of their Jesus and that such shall for ever be quit of all sinfull society yea of sinfull flesh no longer to abide among dead men nor among the tombs of dead ones shall never have cause to hang up their harpes upon Babylons Willows tree Ps 137.2 never be interrupted in singing our Hebrew song and therefore doth our gracious Father in sickness and otherwise open the narrow hearts and deaf ears of Simeons souls and then speak to them saying come my pretious ones suffer me now to dispose of you let me new mould you and transfigure you for your disease and so dear heart I do First make thee weary of thy body of death weary of the worlds blandishments and painted glory and weary of thy sinfull selfe Secondly I do sanctifie every pain and grief every crosse and trouble and make them become sanctified mercies Ps 131.2 whiles I do wean thee to be lesse in love with things below nay I cause that every decay of thy naturall strength every dimnesse of thy eye every dulnesse of thy ear every weakness and sicknesse of thy natural body shall tend to such a blessed change that at last the soul and body are made willing to depart for a time to attain unto Phil. 1.22 and enjoy a glorified cure Thirdly I do not only prepare thee to this submission but I do also make thee desire and long to dye I do so spiritualize and order thy soul that sicknesse shall be as welcome to thee as health death as life to thee who livest upon God in God and to God Dost want health of body I do satisfie thee with health of soul art near to death be it so then thou art nearer to life even a glorious blessed and eternall life sick man I am thy Lord God and I do assure thee by thy interest in my self through my son I am better to thee then ten healths as Elkanah was to Hannah then ten sons 1 Sam. 1.8 I am better to thee then many lives thy life here was but a breath or rivullet of life but in thy death thou art admitted to live for ever in him Joh. 14.6 Ps 36.9 who is life it self and to thee the fountain of life Fourthly in sickness the Lord speaks to his holy ones to be of good chear from the deep meditation of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 Joh. 1.16 from the fulness al◠sufficiency of Jesus Christ their dearest friend their Lord King who coms leaping skipping over the mountains to solace himself in and with them whom he had so wonderfully delivered from the dens of Lyons Cant. 2.8 Cant. 4.8 and mountains of Leopards or what else hath been formidable to them Come look on me and to me lean and rely on me pour out thy soul into my bosome Isa 45.22 Mic. 7.7 who will assuredly give her sweet repose untill the great day of my second coming Cant. 8.5 Act. 7.59 when thou shalt be received soul and body to be for ever in mansions of eternall glory Cant. 3.11 to keep a most triumphant Jubilee with the Lord for ever Mal. 3.17 Act. 3.19 3. In death wee must submit to our Lord Joh. 14.2 3 and that in two things In the approach Act. 7.54 c. and point of death Precious soul in the approach of death Heb. 11. 2 Chron. 6.42 Ps 25.6 Ps 119.49 Psa 22.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.25 act faith in the Lord Jesus as Stephen did and as those Martyrs did faith will plead thy covenant-interest and perswade to roll thy self upon the free grace of God so fully represented in the promises faith bids thee look on thy Lord and saviour interceding thy cause at heavens throne Set hope on work to take faster anchor-hold on Jesus Christ Psal 18.2 Deut 32.4.31 2 Sam. 22.47 Ps 62.2.7 Ps 89.26 Ps 39.13 the rock of thy salvation Set prayer on work and pour out thy soul saying O Lord spare a little till I may recollect my self and bee sweetly composed to rejoyce in the approach of my my change Lord give me to welcome death with all ready entertainment as Gods messenger to deliver me from my prison Ps 142.7 Job 4.19 and house of clay wherein my celestiall soul the espouse of Christ is confined and imprisoned and say O Christ I come Luke 16.22 Lord Jesus send some of thy blessed Angels to receive carry my soul into Abrahams bosom as one of the fathers doth personate a dying Saint O holy trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost which in unity of nature art one the self-same God into thy hands I do commend my spirit into thy hands O blessed Saviour my King my priest and my Prophet do I recommend my self unto thee sweet Jesus do I a dying servant of thine come who camest into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief unto thee blessed Lord who wast conceived and born of the virgin Mary sufferedst diedst was buried and laid under the power of death Acts 1.24 for me to alleviate my death and make it stinglesse and curs-lesse who wast raised up from the dead didst miraculously ascend art now set down at thy fathers right hand for me to come again at the end of the world to be judge of all men Angels even to be my judg to justifie absolve me before all the world and to invest me a poor and miserable creature with that very glory which thy humane nature hath now in heaven and which thy self hadst with the Father before the world was into thy hands gracious redeener into thy hands O eternall spirit do I recommend my self who dost even ravish my heart by applying and sealing all the Covenant-goodnesse and gracious promises of life and of salvation even to me even now about to breath out my last breath of life Thus dying soul in thy submission un-thy Lord God set faith hope and prayer on work Quest The learned have a question whether the Saints in death do fear death having cōmission in some cases of persecution in one City to flye unto another and Christ saying Mar. 10. go not into the way of the Gentiles and into the Cities of the Samaritans enter ye not Act 9.25 and Saint Paul escaped out at a window at the fear of death and Christ himself often shunned the Scribes and Pharisees and Rulers who sought to kill him Joh. 7.1 1 King 19.3 so did David shun Saul and Elias the wicked instruments of wicked Ahab and Jezebell Answ To all which I answer that 't is not simply unlawfull to
