Prolongation of Life is not in this respect so great a Mercy For they think that it is a most easie thing to be ready for Death and Judgement they think that a few Prayers at last a few Tears and Cryes to God with a Confession of their Miscarriages and a few Resolutions against what they once did amiss will put them into a good frame and serve their turn and so the time that was given them wherein to prepare for another World is lost and unimproved because they understand not the greatness of their Work nor the preciousness and value of that Time which is given them to do it in They ought to Remember if they have been near to death how that nearness changed their Thoughts and that they then found by the hurry and confusion of their Apprehensions that Sickness was no proper season wherein to begin an holy Course or to repair the disorders of an ill one Of all men in the World those who are recover'd from a Sickness that found them in their Impenitence have most Reason to be thankful because had they died in that Condition they had died for ever what thanks owe they to God that they are under Hope in the use of Means yet upon his Earth and not in Hell And there are two things with respect to our dying which render the Continuance of our Life a great Mercy First The small Acquaintance which we have with the Future state and the necessity we are under to get as lively apprehensions of it as we can There are many strange Vicissitudes in this World many changes that we see in Countreys when Kingdoms pass from one to another in Families when the number is either increased or diminished and we suffer many changes in our Bodies from Sickness to Health and from Health to Sickness again but there is no change that is so great as this by Death It is a thing of which we know but little and none of the Millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell us how it is All that go hence remain fixed in their own state some expecting and others fearing the Resurrection and the Great Day We have but very obscure apprehensions of that separated state we know but little of the Great All-comprehending Spirit and little with clearness and full satisfaction of our own Souls When we know something of Spirits by their effects and the discoveries they make of themselves and would more fully know their nature and have adequate Conceptions of them we are like little Children that see the Image and Representation of some delightful object in a Glass and then turn the glass hoping to see it in its full dimensions but by that means lose the sight of it altogether so it is with us in our most Critical Inquiries into Spiritual and Immaterial Substances Nevertheless it is very desireable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body and what is the nature of that abode into which we must go but which we never saw Into what Regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done When that Soul which touch't and wrought by our hands spoke by our tongue and heard by our Ears shall have her present Organs taken from her and pass from sensible objects on Earth to a spacious unseen World When as in the twinkling of an Eye our spirits will go from this lower state through the Aiery Region and the visible Heavens soaring till they come to the Throne of God All the Animal Actions of Nourishment and Growth all the Sensations that arise from outward and Material objects will cease and these spirits will be more vigorous and Active than now they are When Death comes it leaves the body though far different from what it was yet still in our view We see where it is and what Qualities it is invested with how it is disposed of we know and are able to give some exact Account of its Condition of this we have a more distinct Apprehension but none of a separated Soul but what is very imperfect 'T is certain the Soul will then preserve the Faculties that are natural to it viz. to Understand to Will to Remember as 't is represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus So long as 't is lodged here it sees and perceives Corporal things by the Organs of the Senses and reasons upon the Images that are labour'd in the Phantasie but there are in our Souls Idea's purely intellectual and which have in them nothing Material as the Contemplations of the Nature of God and of his Attributes We little know how the People of the disembodied Societies Act and Will and Understand and communicate their Thoughts to one another What Conception can we have of a separated Soul but that 't is all thought and that either in the Calmness of an elevated Joy or the bitterness of overwhelming Anguish according to the state in which it is and the sentence that is past upon it When a Mans Body is taken from him by Death he is turn'd into all Thought and Spirit either infinitely more pleas'd or more amaz'd than he could be in this World How great will be its thoughts when it is without any hinderance from these material Organs that now obstruct its operations In that Eternity as one expresses it the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way In this World the soul sends out Parties of it self divers wayes or to several ends the Judgment may be pleased in the main and yet the Affections disturbed or these more still and yet the Judgment dissatisfied and disturbed One thought goes out in high discontent another flyes after it recalls and reconciles it On the other side one thought leaps out of the Soul with pleasure another reproves daunts and dejects it with a correction of its haste But in Eternity the soul is united in its motions which way one Faculty goes all go and the Thoughts are all Concentred as in one whole Thought of Joy or Torment Beverley Great Soul of Man pag. 292. These things cannot but occasion great variety of thoughts in every Considering Man and the soul especially when it looks toward that World and thinks it self near it can no more cease to be Inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a soul. We may indeed be too curious in this matter though it seems to be a Curiosity that is most excuseable because it concerns a mans self his own soul and his own Eternity and when we have searched as deep as we can we must confess our Ignorance and say with the Prophet upon another occasion Lord thou knowest In these Contemplations we must make the Word of God our onely Guide and it is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged that God allows us time wherein to Converse with that Gospel that has brought life and
God but as Chaffe before the Wind but as Thorns and Briars before a Consuming Fire but by a reverential awe of him we may lay hold of his Strength and be at Peace Look up to his Heavens and that vastly extended Firmament that is above and then reflect and think how great is he that made all this Creation with a Word Look to his Law and consider how holy he is in his Precepts and Threatnings and then look to your selves and consider how Sinful and how Vile you are Look upon the strange punishments and miseries under which many of your Fellow-creatures groan and be not high-minded but fear because the God that afflicts them may perhaps very shortly do the same to you and let it fill you with the most awful thoughts when you consider how great is his power how severe his Justice and how unspotted is his Holiness How easie is it for him to bring you to the Grave if he do but withdraw sleep from your eyes so that you have no rest for three or four nights or for one Week Then there is a stop put to all your present projects and then all the Comfort of the World is gone For all Affairs depend upon Activity and Vigour and this will cease when sleep does no longer refresh your Spirits as it us'd to do All your apprehensions will change when you have lost this support of weak nature this onely prop of Comfortable Life God can make the strongest and most healthful persons quickly to feel Sickness and Diseases He can quickly turn a pleasant fruitful Land into barrenness and the most beautiful Habitations into Dust and Ashes We should greatly beware of provoking him of whose Mercy we stand in need and whose Wrath we cannot bear He can quickly change all our Joy into Mourning and our Day into Night and our Light into the shadow of Death When he frowns all the stateliness of Buildings all the Glory of Nations all the Pomp and Splendour of the World is gone How soon can he lay waste a flourishing Countrey with War or Plague or Famine he can quickly turn the house of Joy into an house of Mourning and deprive us of what is most pleasant in our Eyes and blast all our hopes You have seen that by letting loose an unruly Element of Fire he turn'd this City in two or three dayes into an heap of Ruins and by filling the Air with contagious Vapors sent many thousands in a very little time into the Grave and he can by letting loose any one Humour in your bodies make you a burden to your selves and to be weary of a World in which you can no longer live as you us'd to do Inf. 3. There is great Reason that under any Sickness or Distress that befalls us we should submit our selves to this God that brings even to death and back again If you be plagued all the day long and chasten'd every morning Psal. 73. 14. whilest others are in no trouble and if you feel your strength decay whilest theirs is firm let no murmuring thoughts fill your Minds because you are the Creatures of God and he may do with you what he will Keep a remembrance of his absolute Soveraignty alwayes imprinted on your Hearts Job 33. 