But good Simeon did not care how soon Death came he lookt for it yea and he long'd for it he thought it was too slow pac'd and its motions towards him not quick enough He knew Death would do him a good turn and therefore he was a voluntier in dying And I must say this supposing that a Godly man have no cloud upon his Spirit and no flaw nor blurr in his Evidence supposing that God shines upon his Soul with the bright and comfortable Beams of his love and favour and that his own Conscience doth speak comfort to him plainly I know no reason no solid substantial reason why he should be backward and unwilling to dye unless it be serviceableness and usefulness in the World If once a Christians work be done what should he stay here for If once he be full ripe for Glory why should he stand any longer It is not worth his while to continue here were it not that he may do good in his place and be helpfull to others and yet farther serve the interest of Gods name and glory and upon that account he ought to deny himself and be willing to wait yet longer for his Rest and Crown Thus it was with Holy Paul Phil 1. 23. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better It was better for him he knew he should mend himself But saith he ver 24. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you They would need his company and his labours his counsels and his comforts and upon that account he submitted Ver. 25. Having this confidence I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of Faith And he was content so to abide Indeed there is not any reason at all why a wicked man should be willing to dye he can promise himself no good by it It doth not come Peaceably to him it brings it's sting along with it He dyes to dye his Natural Death is a passage to Eternal He loseth all by Death and gets nothing Therefore I say there is no reason at all why he should desire to dye And there is but one reason I mean which is worth any thing and which is not easily answered why a truly Godly man should be willing to live And that is serving his Generation according to the will of God But I am sure there are a great many weighty and cogent reasons why such an one should be willing to dye and not only submit to Death but also welcome it and long for it of which I shall speak more by and by Doct. 6. A Sixth Instruction which these words do most freely afford us is this That though a Godly man be never so desirous to dye yet it is his duty and will be his business to stoop and submit his will to the will of God Thus it was with this holy man he was willing and desireous to dye he even longed to be gone Lord lettest thou thy servant depart but he would not go without license he would stay Gods time Though Heaven be never so desireable and this World never so troublesome though the Country be never so pleasant and the way thither never so tedious Be our sicknesses pains and crosses never so great and heavy Be our enemies never so furious and violent our dangers never so eminent our persecutions never so sharp and bitter our temptations never so fierce and fiery we must in patience possess our Souls and be content to bear them till God shall please in his own time to command for us a deliverance out of them Let our conditions be never so dark and dismal we must not escape by opening the door with the Devils Key nor break out of Prison by offering violence to our own lives Job had very dreadfull exercises his State was sad and deplorable He was stript of all his outward enjoyments bereaved of his beloved Children smitten in his body with sores and inflammations his Wife was a cross to him and his Friends cruel God himself carried as his enemy and set him up for a mark to shoot at He had but one comfort left him that was the Testimony of a good Conscience Yet he was resolved to wait all the days of his appointed time untill his change should come He would not make more hast than good speed As long as God was pleased to tarry holy Job was well pleas'd to wait VVe should write after so fair a Copy so to do is both our wisdom and our interest For God is wiser than we his VVisdom is infinite and his time is always best He that goeth to his grave in Gods time goes as a shock of Corn in its season God always plucks his fruit vvhen it is ripe and fit to be gathered He vvill not pluck it sooner and it shall not hang any longer Doct. 7. The seventh Doctrine vvhich these vvords afford us is this Gods promises are to be pleaded by us Thus in the Text Novv lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word There is the argument that he useth for the enforcing his Petition He had received a Revelation from God that he should not see Death i. e. that he should not die he should not taste of Death though he saw the Death of others yet he should not see his own Death until he had seen the Lord's Christ the Messiah or the Lord 's anointed one namely Jesus the Saviour And now saith He Lord now that I have seen him do thou graciously grant me my dismission Be it unto me according to thy word Have you a word O Christians a word of promise blessed be God you are rich in them God hath abounded in promises to his people You have words of inestimable value words better than Gold better than mans bonds words that are suitable to and cordial in every condition into which providence can cast you Now then what is your duty with reference to these words but to make use of them It is pity they should lie by neglected as useless Fetch them out as you have occasion and live upon them that when you are rich in promifes you may not be poor in comforts You do deal disingeniously with God and unworthily with promises unless you use them Q. If any one should propound this question What is that right and proper use which we should make of promises A. I Answer Turn them into Faith and Prayer make use of the promises as food for your Faith and matter for your Prayers Promises are the Life of Faith by these things men live said good Hezekiah and they are the strength of Prayer So then 1. You must believe the promises Set to your Seal that God is true and faithful that his Word is setled in Heaven that all his promises are in Christ yea and in him Amen i. e. of a most sure and certain accomplishment and accordingly do you hope in them and