dy Ibid. 4 Hee lades them with sweet apprehensions of infinite love 133 How to entertain the approach of death 134 And death it self in the article of death 135 136. Whether it be sinfull to fear death 137 Ans Not simply unlawfull 138 Basely to fear death a sin 138 Who lead an evill life must needs fear death Ibid The Saints fear death and others but from divers principles 139 It 's not improbable but we maâ— enjoy relations after death 142 How to shut up our own eyes and bind up our own jaws in death 143 4 Exhortation Let not friends grieve over-much for them that dye in the Lord. 144 Friends may weep a while but not too long ibid. 145 Friends may use laudable ceremonies about the dead 146. Friends may be at cost with the dead ibid. 147. Friends may keep sad mourning seats Ibid. Rules of advice to living Friends 1. To mourn with moderation 149. 150. 2. With timely pacification 151 152 153. 3. To be satisfied with the goodness of God yet continued to thee who survivest 154. 4. To be comforted again 156. 5. Our mourning not without a good mixture of joy 158 159. 6. Labour an holys acquiescence in the al-suffiency of thy Lord God 180 161 162 163. Imprimatur EDMUND CALAMY The Author's Letter to Sir ROBERT HARLEY about the beginning of his long sickness Honorable Sir AS I do much bless God for the Religious stedfastness in such vertiginous times when so many reeds have been shaken with every wind so I am confident you will ever bless God for that your house was built upon the Rock and for the excellencies of Christ and of his attractive loves to your soul who made you sick of love after the more full injoyment of him who is a head of fine gold and a Cluster of Camphere the Lord your righteousness the chief of ten thousand who hath invited you to repentance unto life and to more daily communion with his excellency Pardon my boldness Gracious SIR possibly God will use my little Talent to warm your heart with the shining love of Jesus Christ so peerless so sweet so chast so full so unchageable so adequate and magneticall in all his Mediatoriall works upon your soul I say upon your soul so miraculously saved by the Lord and pulled out of the suburbs of Hell so unexpectedly so undeservedly so freely in the day of your souls first love espousall to his blessed self Time was Noble SIR that your Honour walked in the way of your own heart bathed and rolled in a worldly Paradise of princely favour when your thoughts were too much I presume taken up about additionalls with which to enamell your present state with worldly contentments whose emptiness together with your Christlesseness the God and Father of all your mercies discovered in his own time to that your pretious soul and withall did let down some beams and glimpses of the unum necessarium more necessary then to be born to live to be fed and clad I mean Jesus Christ and him crucified when heavens infinite mercy caused the day to break and the shadows to flye away presently upon which you must confess with godly Junius statim mihi alio facies apparuit when you then heard with other ears understood with another intellect saw with other eyes spake another language and with a new tongue read the Scripture with another spirit and understood with another sense and understanding yea and acted by other principles then before old things then vanished away all things became new But how I answer by that power of God that exceeding greatness of power which raised Christ from the dead and set him at the right hand of God SIR thus you came to know Jesus Christ and him Crucified which is above all knowledge especially to know our selves to be Crucified with him Oh! that is wisedom indeed and knowledge most transendently excellent for it will make a man wise to salvatioÌ„ Besides thus to know Christ and thus to know him for our selves is of most excellent use to us at present since it is not onely an informing and speculative knowledge but a conforming and reforming a practicall and operative knowledge which works mightily on the unregenerate part perswading that also by degrees to bee Crucified with Christ and to live more intirely by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us Pretious soul this life by faith is life indeed the present life naturall is a death to this life but the believers spirituall life that is a life purchased at the dearest rate viz. by the most unvaluable blood of Christ It 's to live in God the Father spiritually to live in Jesus Christ by the mysticall union and by the sanctifying Spirit of God breathing this life into dead souls and quickening our dead dry bones enabling impowering us to cry Abba Father by the Spirit of his Son and loosing the tyed tongue to say from our own particular interest O Lamb of God which takest away my sins all my sins the sins of all my liâ—e nay all my other mens sins all the sins of my vile nature nay my sins of the first Adam and all this blessed Jesus as freely as ever the rain did fall or the Sun did shine never to impute any one of them to me but acquitting and absolving thy poor creature meerly for thy mercies sake to justifie me for ever before the eyes of thy glory nor is this all O Father of mercies says the pardoned soul but thou dost also richly engratiate thy poor servant to be the beloved Spouse of thy dearest Son and to confer that grace of Adoption to bring me nigh to thy self by the blood of Christ yea to confer sanctification on mee that I might also partake of thy divine nature of a Briar to make me a sweet Rose of a Lyon a Lamb of most deformed defiled abominable within and without to make mee lovely comely fair as the Moon beautifull as the Sun so to take me into thy most holy Covenant with thy self and to give me a propriety in all things in heaven and earth Thus life is mine and death is mine the world is mine things present and things to come all is mine I am Christ's and Christ is Gods a very strange Paradox a very large Inventory yet no larger then the New Covenant in which God hath said I will be your God and you shall be my people that 's proof enough for qui habent habentem omnia habent omnia here is a Bee-hive of the sweetest honey much beloved in the Lord before your the effectuall calling like the wandring Bee your honour went from flower to flower from one tree to another and found but little sweetness if any at all and what ever it was you were content to forsake that too for Christ but then you said as Jacob in another case I have enough my son Joseph is yet alive