12 13. God is greater than man why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Whatever he doth is therefore good and holy because he does it And when he chastens us very sore we should lay our Mouthes in the dust and bear with Patience his Indignation because we have sinned against him We must not yield our selves to our Miseries but to him that sends them and that you may submit in Great and Heavy Trials you must have recourse to the Promises of the Gospel the Mercy of God and the Righteousness of Christ the Merit of his Sufferings and the Efficacy of his Intercession and if you believe you will be established for without Faith in Christ there is no Hope and without Hope no Submission How can this be done if a man have no prospect of advantage by it either in this or the next World for no man can possibly submit to be for ever Miserable It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3. 26. Inveigh not therefore against the Rod though it smart very much but look to the hand in which it is to that Wisdom that has the disposal of it and to those sins that have deserv'd it Look not upon your Evils as the product of Chance or Fortune but as the effect of an Holy Providence which though it is many times very severe yet is alwayes very just Adore this Providence with an humble Silence and Veneration You do not know which is better for you Health or Sickness Affliction or Deliverance he onely knows that knows all things and it will be very grateful to him if you give a chearful entertainment to his Order and Decree If he please who is your Gratious Creator and your Father he can therefore afflict you that he himself may be your Cordial and revive your fainting spirits from the very Grave but if not your Religion should teach you to approve of all the messages he sends you and by a quiet Resignation to put your Souls into his hands when he signifies by the Progress and Increase of your Distemper that your Race is finisht and that it is now your time to die And in order to this you must lay up a good store against that Evil day For you may be warned from the World with long Chronical Diseases that by their Acuteness and Violence may be as so many several Deaths complicated together And then when you have no hope of bodily ease any more then will be the great Tryal of your Faith Several Men will with great hardiness and resolution bear very great pains so long as there is the least hope of Life but to be patient and submissive in the deepest Sorrows and in the view of certain death this is what none can rightly attain to but those that Believe and not all those neither but such whose Faith is deeply rooted has for a long time flourisht and Conquer'd overwhelming doubts and so is of more than an ordinary growth This is that which rendred the Patience of our Blessed Redeemer so very remarkable that when he was lead to the slaughter where he knew he was to suffer violent and great pain from barbarous and cruel men yet even then he opened not his mouth and when he knew there was unspeakable bitterness in that Cup which he was going to drink yet notwithstanding all the Wormwood and the Gall that was in it and though his Innocent Nature did recoil a little yet he drank it off saying with an entire freedom of Choice and a full Acquiescence Father not my Will but thine be done And this was the fruit of a mighty trust
PRACTICAL DISCOURSES ON Sickness Recovery IN Several SERMONS As they were lately preached in a Congregation in London BY TIMOTHY ROGERS M. A. After his Recovery from a Sickness of near two years continuance LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard and John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey MDCXCI To the Right Worshipful Sr. WILLIAM ASHURST AND Sr. THOMAS LANE Knights And Aldermen of the City of London Most Honoured AFter I had once resolved to let the following Discourses see the Light in hope that they might be some way serviceable to the Glory of God and the Good of Men especially of the Sick or such as are recovered I had no doubtful Thoughts to whom they should be address'd You were the Persons that I first thought upon and it is to You that I am obliged in a more than ordinary manner Therefore I take this occasion to make my Acknowledgments and to testify my Gratitude It was from your Kindness that in troubled and uneasy Times I did obtain many a pleasant and quiet Retreat In both your Houses in the Country I always met with a chearful Entertainment and had there an opportunity of Study which together with the benefit of your Conversation and a leisure to think without being diverted by the noise and burry of the disagreeing World made me to relish a very sensible Delight in being there It is to me and others a thing very observable that the Honours which you have received both from the King and your Fellow-Citizens have made no Alteration in your former ingaging Tempers and Carriage You are still as free as pleasant and as affable to your meaner Friends as you were before Whereas we daily see many Persons whom a little Honour or Advancement changes from all the good Qualities they once possess'd to Loftiness and Pride whom an high Station fills with as high Thoughts and who cannot from their more exalted Condition look upon such as are below them without Contempt and Scorn And tho this may not cause them to lose some outward Civilities from those that are dazled with their shining Grandure yet they do thereby lose all that Reverence and Esteem in the Minds of Men which other wise they might expect You are for the great Zeal you have manifested to the Good of your Country and more especially to the Liberties and Priviledges of this City justly beloved and the more so because you were always steadily resolved to promote the true Interest of both even in such a Season when some that had either no English Blood in their Veins or no true Love to their Country in their Hearts were willing easily to part with those excellent Rights which cost their Forefathers very dear who were in some sense worse than Esau for he sold his Birthright but they were willing to surrender and to give theirs away for nothing It comforts us when from our low Ground we look up to your higher Sphere and see you so well to fill your Orbs with Light And we daily pray that you may long shine there for the Common Good and that we may long be refresh'd with those Influences which have already been so comfortable to us You have now through the Providence of God an honourable Station but before that you were most honorably descended You derived your Birth not only from Families that had done worthily in Ephratah and were famous in Bethlehem but from such as were the Friends of God of a strict Piety and of an unblamable Religion some of which are now Citizens of a better Corporation even of that which is in Heaven What a Comfort is it to the Children of good Parents that they can pray to their Fathers and their Mothers God In Yours you have beheld the Amiableness of Religion represented to the Life in their good Example and the Holiness of their Conversation You may fire your Souls if at any time they begin to cool by the pleasant remembrance of that which they did for God You can remember with what Constancy and Fervour they prayed with what Reverence they read the Word and heard it preach'd with what Seriousness and Frequency they spoke to you of heavenly Things and of the Life to come with what watchfulness they managed their Prosperity with what Patience they bore Afflictions with what Meekness they forgave their Enemies with what Readiness they entertained all those whom they judged sincerely to name the Name of Christ. You see those who are yet alive worshipping and serving God and you can though not without sorrow for your own loss remember those who are dead and gone with what Faith they lived and with what Hope they died Give me leave humbly to desire you to continue to set often before your Eyes their heavenly Example and to keep the same good Order in your Families that they kept and to read the Scriptures with as much Frequency and Seriousness as they read them to be as conscientious in all the Duties of Religion as they were that so They and You may meet with Joy in the Great Day The Thoughts of Death as it is an Entrance into an Unalterable and Eternal State will very much promote all this It will help us to have our most delightful Conversation with those Persons with whom we desire and hope to be found when our Lord comes It will regulate our use of lawful Things and guide us in the management of our Pleasures and our Recreations it will keep both our Bodies and our Souls in a readiness for private Prayer the serious and reverent and lively performance of which will greatly promote our Growth in Gracê We give to our Friends large Portions of our Time every day and we should devote some part of it to converse with God and that not in a cold manner but endeavour to warm our Souls with a deep sense of our Wants and with some suitable foregoing Meditations This is that Duty to which you are no Strangers and You and all others that are in earnest for your Souls will preserve this as a strong Defence against all your spiritual Enemies and the manifold Snares and Temptations of the World for it brings to our Assistance the Help of God and of our blessed Redeemer There is no Pleasure that we have in our Friends or in our Diversions that is comparable to that Joy which an holy Soul finds in its humble and reverent Approaches to the Throne of Grace where God and the Soul meet together where God by his Spirit kindles heavenly Desires and where the Soul upon the Wings of those Desires takes its flight from this lower World when the Soul complains of the burden of Sin and God by his free and gracious Pardon takes the Burden off when the Soul pants and breaths for the living God and he is pleas'd to meet and to satisfy the
