with the first by calling for the Elders by confessing their Sins by promising Repentance and by Prayers for good things requisite as well for the body as for the Soul Discourse of Extream Unction pag. 48. It is also the duty of those that are acquainted with the sick instead of vain and frivolous discourses of Common Affairs which have no relish with those that are in great pain to Minister as far as they are able to their Spiritual Wants to direct instruct and any other way to help them to set their Souls in order and to trim their Lamp See what Care the Holy Prophet used to his Enemies Psal. 35. 13 14. When they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother Those means which he used for their Recovery were an argument of the sincerity of his own Religion as well as of his most affectionate Sympathy and tenderness to them When you visit the sick you see in them the prospect of your own Mortal Estate You see how soon their Complexion their Temper their Sociableness and all that agreeableness of Humour which was pleasing to you is gone and changed In their broken feeble expressions in their wan and pale looks and in their fallen Countenances you behold that man in his best Estate is altogether vanity Psal. 39. 5. and how when God with rebukes does correct man for Iniquity he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth ver II. then you see that all flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field Isa. 40. 6. How many times do you see those whom you love strugling with pains strong and bitter even as death it self and you cannot though you never so earnestly desire it afford to them the least Relief not a moments ease nor the smallest interval of rest but when your hearts have sunk within you with the doleful and unintermitted accents of their Groans and Sighs how often have you prayed to God and he has appear'd to your help and theirs There may be many Cases wherein much speaking may do your afflicted Friends no good at all but there is no Case wherein your prayers may not be of great advantage either to preserve them with you or to obtain for them some Gracious discoveries of the Love of God or a more easie passage both which are very great Mercies What wonders have been wrought in all Ages by the power of the United Intercession of Believers when they have carried their sick to Christ. What numbers are there of perfect Souls in Heaven that can Witness to the Truth of this and how many deliver'd Captives are on Earth that can now with joy set their Seal to it and say with Transport truly God is a God hearing prayers The continued prayers of the Church for Peter did procure his Enlargement and an Angel was dispatcht to break his Chains and to send him to carry the welcom news to the then praying Church that their prayers were heard and he was deliver'd Many there are now alive that owe their Lives to this whereof I am one The Mercy of God which alone could help me and that was implored and sought by your prayers has brought me from the very Grave In all future occasions try this method for you know it is available and successful Is any afflicted let him pray himself is any so overwhelm'd that he cannot well perform it Let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him and the prayer of Faith shall save the sick Jam. 5. 14 15. He is to use this course as a means for the recovery of his Health for though we cannot with any Modesty pretend to the prayer of Faith here mentioned that is of a certain perswasion that the person for whom we pray shall be raised up yet we ought to pray in this Faith that it is pleasing to God when we express our dependance upon him by asking those things which we need that every good thing comes from him and therefore health and deliverance from death that though he does not alwayes give that particular thing which we ask yet 't is sometimes denied because we do not ask and that as he never gives the greatest Blessings of all which are those of a good mind but in answer to prayers So sometimes he does not send bodily good things because he is not prayed to for them And there is no less Reason for Prayer when God raiseth up the sick by Blessing ordinary means than when it was done by a supernatural Gift Discourse of Extream Unction pag 46. Inf. 2. There is great Reason to Fear and Reverence God For as he presides over all the Revolutions of Empires and Nations their Original their Growth their Prosperities and Decayes so he does likewise over particular persons in their Life and Death His knowledge and his Government reaches to all things for their Existence depends upon his Will It is in his power to destroy or to save He is the God in whose hand our Life is We lye at his Mercy and according as he Wills we must either be Healthful or Sick Live or Dye His are our times on his pleasure our present happiness and our future welfare depends He sits upon the flouds and orders with a steady and uniform design All that appears most uncertain and changeable to us He can either make the Waters of Affliction to drown us or say unto them as unto the waves of the Sea hitherto shall you go and no further even then when their swelling Pride threatens us with total desolation He has appointed his Sun to measure out our time and knows when shall be the last concluding day When those that are now living shall dye and by what sort of death and where after that they shall be placed whether in Happiness or Wo. He knows when the last Trumpet shall sound and when the dead shall be rais'd Of him therefore should we stand in Awe as having that voice continually in our ears Deut. 32. 39 40. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever What an abundance of diseases are at his beck what abundance of Arrows are in his Quiver what abundance of sins do we commit which cause him to bend his bow and provoke him to set us up as marks of his displeasure He can strike the most consident and secure sinners dead in a moment or with long abiding pains fill them with so great anguish and vexation that they shall chuse strangling and death rather than Life Alass what are we to this Great