my soul is yet alive alive to God in Jesus Christ and with old Simeon you are daily singing forth this Cantionem Cygneam Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Lo the budding of Simeon's Almond tree one bud is Simeon is a volunteer to death not dragged thither by fatall necessity nor his soul thrust out of doors with a violent hand but willing now or when-ever his Master shall please So good Old Abraham dyes in a good old age full of years and full of grace scarce an empty corner in his soul both instances had enough of days and years therefore did breathe and pant after eternity And now celestiall soul hearken a while and you shall hear the Spirit of Christ sweetly whispering Arise my love my dove my fair one and come away why tarriest thou To whom the redeemed doth joyfully answer Be it so O blessed Saviour I do only tarry thy leisure I come Lord I come but in thy time and according to thy Word not before mean while Lord help me to act faith in thy rich promises and in a blessed reliance of most holy recumbency to sit at the footstool of thy great mercy admiring the honour thou do'st to all thy holy ones and magnifying thy grace to thy Saints differing onely in degrees from glory for grace is glory militant and glory is grace triumphant And to conclude Honourable SIR Holiness in heart and life is greater honour then to be born the son of a King for the holy ones of the Lord have as it were the blood Royall of heaven running in every vein and the remembrance of every such one after death is as a pretious ointment powred out or as the smell of the Wine of Lebanon bear up then souldier of Christ against all discouragements in your journial towards heavenly Canaan what if you do meet with temptations and trialls nay with fiery Serpents in the way follow your Captain Christ Jesus who for the joy and crown set before him did endure the Crosse and despise the shame and is now set down at the right hand of the most high Wonder not O warrier of Christ if bullets of temptations and fire balls of hellish terrours threaten to destroy your faith which if they hit they cannot hurt you Jesus Christ in whom we are more then conquerours takes all the blows and gives you most insultantly to triumph over them and to read down ally our spirituall adversaries and to be gainers by them all in the day of your blessed change when you shall bee clothed upon with the same glory which Christ himself had from the Father by speciall donation and the very day of your death you shall be with Christ in Paradise as a Bride welcomed by the Bridegroom when your honour shall for ever sit with the King of Saints in heavenly places congratulated by innumerable Angells and by the generall Assembly and Church of the first born enrolled in heaven by the spirits of just men made perfect and with whom your blessed self shall make one saying Hallelujah salvation and honour and glory and power unto the Lord our God Amen Hallelujah Yours FINIS Books lately printed for Tho. Parkhurst c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divine characters in two parts acutely distinguishing the more secret and undiscerned differences between 1. The Hypocrite in his best dress of seeming virtue and formal duties And the true Christian in his real graces and sincere obedience As also between 2. The blackest weeds of daily infirmities of the truly godly eclipsing saving grace and the reigning sins of the Unregenerate that pretend unto that godliness they never had By that late burning and shining Lamp Mr Samuel Crook B. D. late Pastor of Wrington in Somerset Folio Mr. John Cotton his practical Exposition on the first Epistle to John second Edition corrected and inlarged in Folio A Theatre of flying Insects wherein especially the manner of right ordering the Bee is excellently described with discourses H storical and Physical concerning them with a second part of Meditations and Observations Theological and Moral in 3 Centuries upon the same subject by Samuel Purchas M. A. in 40. Catechizing God's Ordinance in sundry Sermons by Mr. Zachary Crofton Minister of Buttolphs Aldgate London the second Edition corrected and augmented A Religious Treatise UPON Symeon's Song OR Instructions advertising how to Live Holily and Die Happily LUKE 2.29 30. 29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word 30. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation SIMEON here may be stiled God's white Swan Eccl. 12.5 singing his owne Epitaph now in the time when his Almond-tree did sweetly blossom It is Simeons Funeral Song Cantus F◠nebris of which Songs I onely finde two in Scripture so sadly do the most lay down this Earthly Tabernacle when as the dear Saints of God should then rejoyce with joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 and full of Glory You read of one in the Old Testament and that was good Old Moses 120. Deu. 31.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 30 Duter 32. through out yeares old who calleth his instructions before his death giving to the people a song which he requireth to be written for the use of the Children of Israel when the Lord should put a period to his days on earth The second was Simeons Song here whose days were protracted till he should see the Lord 's Christ bodily Galatians and spiritually at once Both great men and honourable as say the Ecclesiasticall Histories both Holy and Godly men Moses was God's Servant and so was Simeon Both honoured with a Religious and Blessed memoriall Moses dies with fixed eyes upon true Canaan but Simeons eyes are fixed upon Christ The Spirit of God knowes as well the time of our Spirituall joyes as of our effectuall calling and the actings of our repentance and of our Faith See here this good old man is now excited to take the opportunity to act his own joy to personate that which believers should act much more then they doe namely to look believingly on the Lord Jesus their joy and consolation as Simeon did Who First took him up in his armes whom he had before entertained in his heart and so is even raptured in the superabounding love of his Lord Christ the blessedest arme-full that ever the good Old man had in all his life Observe that Simeon declares his joy by a Holy Elegie off blessing God for this so magnificent and long expected a mercy as this sight did contein That he looks of all else and will needs die out of hand to be forever in the possession of this beatificall Vision Observe the forme of the holy Elogy verses 29 30 31 32. called Simeons Song as if he had said I fear not sin nor dread I death I have lived enough I have my Life I have seen enough I have my light I have sorrowed enough