some remaining indispositions I had not so long delayed to appear in this place I have thought indeed sometimes that I would with Sampson arise and do as I did at other times but that tedious and uncommon pain that afflicted me and the Consciousness that I have of mine inability to manage so Honourable and so difficult a work as this has long kept me back Moreover I thought there was no need of my weaker Light nor of my meaner Capacity whilest in my absence you had others whose understandings being better furnished could communicate to you in larger measures from their more abounding store But the deliverance which God by his own Power and Goodness has already given me is so wonderful so unexpected and especially so undeserved that I cannot but thrust my Sickle into the Harvest though it be with a very trembling hand And I promise my self that you will joyn your prayers with mine that it may be for the good of some Soul or other nay if God so please that it may be for the good of many Souls that I come here this Evening that it may be for the preservation of others from so thick a darkness and so woful a Condition as that wherein I have been I come to you as one from the dead to say no more and though if you hear not Moses and the Prophets and the well attested Revelations and Discoveries which God has made by them neither will any other methods be successful to your good yet one would think that the Words of one that has dwelt so long as in the very Grave and in the nearest Confines of Eternity ought to carry more than ordinary weight with them A peculiar attention is usually afforded to dying Persons and I think the same should not be denyed to such as in the Judgment of others and in their own opinion have been no longer for this World as I was for above a year and upon that account have Cause to say as in the Text. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave c. From the Words we may raise these two Observations First That God alone is the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death Secondly To be brought up from the Grave is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which all such as are recovered ought to be very thankful First God alone is the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death This great God concerns himself not only with the Nobler parts of his Dominions but with such as are more inconsiderable He not only preserves the vaster and the purer Orbes above but also this little drossy Globe His Care extends its self not only to the Highest Angel but to the least and the meanest Man And though Men are among us distinguisht by several Excellencies and Titles of Honour yet before him all flesh is as grass He gives a Being to the meanest Pile in its ordinary Garb as well as fine Apparel to the beautiful Lillies of the Field 'T is in him that we all live and move and have our being and if his Concourse be removed all our operations will immediately cease We cannot act without him for then we should be self-sufficient and Independant on him He is the Author and the Preserver of our Nature He first tyed our Bodies and our Souls together and 't is his care that maintains this Incomprehensible Union that is between parts in themselves so vastly different and when he pleases to suspend his Influence 't is dissolved and broken asunder He is the strength of our Life Psal. 27. 1. From him we have all our Healthfulness and Vigor He is the Great Agent the principal Efficient Cause of All that Exists and all second Causes in their several Actions depend upon him Though the manner of his Influx is very Mysterious and it becomes not the weakness of our Minds daringly to determine which way it is we that are extremely in the dark about many of the motions of our own Faculties ought not any way to Limit Him whose Wayes are Unsearchable and who is so far above us But this we most certainly know that our whole being and the continuance of it depends on him alone 'T is his Sun that does refresh our Spirits with his Temperate and Comfortable beams and that by his Amiable shine renders this World a place of delight For were it always covered with darkness it would be a place very undesirable and full of horror They are his Vapours that are drawn up to fill the bottles of Heaven and 't is his hand that opens them again and makes the Clouds dissolve to give being to Grass and Corn to feed the Beasts for us and to be the staff of our Life 'T is his Day in which we work and his Night in which we sleep 't is his Earth that bears us his Air in which we breathe and they are his Winds that purisie and fan that Air to make it healthful and serviceable to us It was this great and Gracious God that first breathed into us the breath of Life he formed our several parts with curious and inimitable Art and his own skilful hand brought us from the darkness in which we were inclos'd safely to the Light of Day 'T was by his Goodness alone that we were not strangled in our Birth or smother'd in the Cradle and that we did not there by the Carelessness of our Keepers and by the many distempers that attend our Early Age find a Grave His Goodness sav'd us from the dangers which we our selves were unable to apprehend and which without his extraordinary Favour would have clos'd our eyes as soon as we saw the Light and have sent us into the other World when we were but newly entred into this His Mercy deliver'd us from the unknown dangers of our heedless Infancy and from the unfear'd evils of our daring Youth 'T is God alone that holds ouâ— souls in life and suffers not our feet to b moved Psal. 66. 9. 'T is he that furnishes us out of his Stores wherewith to repair the daily decayes of Nature He gives us the things that are absolutely necessary to maintain our Life and those also that are necessary for refreshment and delight His corn his wine and his oil Hos. 2. 8. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that hâ— may bring forth food out of the earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth mans heart Psal. 104. 14 15. 'T is he that spreads our Table and who fills our Cup and makes the things which we take for the support of Life to give us strength for we live not by bread alone Mat. 4. 4. 'T is he that gave and that maintains that heat in our Stomaches and those Acid juyces there that alter and attenuate and distribute the several parts of our Meat 'T is he that gave
brings them to Glory even by such unlikely wayes He will have them to be train'd up with difficulties to strive and to wrestle with them that so their Fervour may shame the coldness and indifference of others who take no pains for their Salvation He will have them to go laden under the sense of their Corruptions that so finding their daily need of Christ they may still remember him who is their help and finding so much guilt in themselves they may apply themselves to his unspotted Righteousness for Justification and to his Word and Spirit for new degrees of Holiness that they may have experience of his Goodness and he of their Obedience and Love that they may know the Loving-kindness the Care and the Wisdom of that God that Pilots their Ship when it is covered with waves and stormes for stormes are the Triumph of his Art and he steers even the sinking Vessel to the Port. Secondly By being brought from the Grave a Man may be enabled to do much good to himself as well as to others that so he may at last with joy give an account of his Stewardship that he may increase his own reward and by Gods Grace make his Crown of Happiness more sparkling and more full of weighty Glory As no man ought to be satisfied with the lowest degrees of grace so every one may and ought by an Innocent Ambition and a multitude of good Works to indeavour to sit near to the Throne and not only to save himself but to carry others with him to heaven that may be his Joy and his Crown in that Day Reason 6. and Lastly There are several circumstances that may enlarge the kindness of being brought from the Grave and which ought to render us more thankfull for it Those that are good may have their iniquities visited with stripes and it cannot but be a terrible thing to fear that they shall be snatcht away whilest they are punisht with the rods which their own Sins have made As the Prophet was devoured by a Lion for his Disobedience to the command of God 1 King 13. 21. It is a great Mercy to live to see the good of his Chosen and it is a punishment to be taken away just when some great deliverance is coming to the Church It was a thing which Moses greatly desired to see the Promised Land and to go thither to see it indeed was granted him but to enjoy it was denied him because of the provocation at the Rock It is a Misery to see Plenty for others and not to taste thereof our selves like that Lord of Samaria who perished for his unbelief 2 King 7. 2. 17. 18. It is a great Mercy to be delivered after we have been afflicted and ready to dye when the terrors of God have amazed us and his fierce wrath has gone over us Psal. 88. 