us the desire of Food and that drives away those diseases that would lessen and abate our Appetite And it is in the sense of his Providence that we ask his Blessing before we eat and return him thanks afterwards For were it not for his Gracious Influences our Faculties would quickly lose their proper Vertues and we should notwithstanding all our Care quickly dye All Sicknesses are at his disposal for it is he that kills and that makes alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up 1 Sam. 2. 6. When he pleases to withdraw his most Common Blessings we droop and Languish and pine away Thousands of Diseases stand in a readiness waiting for his Command and when our sins make him to give the word they fall upon us with a mighty Violence and in a few restless dayes and nights change our Countenances break off our purposes and stain all our Pride and glory Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw nigh unto the gates of death Psal. 107. 17 18. God has fixed the bounds of our habitations and the very time of our stay and when it shall be that they must know us no more We are but Dust and Ashes and how soon can the mighty power of our great Creator blow away the most strong and healthful with more ease than we can our breath scatter a little dust All things in this lower World have their Rise their Progress and Decay by the Decree of God and so have the Lives of men There is a time wherein to be born and a time wherein to dye and both known to him though upon wise Reasons hid from our knowledge God does with great Wisdom cast a Veil of thick night upon all future Events that so we may without needless and diverting Curiosity perform our present duty He shews this Dominion that he hath over the Lives of Men in these two things First In the large difference which his Providence makes amongst those persons whose outward Circumstances seem to be much alike One sick man by the use of some mixtures or applications immediately recovers and another that with the most exact observance takes the same Physick consumes his days in tedious Sorrows and in the flouds of his own Tears is carried Mourning to the Grave Secondly He shews his Soveraign disposal of the Lives of Men in ordering the different Seasons and times of their Death One is cut down in his early Spring and in his blooming greener Youth and his Sun is covered with darkness almost as soon as it begins to rise whilest another weathers out the Storms and grows to a mature and full Age. One does but peep as it were into the World takes a short view of it and is commanded out again and is at his Journeys end in the morning of his Life and another is allow'd to travel till the shadows of the Evening are stretched out according to their most regular advances and till the Threescore and Ten that is the usual date of Long Life is expired One is quickly summoned to the Great Tribunal and judged whilest another has a longer space wherein to prepare for his Tryal and his Final doom 'T is the Divine Providence that sees and orders not onely the larger portions of the lives of Men such as Infancy and Childhood and Youth and Manhood but as God numbers the Hairs of our Heads so known to him are all the minutes and hours and days and particularities of our Life and every moment of our Time He has set us our bounds that we cannot pass and with respect to his Appointment no man dyes before his Time Though a man that dyes by an acute Disease or a violent Death dyes before that time which he might have reach'd in an ordinary Course and before old Age which we reckon to be the most seasonable time wherein to dye Bloody and deceitful men are said not to live out half their dayes that is according to the General Limit and Order of Providence as to the Age of Man viz. Seventy or Eighty years And indeed every Wicked Man in some sense dyes before his time because he is not sit to dye like Fruit that is gather'd before it be fully ripe I now proceed to some Application And from this Doctrine we may Infer First If God be the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death then the Friends of the Sick do them the greatest kindness when they recommend their Case to him And to this they are obliged by the Communion which they have with them in the same Humane Nature they are also in the body in such a body as is liable to as many pains as they see in others They may be plunged into the same distresses and need the same favour to be shewed to them Regard I beseech you your afflicted Friends with great tenderness and pity for whatsover their Case is your sins may bring you as Low and you have no assurance that what has happen'd to them may not be your own Lot before you come to the period of this miserable Life It is also the duty of the Sick themselves in the first assaults of Pain with great Humility and Contrition of Spirit to betake themselves to God as their onely helper and with a fervour suitable to the sadness of their Case to request of him Faith and Patience Repentance and Mortification and the pardon of sin and earnestly to pray that if it may be their sickness may not be very long nor very sharp For long and sore afflictions are so great Tryals of Humane Nature that they may very well be prayed against and I suppose no man thinks himself obliged to desire an heavy Cross. As to what concerns the Sick Man himself he is to put his Affairs into the best order he can upon the first warning the first beginning of his Illness for indeed in most Distempers those increasing pains that attend them will not allow him to do it afterwards Thus Job advises Chap. 33. 