the Lord opened Heaven which made him say I saw the Visions of God The great Jehova Deodate in his Annotations did after a speciall manner Illuminate his understanding facultie and did reveal to him such divine and ravishing secrets as did far surpasse any human capacity with which some pretious Jewels of the Lords have been so spiritually transported that they have sweetly breathed out their celestiall souls into the armes or bosome of their Lord Christ their salvation as Simeon did desire here to doe One wel observed of late that there is nothing which hath so great an influence upon a holy man or woman nothing doth so much affect their hearts as a clearer discovery of the visions of God as when Job said I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare but now mine eye seeth thee Job 42. And saith St. Augustin who is said to be 12. years old when our saviour suffered Euse Eccle. Hist lib. 3. Exo. 34.6 oft wished to have seen Christ in the flesh as Ignatius that blessed Martyr did 1. Ther 's a sight of God in his divine attributes and so he proclaimes himself in the hearing of all the peopl The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth c. Aquin. 2. There is a sight of God in his eminencie excellent greatness so appeared he to Moses out of the midst of a burning Bush and to Abraham Jsaak and Jacob by his Name Jah that deminutive of the Word Jehovah Exo. 3.2 Psa 68.4 or God Almighty and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So by his name I am ver 14. This is my name saith he forever and this is my memoriall unto all generations ero qui ero Thus the Israelites saw him in his excellent greatness which he did so display before them 3. There is a sight of God's surpassing purity and holiness of his nature and so the Angels and soules of the Saints departed and now in Heaven do see him Isa 6.3 and so the Seraphims who cried one to another Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory 4. Ther 's a sight of the plenarie blessedness and fulnesse of God Gen. 17.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filling all things of which God himself told Abraham saying I am the Almighty God walk before Mee and bee thou perfect 5. Ther 's a sight of Gods dominion and Soverainty Isa 6.5.6 at some glimpses of which said the Prophet Isaiah Wo is me for I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts c. 6. There 's a sight of God in his providences who doth so dispose of Ep. 1.11 Mat. 6.26.27 Rev. 4 11. and order all things according to the counsell of his own will that he doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and earth he provides maintenance and subsistence for the host of all his works vegetative sensitive or rationall whether animate or inanimate Mat. 10.30 For the Lillies of the field for the Foules of Heaven the very haires of our head are numbred Ps 74.17 Job 36 27. Job 37.10 He orders the day and the night Summer and winter Heat and cold and he maketh small drops of water By the breathing of God frost is given and the breadth of the waters is straitned 7. There is a sight of God in the face of Christ viz. a reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ and which more fully to make known this God and Father 2. Cor. 4 6. hath commanded the light to shine out of darknesse to give the light of the knowlege of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ So that as the great body of the sunn gives light to the worlds hemisphere Mal. 4.2 so does God in Christ by the son of righteousness sending forth the blessed beames of Evangelicall grace and glory shine upon the Church Gloria Dei hic est perlucida refulgens Oecolamp in Eze. 43.2 and give saving light into darke sovles and doth blessedly break in upon blind men and women who before sate in mufled darknesse and in the shaddow of death Reader heed these things well for they carry light life and power in them 8. And lastly vosti haec fidei contemplatio tranfigurativa appellatur Theod. epus Cyâ—i de fide in Epiph. there is a sight of God in the person of Christ and that is when we do apprehend a Godhead filling the humane nature with most unutterable apprehensions of God his Divinity and when by the powers of rich grace we do come to apprehend our selves so farr interessed in the two natures of the second person for ever made one Christ as to conceive and believe our selves to be the chosen cum Deus sese suaque câ—gnoscibilia largius perfectius patefacit suis Mercer in Job 4.5 and beloved of God in Christ before the world was and by the mighty work of free grace do begin to finde our selves accepted beloved redeemed and saved by our Lord thus set before us whom blessed Simeon looks here on corporally and spiritually as his own Christ as his salvation by meanes of the most Holy and happy continuance thus many Prohets and Kings have desired to see Luk. 10.24 of all the three Persons in the Trinity whereat Simeons heart became wonderfully enlarged It being given in to him from above according to the promise of the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lords Christ Iunius in Isaiam Simeons sight here was not only ocular and intuitive but but intellectuall and fiduciall being Divinely revealed to him as the visions of Daniel Ezekiell and John for his sight was a manifold vision Epist ad smyrn Policarp of the Lords Christ in person in his natures in his offices so that Simeon was as it were transfigured Isa 22.1 Epo verò post râ—surrectionem in carne cum vidi ubi ignatius habet locum tempur personas quicum petro erant ipsa verba Christi as Peter James and John and carried into the vallie of visions to whom God pleased also to Communicate a vision of rapturing loves as to the Church in the Canticles and as unto blessed Jgnatius but after his resurrection when he appeared unto Peter and those who were with Peter his words be and I also after his resurrection saw him Simeon was communing with the promise Promisit sâ— deus compariturum in nube Levit. 16.2 Nubes fuit symbolum inhabitantis dei miserentis ac eos servantis quuÌ„ templo Salomonis sancto sanctorum primùm importaretur arca digressis commodùm sacerdotibus ex adytis nubes replevit domum domini nec sacerdotes subsistere poterant ut administrarent prae nube illa quandoquideme rat repleta gloria domini domus domini 1. Regum 8. verùm