15. How sad a thing is it to dye under a sense of the weight of sin and to have no prospect of a Pardon to feel as it were the very scorching flames of Hell and to have no hope that these will ever be cool'd or remov'd but rather grow more hot and scorching to have no Comfort from Heaven or Earth no rest for the Body no composure for the Soul to be sinking and to have nothing to lay hold upon to stand shivering on the brink of destruction and to see no way of escape to be compassed in with sin behind and with Miseries before to be in darkness and to see no light not to know where our Lot will be fixt not to know but that it may be among the damned To be near to the Judgment Seat of Christ and to be afraid of appearing there This is a state in which no man would chuse to dye for it is inexpressably terrible and it is a most wonderful mercy to be delivered from a Case so sad as this For how uncomfortable is it to a mans self to be roaring in the disquietness of his soul not to be able to live because of the insupportableness of his Pain nor to dare to dye because of the greatness of his sins that are always before him and that are like to lye down with him in the dust How uncomfortable is it to the Relations and Friends of the sick and dying that see him strugling and crying under pains which tear him to pieces How uncomfortable is it to them to hear his doleful Expressions about his Eternal state to see the anguish of his soul and the arrows of the Almighty sticking in it which makes him a terror to himself and to those that are round about him How woful a thing is this and if a man get to Heaven at last by the mighty Grace of God yet it is a thing very undesireable to go thither as by the very gates of Hell for a man to have his days shortned and his strength weakned in the way Psal 102. 23. and to have his Sun go down at noon looks like the displeasure of God and no man would dye by the frown of God A man cannot be blamed who is loth to dye till he save some Hope that it shall go well with him for ever 'T is a sore Evil to be thrown aside as a broken vessel in which there is no pleasure Jer. 22. 28. It is a great mercy to be kept from raging violent distempers and to be deliver'd from such after we have long groaned under them It is a great Mercy to have such a sickness as will allow us time to exhort and direct and counsel others and 't is very desireable that we may by a Christian Carriage set our Seal to Religion and shew its Power and Reality 'T is a most glorious thing to dye in the Lord i. e. as one Paraphrases it in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit of Faith and Love in a Spirit of Elevation towards God which makes the dying believer to go towards Heaven with all his force and like his Saviour commit his soul with joy into the hands of his heavenly Father Du Bosc Sermons p. 354. We ought to pray that we may not be like the wicked in our death and that we may be found of our Lord in peace and that we may say with old Simeon when after long expectation he saw the Messiah and embraced him in his arms Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2. 29 30. This we may beg of God for it is not only for our happiness but for his Glory when we can trust him tho' we go into a state which he has promis'd indeed but which we never saw What a glorious thing is it when we are drawing near to the end of Life to be able to wait and not only to wait but to long not only to believe and hope but to rejoyce and triumph in the thought of seeing God To give to those that
live an Example of dying well which is the most difficult thing in the World What a mercy is it when a man after many long and weary steps on Earth is going stored with Experiences and a well-grown Faith to his Journeys end When a man arrives at Heaven like a vessel well fraighted and richly Laden that after a long and dangerous Voyage is coming home To shine all his Life with the beauties of Holiness and when he dies to set like the Sun in beams to rise again Oh what a pleasant thing is it to a Believer to have the sweet foretastes of heaven here and hereafter to enter into the joy of his Lord To be blown along with a full gale of assured and undaunted Hope To be able to say I know whom I have believed I have fought the good fight of faith I am going to that God whose I am and whom I serve to that God who has loved me and whom I have loved who will be my own God for ever and ever What a glorious thing is it when a Christian by the assistance of the blessed Spirit has mortified all inordinate desires after any thing in this life when he can say Let me arise and go hence to a better place when the Affections and all the powers of the Soul are on the wing to meet its Saviour on the way when it is in an actual readiness and as soon as ever it hears the voice saying Come up hither will freely go and with such holy haste as if it would prevent Christ in his coming to fetch it It is a thing greatly to be desired and prayed for that when our last hour comes we may not onely in the General be prepared to dye but that we may be in a dying Frame and a man is so when he is very submissive to God and his blessed Will when he is pleas'd with that order of his Providence that calls him hence When by Faith he is intirely loosen'd from the World and Worldly things and in assurance of Salvation can yield up his Life with this Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Inf. 1. If being brought from the Grave be so great a mercy and for which we ought to be thankful then what cause have those to be thankful who are delivered so as never to be in danger of dying any more Happy are they who are deliver'd so as ever to be deliver'd never to feel the same bitterness which they once felt nor to groan under the same Miseries and Calamities We praise God here on Earth but alass how low and how weak are our Praises to what he deserves for his own Excellencies and for his Mercy to us How cold are our warmest praises to theirs above who are all in admiration Extasie and Love And well may they praise him in the most elevated manner that certainly know that all their diseases are heal'd and their Iniquities forgiven That by their nearness to God see his Face and how well-pleas'd he is with all they do they praise the riches of his Grace in pardoning so many sins and so great they praise his power and his Wisdom that guided their poor trembling Souls to his own Glory their hearts are full of Love and 't is that which produces Praise and Joy Oh what a chearful Society is above in Heaven where so many Milions of Angels and so many Saints joyn together in the same blessed work and all their several Anthems meet in one loud and pleasant Hallelujah how vastly different is their Assembly from such an one as this Here we are with our unbelief with our fears with our strong Corruptions and with our many sins whereas they are all perfect and compleat in Holiness Here are we liable to manifold Calamities the very thoughts of which may be justly afflicting to us but in their World they have no change nor variation They have one continued and unalterable Felicity after a long and doleful sickness it is a pleasant thing to behold this World again it looks as a new World to me who have dwelt for so many Months on the very borders of the Grave But alass what is this World that at the best is a Region and a state of death to that above which is a Region and a state of pure and undisturbed Life The deliverance which God has been pleased to give to Me is in many respects as a Resurrection but it is such an one as that of Lazarus after which I must be sick again and dye for Recovery is but a delay of certain death And indeed our praises for our escape from death are very much damp'd and allayed by this thought that we must for all the deliverances we have at present yet in a little while go into the Grave The remembrance of those fore and dreadful Calamities that surrounded me and this Consideration that I am whilest in this body obnoxious to many thousand more distresses makes me to rejoyce with trembling It is a very sad Consideration when a man looks upon such a number of people as is here this Evening to think how many several sorts of miseries may be our Lot before we dye All of us are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward We can no more avoid affliction then we can run away from our selves What vexations may you Parents meet withal in disobedient Children that may send you mourning to the dust What Curses may come to you who have careless Parents that suffer you to wander in the way of death What disappointments and losses and decayes may you that are Tradesmen meet withal or if you avoid all these yet that which is worse may come upon you I mean sharp and violent diseases and these I call worse because a man will better bear any inconvenience without him then that which fills his body with uneasieness and pain and his Soul by its sympathy with its dear Companion with Anguish and Vexation In how little a while will all who are now alive be dead In how little a time may the most strong and healthful person here be taken off by sickness from all Employment and business How does it trouble us many times to see the Tears and Sorrows of our nearest Friends and we cannot mitigate them with what earnest looks do they move our pity when they are in great pain but we cannot help them their shrill Cryes and their doleful groans may pierce our hearts but we know not how to remove them We stand by their Bed-sides and see their Agonies but by being sorrowful we do but for the most part add new grief to theirs We see their Countenances change and how at length they pass away and that shortly in such a case shall we our selves be But oh what a welcom and glorious day will that be when we shall see those very friends alive again whom we once saw in the most dreadful Agonies of death When though we parted with Tears yet we shall