will sanctifie you as well as well as save you He will Rule you and Govern you as well as save you He will bring you to his Foot if ever he bring you to his Throne God the Father hath exalted him to be a Prince as well as a Saviour and he will be both or neither Vse 3. Be sure to flie to this Jesus in all your dangers and distresses When your Enemies without you are furious and fears within you are high so that your hearts are almost overwhelmed then run to this Rock that is higher than you When you find Corruptions are stirring within you and you know not how to master them and when you find Temptations are violent upon you and you are not in your own strength able to resist them then go to Christ and beg ye of him that he would be your Salvation Thus Paul did when he had a Thorn in the Flesh and a Messenger from Satan buffetting him then he besought the Lord thrice and had this assurance that Christ's grace was sufficient for him and Christ's power should be made known in his weakness And that gracious answer which was given to Paul may be an incouragement to you and all the people of God to take the same course in the time of their need and as this is a most proper course so it is most prevailing for the Lord is good to them that wait upon him and to the Souls that seek him And if you will consult your own experiences they will tell you that you get most of your comforts and most of your victories upon your knees And our Lord Jesus himself by his own example directs you to this means For when Peter was to be Tempted then Christ prayed But there remains one thing more very observable in the words upon which I shall more largely insist than I have done upon all the foregoing points The sight which this good man old Simeon had of Gods Salvation was the reason why he was so willing and ready and desirous to depart and take his last farewell of this World From hence I offer to your consideration this truth Doct. 9. Those that have had a sight of Gods Salvation may very well be desirous of Dissolution and think long till that happy day comes which will convey them into the other World Some men wish for Death meerly in a fret or discontented fit They meet with disappointments and crosses and troubles their estates fail them their trading grows dead their friends unkind A Ship at Sea is cast away or taken by Pirates they are vexed at this and the other and hereupon they are weary of Life and now whether they be fit or no they would fain dye thus it was with passionate Jonah when that a Worm had smote his Gourd that it withered and the Sun darted his scorching beams upon his head that he fainted he wished in himself to dye and said in his hast that it was better for him to dye than to live Poor man he had been put out of sorts and did then quite forget himself But this is very ordinary among people as if every trouble of life should make life it self a burden And as if though our comforts be consumed it were not still of the Lords mercies that we our selves are not consumed And certainly as ordinary as it is it is exceeding sinfull It speaks a wofull impotency and weakness of Spirit yea and there is in it a Spirit of rebellion against God when men would live no longer than God useth them as they themselves please and orders all things concerning them according to their own mind and humour If we did but seriously consider the Sovereignty of God and that as we are his creatures we must be at his dispose we should see reason enough to submit to him and be silent under all his providences How great and how heavy soever our Cross is we should carry it patiently and be content to bear it so long as our God will have us But now a sight of Christ and of Gods Salvation by Christ is a just and justifiable ground of such a desire so that still it be with submission to the vvill and good pleasure of that God in vvhose hand our lives are In the handling of this point I shall do these three things 1. I shall shevv hovv or in vvhat vvays a Soul may see God's Salvation 2. That one vvho hath had the sight of Gods Salvation may very vvell be vvilling and desireous to dye 3. And then improve it by vvay of use and application First What is it to see God's Salvation or in vvhat vvays doth a man or woman see this blessed sight Unto that I shall return this fourfold answer 1. There is an ocular vision or a sight of God's Salvation with the eyes of the body This sight those Saints had vvho savv Christ vvhen he vvas here upon Earth and Tabernacled among men and vvho beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father This sight Simeon had vvhen his Parents brought him into the Temple then Simeon took him up in his arms and said mine eyes have seen thy Salvation And upon that sight he was raised and his heart so ravished that he vvas vvilling immediately to set sail for the other World His Soul vvas ready to take its flight he thought he had lived long enough and had seen enough of these inferiour objects he cared not for beholding the vanities of the World any more Jesus in his svvathering bands did outshine Princes in their Robes and Thrones And having once got a sight of him he thought there was nothing else upon the face of the Earth worth seeing Having seen Christ upon Earth he had a mind to go see God in Heaven Now this sight we cannot have and we need not have it now In this respect the Lord Jesus is gone out of our sight The Heavens do contain him and so they must until the time come wherein there shall be the restitution of all things And there is not any necessity of our seeing him in this manner we are no losers by his absence It was expedient for us that he went away for it was upon his going that the Comforter came who is to abide with us for ever All the work which Christ had to do upon Earth was finisht before he went away what remains further to be done he can do it in Heaven as he sits upon his his Throne at the right hand of his Father And his bodily presence would contribute nothing at all to our advantage and comfort We have a great deal more cause to please our selves with the thoughts of his being in Heaven by which we see that justice is satisfied yea that he entred there as our Fore-runner to make way for us and to take a place up for us and that he doth there ever live to make intercession for us And upon these accounts though now we see him