flesh 1. Jo. 2.16 the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life with troubles of divers kinds with discontents every moment under the emptinesse of the creature the groaning creature which we do too much rely upon besides what troubles what wants what feares what doubts what losses what crosses is every day filled up withall what malice and envie from the men of the world for godlyness sake if but in appeareance Ps 35.19 What slanders lyes and mischievous reports shall be vented and sent abroad to blur and cloud a gratious conversation As David complaines of mischiefe divised and contrived against him a poor innocent without any cause on his part What unrighteousnesse oppressions what self-seekings what vain-glory confusions divisions what rendings of Christs seameles coat enough to make any good Simeons heart to ake and his eyes like the pool of Heshbon to stand full of tears of water and under all these abominations as branches of the curse together with the vanity all things are exposed vnto even the unreasonable creatures do groan yea Rom. 8.22.23 the whole creation groaneth together under its vanity and the dear servants of God cannot but be very sensible and be willing to draw forth their desires after that glorious liberty and happier condition laid up for them in the safe hands of Simeon's Lord. Nay this good old man had learned under what vanity all things below Christ did groan how far from home they were and under how perillous and sojourning a condition How obvious they lay to the grudgings of the worlds Naballs and how their ears are daily beaten with the barkings of balaamitish curs who drive designes to set the world their earthy god above Jesus Christ these things ran much in Simeons heart Besides the personall evils and sufferings of decrepit old age of languishing sickness under a world of bodily infirmities the seizure of mortall diseases which do ascertain death not to be farr of And although we know that we must dye yet wee know not how soon The pinching pains and incessant dolours of a worn-out decaied body at the best but of a crazy constitution supported like an old house with the propps and buttresses of art and nature ready every moment to fall about our ears making us wish in the morning Deu. 28.67 would God it were even and at even would God it were morning All which laid to heart makes blessed Simeon desire to dye and live no longer but to dye in the arms of mercy no matter how soon to wish to sigh to groan and heartily to long for a principle of faith and hope to depart in peace Good old Simeons desire is the desire of restlesness after that which is above all desirable even rest and salvation in Heaven with the people of God who rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 and their works follow them Ah soul had'st thou but a sweet taste of this blessed rest remaining to the people of God! Heb. 4.9 Gal. 5.22 hadst but the fruits of the Spirit in any gracious measure thou wouldest bid all adieu and couldest willingly part with all on earth such as honour pleasures profits friends neerest and dearest relations with all thy earthly interests and contentments yea with all thy lands revenues and life it self and wouldest sigh and groan within thee as old Simeon did after the fuller enjoyment of thy Lord and dearest Christ waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of thy body 3. A desire of Contentment 3. a desire of contentment Rev. 12.1 Good old Simeon hath enough of life Rev. 12.1 being clothed with the Sun hee can now tread the moon under his feet And as Saint Paul have a low esteem of all things beneath Christ Phil. 3.8 and can say Psa 116.7 as David Return to thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee And hence doth gracious Simeon desire to acquiesce in his Lord and to dye by his statutum est who is life it self to possesse him possessing whom he is assured to possesse all things therefore said well-contented Simeon Lord let me be translated hence in thy good time to be inseperably with thee to all eternity 4. of Admiration 4. A desire of admiration Simeon might well admire the glory and excellency of that Salvation on which his eye of faith was so fixed and stand amazed Malac. 4.2 at the raies of this Sun of righteousness which shines not into every soul and saith Oh! the pretiousness of this salvation which is so attractive as to draw out my soul out of my body my soul and body out of this present evill world but for blessed ends blessed be thou my Lord that I may worship thee in Heaven as the four beasts did and the four and twenty elders when they fell dow before the Lamb And sung a new son saying Revel 3.9 thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him and unto the Lamb for ever and ever So much in answer to the two Questions 1. What this sight is 2. What this desire of Simeon is Reasons why all Christ-seeing Simeons may desire to dye Because old Simeon found himself delivered from the curse of the first Covenant Gen. 2.14 which was eternall death as it holds proportion with the blessing in Paradise eternall life and he found himself delivered from the wrath to come by him who was to dye and to destroy him that had the power of death Heb. 2.14 Job 33.24 He found himself delivered from going down into the pit death was in it self the sentence of the law and the recompence of an offended God but old Simeon found the jaws of death broken and this beast of prey now becomes unable to hold him no more then it was able to hold Jesus Christ and therefore all Simeons may insult in their death over death and say Hosea 31.14 used by the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Death doth deliver us from and periodize all wrongs vices infirmities bodily pains and labours all the piercing cares of this life and all vain pleasures As after Noah had been tossed but one year upon the waters Gen. 8.4.20 how glad was he to land on Mount Ararat so old Simeon after many years wearisome days and nights fluctuating on the waters of worldly perturbations O how glad was the good old man of a resting place where he could say hîc ero salvus as the long sick man did write upon his grave stone hîc ero sanus Reason 2 Because