the Gift that he has given us for there is none more excellent among all natural things than the Gift of Life and whilst we hug and embrace this dear Enjoyment let us not forget the Donor of it Let us remember God who is the Fountain of our Life and lets us also remember that gracious Mediator by whose Death this and all other Mercies were purchased for us and by whose effectual Intercession they are bestowed and made our own Could they that were cured of Fevers Palsies Blindness Lameness and other Distempers by Christ here on Earth ever forget so skilful and so tender a Phisician doubtless where-ever they came they spake of him where-ever they met him they gave him Thanks and we should be no less thankful than they seeing his Goodness his Power and his Compassion has been the same to us that it was to them for as one says he shews his Power in the Greatness his Wisdom in the Seasonableness his Truth in the Constancy his Grace in the Freeness the Riches of his Mercy in the Fullness of his Blessings and Deliverances How great is the sum of all his Thoughts and his Benefits to us they are altogether innumerable and too many for us to remember but however we ought to suffer nothing to make us forget such as are greater and more eminent There are two great Changes that we ought always to remember when we are changed from a Death of Sin to a Life of Grace and when we are brought from the Grave to the Health and comfortable Enjoyment of this natural Life for in the Beginning and in the Consummation of our Deliverances there is nothing on which we should with more delight fix our Thoughts than on the Goodness and the Power of God who alone is able to save us from our Distresses and who is most willing to do so when we call upon him The End of the Third Sermon The Fourth SERMON PSAL. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the Pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give Thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness I Now proceed to enquire after what manner we must remember our Deliverance from Sickness and Death And this we may do three ways 1. Remember them with an Admiration of God that he should be so good to you Admiration is the first of all the Passions next to Pleasure and Pain When an Object is perceiv'd that hath nothing new in it we consider it indifferently and without any commotion of the Soul but the Mercies that we have from above are new to us every Morning and to be admired for their being so Lam. 3. 23. When we are intent upon the Creature we may be guilty of an excess of Admiration which by immoderate fixing of the animal Spirits in the Brain may hinder their usual Influx into other parts of the Body and be very hurtful to the Health Natural History of the Passions p. 90. But when God is our Object and Things Divine raise this Motion in our Souls there is no danger of Excess There are two things that may cause us to admire the Goodness of God that he will bestow any of his Mercies upon us 1. The vast and immense Distance that is between him and us his unspeakably glorious Majesty and Greatness and our own poor mean being that is in it self very low and does appear much more so when compared with him When we consider the large extent of his Dominions the splendor of his Court the numerousness of his Attendants the glory of his Heaven the brightness of his Sun the beauty of his Earth and the largeness of the whole Creation and then from the sight of these behold our little selves have we not cause to say Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Psal. 8. 4. Is it not a wonderful thing that so great a God will take care of us when he needs not our Services nor all the Duties we are able to perform If we were to set in Darkness for ever he would shine with a Light as bright and clear as he he now does It is a mighty Condescension in him to pity our Distress to help our Weakness to cure our Wounds to solace our Hearts to pacify our Souls and refresh our Bodies and when we are dying to revive us and to bring us from the Grave So that we may say with David 2 Sam. 7. 18. Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Ver. 19. Is this the manner of Man O Lord God How freely dos he do us good when we could lay no Obligation at all upon him 2. Another thing that causes us to admire him for the Mercies that he bestows upon us is Not only that we are inconsiderable Creatures but guilty too and have deserved the contrary at his Hands We are not only as Jacob says less than the least of all his Mercies but we are worthy of his greatest and most severe Punishments We not only deserve to be plagued all the day long and to be chastned every morning Psal. 73. 14. but we deserve to be the Objects of his Fury for evermore We murmur and think it hard to be laid upon a Sick-bed but alas we have all deserved to be laid on a Bed of Flames We groan and with impatient Complaints express our Sorrows when he for holy and gracious Ends casts us into a fiery Furnace Whereas were not the Lord infinitely merciful to us our milder Sufferings might have been our Hell Every medicinal and gentle Stroak of our Heavenly Father might have been the Lash of Devils that would have shewed us no Mercy Alas where had you and I been long ago had God dealt with us according to our Sins I should not have been speaking to you nor you hearing me in this Place with hope We should have been all silent in the Grave or all in Torments in a worse Place 'T is our Self-love and our heinous Pride that makes us to be so impatient in our Sickness and so unthankful when we are recovered We think we are injured when we are afflicted and that we have but what we merit when we are delivered But what Miseries and Desolations have our Sins deserved our Original Corruption and all that impure Offspring that has descended from it How many thousand times do we sin every day How much Evil do we commit that we ought to forbear and how much Good that we ought to perform do we let alone Who is there among us that hath those serious and abiding and lively Thoughts of God that he ought to have Who is there that in his Trade and worldly Business maintains his Commerce with Heaven and with spiritual and pious Ejaculations Who is it that by constant Exercises of Religion makes
again the first Visit they make is to their old Good-fellows as they call them and they are welcomed into the jolly Company with full Bowls and with loud Huzzaes but let us go to such as will entertain us with Praises to God for our deliverance and not drink our healths but seriously pray for them Eightly When God has brought us from the Grave let us by all means see that so sore an Affliction and so great a Deliverance may be sanctified to us And we may know that they are so when they produce these following effects First When they take off our hearts from the World and the Creatures and drive us more to God Secondly When they make us more frequent and fervent in our Prayers Thirdly When they produce those holy ends for which they were sent upon us Fourthly When they make us to acknowledge God and to see his disposal and his hand in all that is come upon us Ruth 1. 20. The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Ver. 21. The Lord hath testified against me and the Allmighty hath afflicted me Fifthly When they make us to humble our selves and to lay our Mouths in the dust knowing that tho our troubles were very severe yet they were very just Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God And Job 42. 5. When they fill our Hearts with Admiration and our Mouths with his Praise Seventhly When the Mercies we receive carry our Affections with more flame towards the Benefactor from whence they came As the warmth of the shining Sun causes a new fragancy and a sweeter smell among all the Flowers of the Garden Eighthly When they bring us to more knowledge of God and to more true calmness and joy in him These are glorious Effects of a sanctified affliction and of a sanctified escape from it and a sign that they came not by a common but by a special Providence and by a right of the Covenant of Grace by which all things are ours I might add in the ninth place when we taste his Fatherly Goodness and Love in all that we enjoy if we find these things within us 't is a sign we have both heard the Rod and him that did appoint it Mich. 6. 9. Oh how happy are we if God by taking away our health has given us himself and if by sending sharp sickness and pain upon us he has prepared us for a sweeter relish of his Love Happy are we if our Temporary Sickness tend to an Eternal Health and our short Sorrows to an Everlasting Joy Happy yet again are we if he have not only Commanded us to take up our beds and walk but also said unto us that our Sins are forgiven if we can say with Hezekiah Isa. 38. 17. Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in Love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back It must be our great endeavour that after we have been tryed we may come forth like Gold and that we do not as the three Children in another case come out with our old Garments and with the same Sins upon us Let us earnestly beg of God that we may have a compleat Salvation and a total Recovery That as our Bodies are supplied with new strength so our Souls may prosper also For to be diseased in our Souls whilst our Bodies thrive is as if the House in which one lives were very well repaired and adorned to all advantage and the Man that dwells in so fair an Habitation were forced to go in raggs so fine a dwelling and so ordinary an Inhabitant would not agree well together Oh let us take care that whilst God has healed our Diseases we be not inwardly distempered with the Plague of our own Hearts That Man is not to be called healthful that let him look never so well has a Disease in his Vitals that by slow Degrees preys upon his Life Neither can that Man be truly said to be recovered whose Soul is either void of Grace or that having had it in some measure languishes and decays He is composed of Contradictions of Life and Death at the same time he is alive and well as to his Body but his Soul is dead in Trepasses and Sins The most excellent and valuable part of himself does remain under the power of Death and whilst it is so is an Object more unpleasing to God than a dissolving Carcass in the Grave would be to us The Welfare and Recovery of our Souls is what we ought more to seek than the Welfare of our Bodies Both indeed are Mercies but the former is much the greater of the two What is Purple and fine Linnen and soft Raiment that sets off a Man to the Eyes of others to that Faith and Love and Patience and Hope and those other Graces of the Spirit that beautifie the Soul and render it amiable in the Eye of God What is all the Meat and Drink that refresh our Bodies to that Heavenly Manna that Celestial Nourishment that an healthful holy Soul feeds upon The prosperity of our Bodies their ease and capacity of performing their several Actions is one of the greatest Ternporal Mercies but alas this will signifie nothing at all if we do not prosper in our Souls There is a way indeed whereby we may gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles i. e. Refreshment and Comfort from those Afflictions that peirct us to the quick and that Sorrow which was at first unwelcom to us may prove an Angel of Light and strike off our Chains if we can say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Psal. 119. 71. Ver. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy Word His was a very blessed Cross that flourisht into such fruit as this I think I should not say amiss should I say that God has as it were brought every person here from the Grave and saved him from going down into the Pit from a Grave and a Pit which has been often digged for us by the Plots and Designs of our Enemies and into which we had long ago fallen had not God mercifully saved and helped us God has very lately done great things for our Brethren in Ireland whereof I do believe your Hearts are glad for as you mourn'd with them in their Sorrows so t is fit you participate with them in the Joys that they now have by the quick advances of their increasing Deliverance and from the dangers that so nearly threatned them And God has not after the mighty wonders of his Providence left us here in England when destruction has been coming towards us with hasty paces when it has from the proud Fleet of our Enemies threatned
us at our Coasts and at our own Doors this gracious God has kept it off And if we repent we shall not perish You in London have seen your Civil Liberties rescued from the Grave in which they might have laid very long had not he raised up our present Protestant King to be that glorious Instrument that should give them a Resurrection Our Country after a long Sickness and Indisposition under which a few years ago we were afraid it would have languisht quite away has begun to recover and it is our Wish and Prayer that by the same Goodness and Power of God that has turned our Captivity it may at length flourish with a perfect and compleat Recovery For indeed it is not so as long as there are still so many Blasphemies and execrable Oaths to be heard in our Streets as long as there is so much heedlesness and irreverence in our Assemblies so much Injustice and Deceit in our Shops so much Omission of Prayer in our Families so much Luxury and Riot at our Tables so much Profanation of this Holy day But to this we hope the Zeal and the Care of our Magistrates will at length put a stop But whilst these things continue tho blessed be God we are much better than we once were yet still these will be ill Symptoms upon us What cause of Joy should we have if the Mercies we have already received were sanctified and improved Oh what a Joy would it be if God would save England with a Spiritual Deliverance if he would save us from those Sins that expose us to his Wrath And if we would in our particular stations do all we can to promote such a Salvation which would be much more glorious than what we have yet seen Then indeed we should have cause to turn our days of Humiliation into days of Praise If we would forsake our strange Sins we need not fear in the least to be punisht by People of a strange Language and which we understand not We need not fear all the powers of the World nor all our Enemies if we did not cherish the worst Enemy of all in our own bosoms I mean our Sins and if which God avert we should still continue to cherish these they will rout us without another Enemy Let us obey and love that God that has so wonderfully preserved and continued our Peace that so there is no crying out nor complaining in our Streets That has made all things to be still with us while the Nations round abound have heard the Voice of Spoilers and the Noise of bloody Wars Let us take heed lest we forget our Deliverer lest we abuse his Goodness lest we forsake our own Mercies There are no Judgments so severe which we have not all deserved and which we may not fear but yet there are no Mercies so great for which we may not hope if the large Experience that we have of the Goodness of God in our frequent Deliverances have their due influence upon us and if he be for us as he will then be who can be against us Jer. 3. 22 23. Return ye backsliding Children and I will heal your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Truly in vain is salvation hoped from the Hills and from the multitude of Mountains truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel The Fifth SERMON Psal. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down into the Pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the Remembrance of his Holiness ANOTHER Way whereby you are to improve your Recovery from Sickness is to take heed that you do not overmuch value your Bodies Look upon them as still obnoxious to great Pains and let that abate your too great Indulgence to them This I know is not a very pleasant direction because as there is nothing for which our sensible Nature has a greater abhorrence than Pain so there is nothing of which we are more unwilling to think and when by any ways 't is brought to our remembrance we endeavour to turn it off by turning to some other Discourse or avoiding those places where by the Groans or Tears of the Sick we shall be forced to remember it whether we will or not Few People care to talk of Sickness till they are sick or of dying till they come to dye They make much shorter Visits to the diseased than to those in health not only because they are afraid of troubling their Friends by their Discourse which is likely enough but principally because this is more unpleasant than their other Visits It is very advisable therefore that we render those Evils which we cannot avoid familiar to us by frequent Meditations and this will diminish their formidableness and violence tho indeed when a Man has thought never so long pain will be pain still a thing that whenever it comes will cause indelightful sensations in our Spirits The Body by its near alliance will communicate to the Soul a perception of all the Meseries it suffers and when the one half of a Man is ill the other half cannot fare very well It was the peculiar Vanity of the Stoicks as some observe That they would be philosophizing after the rate of Angels and discourse without considering that their Bodies are one half of their Natures and that their Souls are not disengaged from Matter and by consequence have sensual Appetites too gross to be satisfied by bare Thoughts and Reflections and sensitive Pains too sharp to be allayed with Words and Subtilties When we consider what Evils our Sickness brought upon these poor frail Bodies of ours surely we should never too much doat upon them when all the Care we can use will not preserve them from the Grave He that is proud of his Body is as foolish as if he should doat upon a Flower which an unseen Storm may deprive of all its Glory or which if it be let alone and meet with no accident will of its self wither and deay Or as if he should admire a Stream of Water and the Bubbles that are upon it which in the very moment of our Admiration slide away and stay not for our Praise or our Love Or as if he should fall in Love with some of those brighter Clouds which roul above our Heads and which for all their taking Brightness will quickly disappear It would abate that tenderness and delicacy wherewith we treat our Bodies if we did but leisurely consider what strange Miseries may afflict them before the period of this mortal Life It is a sad Reflection as one says to consider that when Life is so short and so fading so much of so little should be worn away in Misery and Torment Some indeed by a particular Dispensation and a most favourable Providence are allowed to pass into the other World without