26. that When a man is chastened with pain upon his bed he shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy But he that never begins to pray till he be almost at the last Gasp will not be able to make such a strong and fervent Prayer as is like to reach to Heaven As for them that try the Physitian till he gives them over and never till then seek the Prayers of the Church they have but little Reason to hope for help from God to whom they have no recourse till they are driven by the last extremity For they shew that if they could have had Relief without him they cared not to be beholden to him for it In which Case it is just with God to suffer the Sickness to be mortal which perhaps had not been so if Applications had been made to him
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
betray you to death or to long pain Seek chiefly to the Soveraign disposer of all things who can either cure you without means or make those that you try to be available knowing that without him not all the Cordials in the World can for one moment stay the departing Life Of which many Physitians are so sensible that they frequently tell you that by the blessing of God they hope to do you good Indeed they had need be men of Prayer that by their means Religio Medici might be as famous in reallity as it has been in scorn And though I pretend to no great skill in these affairs yet I have some Experience as to what I say I have often found the Insufficiency of all things that have been prescrib'd and that they have not given me the least Ease in my violent and sharp pain and how what I have taken with a design to help me has increased my Disease and made it more painful Therefore having severely smarted my self for my folly in expecting too much from humane help I may be allowed to warn others that they may not fall into the same snare and to desire them to trust more in God and less in Men. We may be as guilty of Idolatry in giving Men too much of our Trust as if we bowed before a Graven Image and it is an evil to which Men are as prone as to any other sin An Instance whereof is that which Suidas saith that the Book which Solomon wrote of Physick was affixed upon the Gate into the Entry of the Temple and because the People boasted too much in it neglecting the Lord Hezekiah caused them to pull away this Book and bury it and the Talmud saith that Hezekiah did two memorable things first he hid the Book of Physick which Solomon had written and secondly he brake the brasen Serpent which Moses made Weemes Exerc. div pag. 120. Indeed men do as that King said unto Hazael 2 King 8. 8. Take a present in thine hand and go meet the man of God and enquire of the Lord by him saying shall I recover of this disease They seek for Recovery first of all as that which would bring them the most acceptable News which made the Prophet use such Ambiguity in his Speech Verse 10. For 't is likely that 't was no dissimulation because his Sickness was not in it self Mortal yet he should surely dye that is by the Treachery of Hazael The hope of Recovery is so grateful to the Patient that Physitians are not a little tempted to conceal the danger when it is visible to all but to the Sick Man and of how ill Consequence is this I cannot better express it than in the Words of an Honourable person for whom men of all the Learned professions have a just value For my part sayes he who take the prognosticks of Phytians to be but Guesses not Prophesies and know how backward they are to bid us Fear till our condition leave them little hopes of us I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life for in case they should both be deceiv'd 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepared Sinner to save his Soul Boyle Occasional Reflections Sect. 2. pag. 222. Our safest Course in all our Troubles and Sicknesses is to Go to Jesus Christ who has an Omnipotent Vertue and Ability to help as when he was on Earth he healed all manner of Diseases and among the rest a person that had suffered many things of many Physitians and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5. 26. So he has still the same power and Compassion and though Thousands have shared in the Gracious effects of his Bevenolence yet he has still the same Charity and the same All-sufficient Fulness from whence to relieve us as the Sun after it has by its Light and Quickning influences given Being and Refreshment to so many several Creatures in the World suffers no diminution of its own Light and Heat and is no less Communicative and Beneficial to this very day then it was many hundred years ago The whole of what I have spoken upon this Head is onely to keep our spirits from placing an undue reliance on the Creatures when our Trust is chiefly to be fix'd on our Glorious and powerful Creator One would think it strange and yet so it is that when God has by some sharp and severe stroak beaten off our hold from those props whereon we us'd to lean in the time of our Careless Health when he has confin'd us to a solitary state and we can no longer have our Antient Friendships nor our former hope yet even in distress it self so great is our adherence to Creatures we substitute to Our selves new Reeds whereon to lay some strength and our vain trust does not expire but with our latest breath I would not have any part of what I have said to reflect in the least upon those worthy Physitians who in the time of my woful Calamity gave me their Charitable Visits though God was not pleas'd to succeed the Endeavours they used yet I hope and pray that he may reward them for their labour and their diligence As also Those that gave me their kind help when I was not able to help my self I owe to them all great Respect and Thanks and none can take it ill if I say what to his Glory I ought to say that God onely was my Physitian and my Deliverer and to him is all the praise due He hath torn and he hath healed he hath smitten and he hath bound me up he hath revived me and I live in his sight Hos. 6. 