up for thee so vile a wretch I say didst think it was halfe true which was told thee of the desirablenes and excellency of Jesus Christ to all believers in and after their blessed change Loe now what ever discovery here hath been made all the tongues of men and Angels are not able to reveile the hundredth part of thy beatificall fruition in the bosome of glory who dost depart this fraile life in the true relation of a dear Servant of God who dyest in that blessed peace according to the Word of God Thus much of this sweet consolalation Which divides it self into six particulars 1. That Death is spoiled of it's power to hurt us and of a conquered foe is made a friend 2. Saints cannot miscarry in their death because Christ is with them 3. All the godly have the first fruits of glory in hand 4. The saints honour glory and immortality is already prepared and reserved for them in heaven 5 Death is an haven after a storm a rest to all laborious saints a sure hiding place and sanctuary to soul and body 6. The saints promised and hoped for happiness coms sure at last Which happiness hath been amplified 1. In the matter blessedness in God enjoyed 2. In the manner the beholding of Gods face Next followeth the exhortation which is four-fold 1. To be thankfull for this sight of Simeon 2. To prepare for an happy death Solidly Timely 3. To submit to God's dispose in life or death 4. Not to mourn overmuch for them that dye in the Lord. 1 Exhortation Let all gracious Simeons be truly thankful for their sight of Christ with any glimpse of true faith Mal. 4.2 this is Oculata fides or faith illightned with a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse holding forth glorious things laid up in store for the admirers of Jesus Christ for all those whom he hath drawn near unto himself with the sweet honey-combs of his matchless love Cant. 1.4 Cant. 4.10 and with the sweet savour of his costly oyntments and with that untold unvaluable mine of evangelicall grace Look on blessed Saint fix thine eyes upon that Covenant-goodness into which thy poor soul is admitted and be thankfull which Covenant was the birth and product of God the Fathers everlasting love and mercy to all his seeing Simeons Deut. 7.7 the Legacy of free grace of the Father Son and Holy Ghost richly enamelled with royall priviledges and most gracious promises comprehending all those jura regalia of the remission of sin Rom. 9.4.5 of justification before God of adoption and son-ship And by the way observ that Remission of sin which Christ did bleed out for thee who scarce ever didst bleed out a tear for him 't is a choice mercy bestowed on none Rom. 11.23 but such as are vessels of mercy viz. Gods pretious people those blessed ones whom God makes the objects of blessedness Exo. 34.6.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and proclaims himself in his glory as to Moses the Lord the Lord God mercifull c. and shall not such be thankfull Believing Simeon faith doth as it were antidate thy happiness and make things to come as if they were present and as one sayes substantiates things not yet seen and appropiate them to thy self Ps 60.7 as Gilead is mine Manasseh is mine These places were not then conquered but God had spoken in his holinesse and that was assured to Davids soul hee had made a sure Promise Psa â—32 7 Isai 55.3 Acts 2.30 Covenant and Oath to David and so a believer may say heaven is mine heaven is mine God and Christ everlasting glory is mine Faith looks on the promise as fulfilled already and put into its hand in the full assurance of it and after a sort into perfect enjoyment as when the Spirit brought Ezekiel in the visions of God to Jerusalem Ezec. 1.1 his body was commorant in Babilon's captivity by the river Chebar even then his spirit is said to be in Jerusalem for his spirit did lift him up between heaven and earth Ezec. 8.3 and brought him in those visions to Jerusalem The soul may be in sweet communion with God in heaven when the body may be in the earth Every Simeon's soul is in a sense in heaven already sweetly solaced in the beatificall Vision Mat. 5.8 Rev. 15.3 Rev. 2.17 Rev. 22.1.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. â— 9 and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb tasting the heavenly Manna and bathing her self in those rivers of pleasure which the Lord hath put within Christ's purchase and prepared for them that love him to which our blessed Lord doth point as a means of this enjoyment Mat. 6.21 Lay up your treasure in heaven for where your treasure is there will also your heart be A Simeon may be below Col. 3.2 and yet his affections above as Paul doth exhort set your affections on things above and not on things beneath so that a gracious soul is under a double consideration of earth and of heaven whose mind is not said to be where he is but where he likes and loves best and therefore have some of the Ancients wont to say that even here below the soul fetcheth many a flight to heaven with those dove-like wings of silver Psal 68.13 and those feathers of yellow gold in the Psalm 68.13 to see the God of Glory to speak with Jesus Christ at Gods right hand to present her petitions by her gracious Advocate and Mediatour at heavens Throne in expectation of a most gracious answer Again the soul flies up to heaven to visit those innumerable Angels and to contemplate the Patriarks and Prophets happiness to admire the Apostles honour to congratulate all the Assemblies of the first born and to salute the spirits of just men made perfect Rev. 4.1 this Saint John saw a door in heaven opened and he heard a voyce as it were of a trumpet talking with him which said come up hither and immediatly he was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in heaven and one sate on the Throne whence the Prophet John by a call from heaven coms up but how not Corporally but Spiritually then the Spirit lifted up the good man in sweet meditation and most holy affection as Simeon here whose gladded and thankfull heart breathed out this Song in the text Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart c. Then O believer put on thy white robes of holiness Rev. 7. â— 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s but a little while when with Elijah thou shalt ascend joyfully when those earthly raggs shall fall off and thy Christ shall cloath thee over with his bright garment of Glory bear up then blessed Saint rejoice and be thankful in hope of the glory of God it 's a duty becoming thee to be thankfull Rom. 5.2 See what argument Christ useth to raise up the drooping hearts of his