much pain in this but this is not the common Lot You know that the poor Man at the Pool of Bethesda had an Infirmity thirty eight years Jahn 5. 5. You are told in Luke 13. 16. of a Woman that was a Daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound eighteen years and when so malicious and cruel a Spirit had the management of her Bonds no doubt but he made them very strong It was without doubt a painful Distemper as appears vers 11. she was bound down and could in no wise lift up her self If you enquire of those that usually attend the Dying or if you look upon the Weekly Bills you 'l find there by what painful Diseases Men go to the Grave By the Stone or the Gout raging Fevers or Cholick or which is of all others most formidable and which more generally die of every Week than of any other Distemper i. e. Convulsions Or if they die not by these yet by others that by their length are as grievous and as uneasie Your bodily Pains may be protracted to a very long duration for it is a most false Maxim that if your Pain be long it will not be sharp and that if it be sharp it will not be long It is a saying to which dayly Experience gives a Confutation For how many are there that are groaning under Pains both very long and very sharp Fevers burn us Agues shatter us Dropsies drown us Phrensies unman us the Gout tortures us Convulsions rack us Epilepsies fell us Collicks tear us and there is no considerable Disease which is not very troublesom in it self however Religion may sanctify and sweeten it Boyle occas Refl Sect. 2. Med. 3. What a vain thing is our Body and how vain are the Projects of Men for the preservation of it How many are their Cares and Designs about it It is for this that Commerce and Navigation is maintained to bring home Foreign Drugs for Physick and Sawces of other Countries to raise our Appetites Pearls and Jewels for Ornament and Splendor The greatest part of Men are imployed meerly for the service of the Body Physicians by profession are obliged to study what may repair its defects and contribute to our ease and health the Husbandman labours all the year that the Ground may yield us Corn and Bread and Fruit Some build us Houses others beautify and furnish them Butchers are employed to kill the Creatures for us and Cooks to dress them and yet these Bodies are lyable all the while to pains which none of all these can remove To sicknesses of which no Perfumes no costly Raiment no pleasant Relishes can make us to lose the bitter Sense and the Thoughts of them ought to lessen greatly all that inordinate Concern which we have for what is only mortal for its being so makes it to be very vain We must use our selves to hardship and relinquish our too great tenderness and delicacy For he is the wisest Man who knowing he is once to suffer as we all are does learn betimes to do it Let us therefore keep our Bodies pure and clean and chast First Let us use a great Moderation in all those Accommodations that relate only to them Such as Houses Gardens Estates or the like that they be not too expensive or take up too much of our time or of our delight That they be not designed as the Trophies of our Pride or the means of Vain-glory or to get a Name We that have Souls to save have something else to do than to follow needless Superfluities When we were sick we knew that we were too much unwilling to leave the World Let us not paint it with more alluring colours lest we be still more in love with it and more loath to leave it For shall we more easily part with things sumptuous and splendid than with things that are meaner and less suited to a fleshly Mind and Life We are Pilgrims and shall we be so industrious to plant and build and sow in a strange Country when we confess we are distant from our home What Man would set himself to adorn his Inn from which he may dislodge the next morning and it may be never see it any more Secondly Let us use a great Moderation in our Apparel When you dress your selves remember that you dress a Body that will shortly be a Carcass without Beauty Life and Motion Consider how soon all the Sprightliness of your Eyes all the Pleasure of your Looks will be gone the Cold of Death will quickly freeze that Blood which now circulates with so brisk a motion in your Veins and Sickness in a few days may so change you even you that are most curious about your Body that you will not desire even to look upon your self When pain and trouble has sunk your Eyes and hollowed your Cheeks and turned your once delightful red into a decaying pale how seldom then will you visit that Glass to which you now go so often and at which you stay so very long What will your softest Raiment and your finest Cloaths avail a decaying Body which God hath clothed with the Garment of Heaviness Let the Consideration of this be a powerful Motive to excite you not to go to the highest Excesses of a luxurious Age but after the Fashion of the grave the modest and the religious part of People that allow to themselves some large portions of their Time to adorn their Souls with those Graces that make them shine with real worth and do not spend it all to set the Body off What is this Body but a Lump of animated Clay a poor ruinous Habitation that has a thousand decays ready to come upon it and whilst we are contriving how to repair it for many years it may be we have not then a Month to live And what is it when the Soul that gave it all its pleasant sensations all its comlyness and lustre is fled away If we look but upon a Friend an hour after he is dead how is his Countenance changed There is nothing then to be seen in him that did attract our Eyes before You then no more see any Smiles in that Face where you have before seen the signs of Chearfulness and Joy Where is his former Comeliness and Beauty his ancient Grace or his lovely Features You can then take no delight in being with him you have then no mind to look upon that very person that it may be a while ago was the Delight of your Heart and the Comfort of your Life Will all the Finery in the World procure for us a sweeter slumber in the Dust Why should we set our selves with so much application to regard our Bodies Is it to much purpose to paint a little Dust and Ashes Those light impressions that we make upon it the next Wind blows away Think but how vain and short your Life is and this will greatly suppress your inclination to Vanity Look upon your Watches and
the constant meekness and quietness of his Spirit contributed very much It was Mr. Burroughs his Opinion that Mr. Dod was the meekest Man upon the Earth in his time and speaking of him as then alive he says He is about fourscore and ten years old and lately preached twice every Lords-day and the constant health of his Body was such that he was able to continue heavenly discourse till midnight from day to day and to Preach all the day long his Spirit not failing at all And thus by keeping the constant frame of his Spirit he was hardly known to be in any Distemper of Spirit See Burroughs Serm. on Matth. xi l. 2. p. 358. Thirdly That we may not provoke God to cut us off our Lives must be laid out for his Glory If we live to our selves he may well throw us aside as a broken Vessel wherein he has no pleasure Which of us would suffer a barren and unfruitful Tree to Cumber the Ground for many years And do we think that his Patience will always let us alone and not after it has been the witness of our Idleness turn to Fury and cut us down If we do nothing for him and his Glory how can we expect that his Creatures should give us nourishment and strength that his Earth should bear us and his Sun shine upon us How can we ask our daily Bread from our most gracious Master if we lay not out the refreshment we receive from it in his own Service Which of you would keep a Servant in your Family and give him all necessary Accommodations and yet be content to see none of your Work done Would you not with Anger turn him off And do we deserve better usage at the hands of God Would we have him to spread our Table and to fill our Cup that we may sin against him What Prince is there that would give money from his Treasures to carry on a War against his own Crown or to support a Rebel If we oppose our Creator or forget him 't is no wonder if he throw us out of the câ—re of his Providence 't is no wonder if his Justice deprive us of a Life which we so vainly spend And indeed when we consider how little we do for that God who has done so much for us every one of us may lay his hand upon his breast and say Lord be merciful to me a sinner for I deserve to dye Whatever care and temperance we use in our Dyet our Exercises or our Recreations yet if we be unprofitable Servants he may be provoked to give us our last Summons and say Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou shalt be no longer Steward With what face can we pray to God to keep us from sudden Death and to prolong our Lives when the Language of our former Actions will declare this to be the sense of our prayers Lord give me a longer Life and I will sin against thee more And is that a frame that becomes a Creature and a Sinner to his great Creator and final Judge It may cause God to say It repent's me that I have made such a man whole and that I have brought him from the Grave Thirdly Live much in a little time 'T is no great matter if we arrive safe to Heaven tho we do not live so many years in the Body as others may