good and comfort which he expects and waits for he goeth out full of hopes and returns home blank He looks for much but gets little he cannot see his Fathers face that is covered with a Cloud nor can he hear his Saviours voice for he hath withdrawn himself and is gone he cannot find those kindly meltings and warmings and quickenings and enlargings that he desires but he goeth with a pittifully cold hard straitned dead heart so that he begins to question Gods Love and his own Faith If he doth at any time meet with his gracious God and is sensible of his doing so If he can say God was with me of a truth I have this day sate under the shadow of my dearest Saviour with great delight and his Fruit hath been sweet to my taste Alas it is but short Rara hora brevis mora it comes but seldom and it lasts not long It is but a little visit and no sooner it may be hath the gracious Soul done blessing himself in his enjoyments but he sees cause to bemoan himself for his loss But however it be with some particular Saints upon whom the Sun of Righteousness stands and shines with constant beams yet this is most certain as to all the Saints that the most sweet and full enjoyment which they have of God while they are here the most pleasant and comfortable communion they have with him is but mediate Christ looks upon him through the Lattice and they see him but as in a glass darkly All their refreshings are conveyed by Pipes they do not lie at the Fountain-head When they are most present with the Lord they are even then absent from the Lord and upon this account it is no matter of wonder to see or hear that they are willing to exchange a dark vision for a clear one seeing in a glass for a seeing face to face to exchange interrupt pleasures for permanent and abiding ones and mediate fellowship for that which is immediate Love is an uniting affection and is set for the strictest and closest embraces of it's indeared object And so a Soul that truly loves God cannot but desire to be as near to him as it can be and ready to exchange the comforts of the way for the joys and pleasures of the Countrey 3. He that hath seen God's Salvation hath seen enough to deliver him from the dread and terrour of Death for this is evident and obvious that if Christ be any mans Salvation it is utterly impossible that Death should be his destruction A man that is in Christ is not out of the reach of Death but he is secured from the hurt of Death Take an unregenerate man one that is a stranger unto Christ and he cannot see any thing in Death that should commend it to him It hath a dreadful aspect and a worse issue he hath cause to fear both Death and its Followers He is stript at Death and lasht in Hell Death to him is a dark passage to outer and endless darkness But now as grim as Death looks a Believer can easily discover a great deal that will make it lovely even Death it self hath its beauty as thus It is a conquered Enemy Christ went into the Grave it 's strongest hold and there he baffled it broke its Chains and carried away its Gates he disarmed and unstung it so that Holy Paul did and every true Believer may play with it and triumph over it 1 Cor. 15. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though Death kill the Believer yet it doth not dammage him and though it separate between his Soul and Body yet not between him and God who shall separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord Shall Death saith Paul no saith he in that as well as in other things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us Nay through Christ death is not only conquered but also reconciled to all the Saints it is now become your Friend and Servant and doth you a real kindness So that as Solomon tells us The day of your Death is better than the day of your Birth You came into the World crying but you may go out of it Triumphing and with the voice of melodie The Primitive Christians did not array themselves in Sables at the Funerals of their Friends but in White looking upon their Dying Day as the Day of their Nuptials It was most terrible to Nature to be torn in pieces by Wild Beasts to die at a Stake to breathe their last in Flames yet in such a Death did they glory counting Martyrdom their Crown What though Death carry you from all your present comforts it doth at the same time set you out of the reach of all troubles and as it carries you from comforts so it carries you to comforts yea to such comforts as are far better than those you part with It pulls down this decaying and tottering Tabernacle that a more beautiful and stately Fabrick may be erected It takes you out of your sorry Cottages and carries you to those Blissful Mansions which are in your Fathers House The Grave it self though it be darksome and lonely yet it is a good resting place ever since our Lord lay there He hath perfum'd it and made it both soft and safe That Bed of Dust is now better than a Bed of Down or Roses It is true in the Grave though Christ's Body did not yet ours must see Corruption they must putrifie and at last be Converted into Dust but that Dust is more precious than Gold Oar and shall accordingly be most curiously preserved not an Atome of it shall be lost And that Body which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power and cloathed with immortality and made like unto Christ's own most glorious Body 4. And Lastly That man who hath seen Gods Salvation hath also seen all things amiable and desireable in the other World whither Death will carry him He hath looked within the Vail and had a prospect of that better Countrey There hath he by the Eye of Faith seen incomparable beauties to enamour him an excellent Glory to adorn him unspeakable comforts to delight him the best of Friends to invite him and an innumerable Company of Angels and Saints to bid him welcome There shall be nothing at all that may offend nothing in him to offend God nothing without to offend him nothing of sin and nothing of sorrow no temptation no affliction no danger no loss no frown no fear no sickness no pain no want no angry withdrawings not one pricking Briar nor one vexing Thorn But there shall be all things that you can desire and are suitable to that glorious State unto which you shall be advanced all things that will contribute to your happiness and