dejected Disciples Lu. 24.17 What manner of communications are these while you walk and are sad Joh. 17. What are you so sad are you not advised that I must depart and glorifie my Father Joh. 14.3 and that when you go hence I must and will prepare mansions of glory for you do not you consider what I am to you and what you are to me whom I have so and so honoured already and am in you the hope of glory Col. 1.27 and that you shall shortly in three days expect my Resurrection from the dead Mat. 16.21 1 Cor. 15.20 Joh. 14.1 an assured evidence of your Resurrection you my beloved Disciples be not troubled at my death and departure Judg. 8.2 nor at your own but praise and give thanks for certainly the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim which you enjoy are infinitely better then all the vintage of Abiezer the earnest and first fruits which even now you live spiritually upon Eccle. 1.2 chap. 12.8 do excell and transcend all the glory and vanity of things sublunar or below 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28. and before in Deut. 7.7 And indeed my beloved Disciples consider what moved me and my Father to own you rather then others so undeservedly when wee passed by so many of the great men and nobles of the world to make you vessels of honour and to give you an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.21 1 Pet. 1.4 What am I said David and my Fathers house that I should be son in law to a King 1 Sam. 18.18 whence was it that the mother of my Lord should com unto me Luk. 1.43 sayd Elisabeth to the Virgin Mary Great was the joy in the hearts of the four lepers of the great and besieged city of Samari◠2 Kings 7.3 to the 12. whom the Lord so wonderfully relieved and enlarged Alas all these were but as nut-shells and oyster-shells compared with the mercies of blessed Simeon whose mercies as they be reall celestial and lasting for ever so they do call for reall and angelicall prayses Heavens candidates bee glad at deaths approach thou art next apparent to glory and indeed be thankful for it may bee thou maist bee one of the next souls who may be gloriously ushered in thither nay in a sense thou art in heaven already thy faith is there thy hope is there thy conversation is there while thy eye is fixed on thy Christ there and thou art daily translated from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord Eph. 1.3 and all this is sealed to thee by the Spirit of promise of which more fully afterwards mean while do but open thy eyes and thou canst not but be really thankfull fiducially to see all the prophesies and all the promises to thee accomplished although thou see it but a far off And now that thou maist be thus thankful let me be assistant to thee in four or five directions Direction Luk. 2 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Study thou poor mortall to praise and magnifie thy God and thy Christ in the highest as the Angells did at the nativity of Christ high mercies do cal for high praises thankfulness may be in carnal earthly men for good turns done them yea and gladness in the beast that receiveth fodder But O thou saved by the Lord thou must act higher even from a principle of Covenant-grace reached out to a lost and dead sinner by the hand of unconceivable mercy procured by the Lord Jesus saving thee so mightily and wonderfully not out of the common store-house of divine providence but out of the Ark of the Covenant or bosom-love of thy Lord Jesus Christ Therefore O blessed soul thy thankfulness must be super-abounding and thy whole soul be poured out in this duty with holy vows and fixed resolutions as that sweet singer of Israel Psal 116. I will love thee I will serve thee Psal 116 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgivings and I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the Courts of the Lords house in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord Lo what a pattern of high and reall thankfulness is here presented unto gracious Simeons 2. To be more real in our thankfulness for such salvation-mercies as Simeons here was we must look farther then the superficies and out-side of a mercy for as God in his workings of good providence hath a wheel within a wheel so he hath oftimes a mercy within a mercy and when wee are called to such a piece of thankfulness as is here required wee must brighten the souls eye of faith and by the prospective of divine promises covenant-goodness we must dive deep and look far to see if it were possible not onely the hand of mercy stretched forth to us but the very heart of Gods mercy opened to us Genesis 6. compared with 1 Pet. 3.19 nay through that mercy the soul must look on the Lord himself for else we do but see the Ark of preservation as the old world did not the covenant-goodness of God in that Ark nor his Church in that Ark nor his Christ there nor all the saved of the Lord even thy self there spiritually in the heart of God and Jesus Christ you must look into the inside of your mercies else you will but see the bush on fire and it preserved but not the good will of him that dwelt in the bush Exod. 3.2 Deut. 33.16 for one may observe the Lords faithfulness in keeping covenant and promise and not look on Jesus Christ the promoter of the covenant by and with whom the Lord made such a covenant therefore wee must throughly look as well on the in-side of the mercy whence a mercy comes originally on Gods mind aim end as on the mercy it self reached out to us we must look on Gods mind towards us in the mercy how to walk act before him in fom sutableness expectatiō to the mercy we do enjoy to live more holily to worship more devoutly to act faith in Gods al-sufficiency to trust in him more to recumb depend more to be the Lords more entirely thē ever before For as in many mercies there is a good out-side but a better in-side so in the carriages of the people of God there is not only a more out-side-carriage before the Lord but a more intern spiritual cordial acting of a thankful soul to serve the Lord more sincerely more absolutely more graciously and more holily as David not onely throughout the 116 Psalm but also Psalm 42.5 after more experience of the Lord and a farther inspection into his gracious dealing with him hee sayes O my soul trust thou in God for I shal yet give him thanks and praise him for the help of his countenance so vers 11