attain to tho we lose the sight of the Sun Moon and Stars yet the first sight of the Face of God will make amends for that and all our other losses Let us therefore rouze up our selves let us cast off all our former sloath let us contend and strive with all our force with all the powers of our Souls that we may enter in at the strait gate and lay hold on Eternal Lise It is for Heaven and Salvation and methinks the very name of such a place and state should set our Souls on fire it should enflame our desires and quicken our diligence and raise our hopes Let us run with as hasty a pace as ever we can let us not stay to listen to the charms or pleasures of the World Let no Frowns discourage us no Difficulties startle us no Dangers keep us back 't is for a Crown of Glory Let us keep that in our Eye and let us consider who are the Spectators of our Race God looks on to help us here and to reward us at the last Angels applaud us the Saints on Earth pray for us and the World will admire us though our Diligence will condemn their Sloth How busie and how unwearied is the Devil for our Ruin and shall we shrink at any Labor when we have the advantage of that evil Spirit What he does is with Envy against us and with rage against God But we have hope and tho we toil to the very Evening and Conclusion of our Day we have a Master that will reward us very well How solicitous and how careful are Men for the Affairs of this present Life and shall not we be as much solicitous for those of the Life to come How will they rise early and sit up late for a good Bargain or a little Profit and shall not we do as much to save our Souls for ever Oh let us suffer no day to go over our Heads wherein we are not more watchful and circumspect in our Actions more fervent in our Prayers more concern'd for the Welfare of our Neighbour and our own than we were the day before Let us now do as much in a Week as we did before in a Month and as much in a Day as we have done in a Week before Let us indeavour to have more Light in our Understandings more Love in our Wills and a greater and more universal Warmth in our Affections Let us that have been sick consider what an interruption that Sickness has made in our Life When our sorrowful Months were upon the account of those Sorrows to us Months of Vanity wherein we were not able to pursue the true ends and business of Life Let us fill up the vacant space with an after Diligence And seeing our great Work in the World has had so long a stand Let us now fall upon it with a fresh Vigor and we may by running faster and by the Grace of God overtake some of our Fellow Christians that are at present a great way before us and who are many Paces before us on the way to Glory We have it may be formerly done some small service for Christ but now we must do more than we ever did When we have obtained so many Blessings at his Hands it would be inexcusable if we had not a Mouth to acknowledge his Goodness and an Heart to love him a Mouth to speak for him and for his Glory upon all occasions and an Heart to admire and depend upon his Promise We have done too little for him that has done so much for us Let the consideration of this
himself who in the night that he was betrayed was providing a Feast of Comfort for his poor Followers Fourthly T is very delightful to God when his Servants after the receipt of Mercies joyn their praises together If we had no experiences of his Goodness to us yet so excellent are the Perfections of his Nature that we ought even then to praise him much more when he is so kind to us who have deserved nothing He is pleased with with that homage which we give him by our Prayers and our hearing of the Word and when two or three are gathered together he is there It will also please him to see our Hearts and our Mouths full of Thanks for to this very purpose he gives his Blessings to us and it is grateful to him to see that they are not lost upon us As it is pleasant to an Husband-man to see a seasonable Harvest and that his Labour and Pains have not been in vain When there is a Consort of Musick there is the greatest Harmony and when a whole Assembly of sincere Christians joyn their Voices and their Hearts together with what a delightful sound do they go up before the Throne of God For as one observes the blessing and acceptance that Religion receives from the Divine Majesty is much greater for the publickness of it even in this sense two are better than one for they have a good reward for their labour In this sense their complicated services are more forcible their threefold Cord is not easily broken Not that God is prevailed upon to any change in himself or his Government by the services of his Creatures though in a multitude but he is pleased to found the occasions and opportunities of his most bountiful recompences in the drawing near of their greater numbers For as when God was pleased to communicate himself more freely he did it to a multitude of Creatures so he delights in receiving back the glory of having thus communicated himself from a multitude also and as there is more of himself in more of his Creatures whether of several sorts or of the same so there is more of his blessing in their approaches to him Whole Duty of Nations p. 9. What does the Great God obtain by all his Acts of Bounty to his Creatures but a Revenue of praise what other end does he design in all his Mercies therefore we should be most willing to pay him this easie Tribute Oh how pleasant is it to come into the house of God with the voice of joy and praise and with a multitude that keep holy day Psal. 42. 4. Private prayer does not honour him so much as publick this therefore as the now mentioned person expresses it it was the Policy of Nineveh's natural Religion to unite their Force in Humiliation Fasting and Prayer and to take advantage of joyning the mute desires of the Beasts that have a voice in the Ears of God Abraham's Servant made the Camels kneel down while he prayed to God And it was as he further observes Davids Art to gather up all the Praises even of the lowest of the Creatures that could so meanly give them and inspiring them with his own Reason made them as it were to follow his Harp and to unite in his own Halleluiahs Thus he served himself of them that making by them a greater Present of glory to God he might receive the greater Blessing from him We ought to be as eloquent in the numbring of our Mercies as we are in the compution of our Sorrows and our Praises ought to be as loud or rather louder than our Groans And yet alass how rare a thing is this mutual praise And it may be as a sign of it that so many desire Funeral Sermons to be preached for their departed Friends and few desire any Sermons for their own Recovery from Sickness and Death or for their Friends upon the like occasions 'T is strange that we should be more ready to mourn than to rejoyce and that our Sorrows should be more passionate and fluent than our joys that we are more enclined to bewail our Losses than to be glad for our Mercies especially when one has the advantage of pleasure on its side which the other has not we always meet and mingle our Tears together when our Friends are to be laid into the Grave and we should as solemnly meet when any of our Friends have been nigh unto Death and have escaped it that for so great a Mercy we may return to God our Common Praise Fifthly This mutual praising of God is a resemblance of Heaven In doing this we are beginning that blessed Work which we hope to be employed in for ever We poor Sinners here below are then something like to those Holy Souls that are above Will it not be a great part of Heaven to admire and adore and praise God for all his Deliverances granted to us to his Church and our fellow Saints There will be a common Joy and an Union of Praises for all his Mercies from the beginning to the conclusion of the World And then all the Myriads of his Elect being safely gathered into his own Kingdom shall keep a Thanksgiving-day and that Day shall be for ever It is to that pleasant and chearful Country that we at length hope to go Let us use our selves now to the Language of the Place and learn betimes to Sing the Songs of Sion Let us raise our Voices as high as ever we can in the Praises of our God and then knowing how unsuitable our highest Elevations are to his Excellent and Glorious Majesty let us long to joyn with Glorified Spirits in their louder and sweeter Hymns and being sensible of our own Weakness we may call to the blessed Angels to all Beings that are in Heaven or on the Earth in the Air or in the Seas to help us to praise the Lord. As we have the Example of David in sevèral Psalms and in the 103. 20 21 22. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word Bless ye the Lord all ye his Hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his Works in all places of his Dominions bless the Lord O my Soul The Conclusion of the Whole AND now to finish what I design to say from these Words Having been delivered from a long and severe Sickness I would most earnestly beg of you all to help me to praise the Lord for his great Goodness and Mercy to me Long I was upon the very brink of the Grave and nothing in this World could ease my Pain or mitigate my Sorrows God himself hath wrought Salvation for me And 't is for your sakes as well as mine own that you may see an instance of his mighty Power and Goodness who as he hath delivered me can also deliver you when you come to Straits and Difficulties I heartily wish that seeing my