Righteousness As if God would take you from hence to your loss and you should be better in a strange Land than in your Fathers house And the preparations that God hath made for Eternity are not so good as those that he hath made for a short time and so Abraham Isaac Jacob David Peter Paul and the rest of the Saints departed had better have staid here and now they are with God do wish themselves with us again In a word it is as if the immediate and full enjoyment of God would not be sufficient for you you could not find room enough nor goodness and delights enough in a God but you must go begging to the door of creatures and patch up to your selves an happiness with these small and sorry shreds of being and you have found more to live upon and to delight your selves in the drop of a bucket than you can or do find in the Ocean of goodness I beseech you seriously consider of these things all these things lye uppermost any one may see them in such a persons unwillingness and loathness to dye whensoever God would have him But to proceed Vse 3. In the third and last place this may prove a very comfortable consideration and staff of support in the hands of those who labour under sorrow and continual heaviness of heart because of their departure of their gracious and holy Relations they are dead and you carry as if all your comforts were dead with them This is certain that when God gives such blows those that have any thing of tenderness do feel the smart of them Breaches in the Family do make breaches upon the Spirit When Lazarus was dead Jesus wept Mourning at Funerals is no Soloecism but a lovely sight so the sorrow be kept within those bounds that reason Religion have set it And where there are such breaches they call for binding up We should all be as so many good Samaritans pouring Oyl into the wounds of the Spirit for the suppleing and healing of them God hath been pleased to come into this Family and break the head of it and cut it off in taking him away he took away a tender Husband a loving Father a good Master a dear Friend one that in these evil days owned God his Waies and People and kept a Church in his House and his doors open that hungry Souls might feed upon and be refreshed with the bread of life which was there from Sabbath to Sabbath delivered out unto them The death of such a person is a common loss not only to the Familie but to the Country too and because thereof you are in Heaviness and afflicted in your Spirits Neither is this your case alone but of many others Death rides in Circuit and according to the Commission which it hath received so it makes it seizures here in an Husband deprived of the delight of his Eyes there is a woman made a Widow and her Children Fatherless Many a faithful fruitful useful Christian is cut down under whose shadow and in whose sellowship his Relations and Acquaintance did greatly rejoyce Unto such I have something to say that should prevail to the silencing of them and that is this it is the will of God the great God will have it so Thou wouldest have had thy Husband thy Wife thy Father thy Child lived longer but God would have him die now and this should knock all quarrelings and murmurrings and discontents down for there is all the reason in the world why God's will should take place and he should fullfil all his pleasure and why our will should submit and give place to God's And then I have something to say that may quiet satisfie you under such a providence for it is not enough for us that we be silent under it unless we be also reconciled to it at peace with it now in order thereunto take these 2 particulars consider them 1. They did see Gods Salvation before they did depart and so they dyed not under terrour nor in doubt nor at any uncertainty but in peace before Death closed the Eyes of their Bodies God had opened the Eyes of their Faith and shewn Christ to them and his love in Christ and you have reason to be perswaded good things concerning them even such as do accompany Salvation nay to be now perswaded of their Salvation it self This was the reason of my choosing these words of Simeon for the Subject of my discourse at this time because they were the Swan-like Song of our deceased Brother the very last words he spake save some short and holy Counsels which he gave to his beloved and most hopeful Son and shall not this satisfie you But then add 2. Now that those Holy ones are dead they see those things which they never saw things that are most richly worth their seeing and which as the case now stands with mankind they could not see without dying They have those sights which make the seer blessed they are taken up to the beatifical Vision They do not see an end of all their sins and sorrows nothing shall defile nor afflict them more all filth and all tears are wiped away they see the accomplishment of all their hopes the fullfilling of all their prayers the reward of all their services the Crown of all their sufferings They see the excellent Majesty and Glory of that God whom they had chosen and do now behold his face in righteousness Neither is that sight terrible to them as it was to Moses in the Mount so that he did exceedingly fear and quake No those Holy Souls do see God and live and rejoyce that sight is their satisfaction and delight They see that Blessed Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them and washed them in his own blood and made them Kings and Priests unto God yea they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is They do see that Holy Spirit which convinced them and sanctified them who directed them in their difficulties strengthned them in their weaknesses assisted them in their duties and most sweetly supported and comforted them in all their distresses They see an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect In short they see that which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive namely that Glory Kingdom Inheritance those Robes Crowns and Thrones which God hath prepared for them that love him And the day is coming in which they shall again see those Bodies that at their flight to Heaven they left behind in a better State than ever And you O Saints shall see them too and Christ with them and then your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man shall take from you Only in the mean time do you live believingly walk humbly holily and circumspectly get your Vessels filled with Oil your Lamps burning and your Loins girt make haste to the Kingdom of God and be ye followers of them that through Faith and Patience do inherit the Promises