be numbred sinner although thou know not the number the time that 's kept under Gods lock and key hee hath pleased to let thee know the sinfulness the cursedness the brevity the vanity and anxiety of thy life under a thousand dangers and maladies but not to know the computation of thy life except in the grosse that the days of a man are threescore and ten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it may be fourscore albeit not one of twenty attain to live so long v. 10. and if so yet then is their life but labour and sorrow Quest But why blessed Lord may the eternall soul say hast thou concealed this from us Ans That wee should every day wait the good pleasure of our God till our change come Job 14.14 Answ 2. That wee should every day be willing to hearken to the counsel of our good Lord to be prepared to die happily that every prayer we put up that every sermon wee hear should bee poured forth and hearkned unto as our last Ans 3. That every tender and opportunity of mercy bee entertained by us as our last as 't is for ought we know Ans 4. That without the least procrastination we should enter the narrow gate while 't is opened unto us and seek the Lord very humbly Is 55.6 Lu. 19.42 and cordially while he will be found of us that wee should know the things of our peace in the day thereof Ans 5. That we should in due season gratefully accept Jesus Christ's sweet love while he makes such ravishing applications to us Cant. 5.2 saying open to me my sister my love my dove mine undefiled one and come with me from Lebanon my Spouse come away dear heart from the dens of Lions and from the mountains of Leopards So that the Lord by his absconding and darkning deaths time from our eyes doth discipline a poor soul as he did the wise Virgins seasonably to getoyl and lamps our vessels full and lamps burning and to get our loins girt Exod. 12. Mat. 25.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 13.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our staves in our hands that wee ever shaking off all rusty bedrid-security may bee ever upon our watch being so much advised of death so near for ought we know which way soever we go or whatsoever we are about 2. Solidly Now to the solid preparation of which I am to speak before which I must needs promise a few things to awaken wretched sinners fearfully beguiled in so great a business as is our solid preparation 1. For it is lamentable to see how poor sinners do sin away pretious mercies and implunge themselvs into deaths gulf Ephes 2.2 and into the jaws of hells destruction living in sinful lusts being acted by a satanical spirit of disobedience until they be in the jaws of hungry death who devoureth them as the old world while they were eating and drinking rioting drowning and even damming themselves in the days of Noah or as a deaf and merciless Serjeant seizing on a gallant walking the streets in the pride of his heart but suddainly arrested and dragged violently to the Counter or some nasty prison Luk. 12.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even so do great multitudes befool themselvs into deaths Counter never to be delivered till they have payd the utmost farthing which cā never be while they promise to themselvs through vain confidence long life and happy days and that all shall be well with them at the last though one foot is in the grave and they be ready to drop down as they go poor creatures who boast their faith so strong and their hope so well anchored Lu. 18.11.12 because somtimes they cry God mercy do confide in the formality of some duties and an empty profession of Religion void of the life of faith and of the power of godliness whom a deceived heart hath so long fed with ashes Isa 44.20 and their deluded souls with a lye in their right hand unto all whom I must say in the words of the Prophet O self-deceiver O self-destroyer the Lord hath rejected thy confidence Jer. 2.37 Mat. 7.23 nor shalt thou prosper in them for the Lord Christ will never own thee but will profess he never knew thee and say depart from me ye workers of iniquity 2. Others live to their dying hour in a state of unregeneracy unbelief hardness of heart Mat. 23.27 Ezek. 8.3.14.16 after the course of the world and keep an in-side as corrupt as the sepulchers of rottenness of which our Saviour spake as vile as that Image of jealousy or that idol Tammuz said to be that idol which their women did yearly lament with unseemly ceremonies not to be named or as those who worshipped the Sun Job 31.26 27 28. and had renounced God and his worship But O beguiled soul who hath so bewitched thee that thou dost dream that thou maist live a slave a vassall to base lusts within and to ungodliness without and that all thy days and be saved at last that thou maist live the life of the wicked Numb 13.10 yet dye the death of the righteous certainly these be men and women of no understanding he that made them will have no mercy on them Isa 27 11. and he that formed them will shew them no favour Did not the Ministers of Christ ordinarily tell thee what a self-deceiver thy heart was and what a deceiver sin was worse then the harlot and that the way of sinners Prov. 7. Deut. 29.19 would bee bitterness in the end and how unsafe nay how desperate it would be when a sinner dayly hearing these things blesse himself saying I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of mine own heart God sayes Isa 48.22 there 's no peace to the unregenerate soul no peace to the unbeliver to the stone-hearted sinner neither here nor hereafter But thou sayest I shall have peace Quest How shall this be tried I Answ When death comes the horrour trembling and astonishment of spirit which will more or lesse seize upon them shall pass the umpire but a sad one and that which is the beginning of endless and everlasting woes O reader be moved as I professe my self oft troubled within me to hear men and women boast like a Pharisie their faith hope and great expectation saying they shall dye in the arms of mercy because God made them and they have lived under and professed the Gospell have been taken and reputed good christians among men by these and other meerly externall works and insufficient grounds do they too too shallowly conclude that it must needs go wel with them at the last Joh. 3.3.5 2 Cor. 5.17 Heb. 12.14 O let such lay to heart the word of him which shall stand Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven If any man bee in Christ