1. So that I may say with David Psal. 103. 1 2 3 4. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities and healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy Life from destruction who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender mercies Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy Youth is renewed like the Eagles Observ. 2. To be brought up from the Grave and to be kept alive from going down to the Pit is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which we ought to be very thankful And thaâ— upon these following Accounts Reason 1. Because Life is the dearest of all our present Blessings All Happiness is usually represented by the name of Life and all Misery by the name of Death Other Evils take from us each of them some part of our Comforts Death bereaves us of them all Bondage deprives us of Liberty Banishment of our Countrey Sickness afflicts our Bodies shame or Infamy our Souls pain troubleth our Senses poverty incommodateth our Life but there is no Calamity so great
as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good or at least of our selves Death extinguisheth our Life and by this means overthrowing the very Foundations of our Enjoyments doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether Daille sur Coloss. 2. 13. Life is the most excellent Gift of God but Death is an Enemy to Nature and cannot be lov'd for it self 't is the fruit of Sin Rom. 5. 12. 'T is the wages thereof Rom. 6. 23. For if Adam had persever'd in his Innocent Condition he had enjoyed a Glorious Immortality without those pains and that Death which is now our Lot The Philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to Man and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle are so vain and empty that they onely serve to shew in the General how weak Man is seeing the greatest productions of the wisest Men are so mean and Childish Pascal pensees S. 30. Death is the matter of the Threat and therefore a punishment though Believers whose Faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it as a passage to Eternal Glory We give it indeed many soft names and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness and with less Fear but it ceases not to be an Enemy though we give it never so many fair Characters Men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it but its nearer approaches if attended with the due sense of Futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest Man to tremble it will strike a damp into his Spirits mingle Gall and Wormwood with his Wine and Bitterness with his sweetest Joys Death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable but rather more so as a certain Evil is more an Evil than that which is only probable and which may never happen but do we consider what it is for the Union that is between the body and the Soul to be dissolv'd what it is to see Corruption what it is to have this Body turn'd into a Carkass without Life and Motion what it is to have this Body which we have tended with so long a Care which we have maintain'd at so vast a Charge of Meat and Drink and Time to have this Body in which we have slept and liv'd at Ease laid into the cold Grave and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away it cannot but occasion very great Commotions when the day is come that the two Friends who have been so long acquainted and so dear to one another must part Death is an evil to be prayed against for as such it cannot be the Object of desire And the old saying of Augustin is not unworthy of our Observation That if there were no bitterness in Death the Constancy of Martyrs would not be so remarkable Therefore says the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. We would not be uncloathed but clothed upon It is promised as a favour to Ebedmelech that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey Jer. 39. 18. and Paul then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of Glory yet reckons it a Blessing for a good Man to be kept alive For he sayes of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him And we find the Holy Men of Old very earnest for their Lives Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. 4. 5. Psal. 39. 13. Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psal. 102. 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes And what doleful Expressions did Hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the Earth Reason 2. When a Man dyes 't is to him as an end of all the World He is no more considered as a Member of that Community to which he did once belong When his Eyes are once clos'd by Death he is no more to behold the Sun Moon and Stars which he now sees nor his Fields and Gardens his Shops and Houses his Estate and Lands As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more Job 14. 11 12. He quits for ever all those Earthly things on which he once set his Heart and when he is asleep in his Bed of dust he will not awake to pursue secular Affairs and Business which took up so much of his time and labour He must no more frequent his Exchange not read Books nor discourse with his Relations and Friends as he us'd to do among the Living here The first sound that he will he will hear will be the Voice of the Last Trumpet Arise ye dead and come to judgment The first sight that he will see will be the Mighty Judge in the Clouds and the Heavens and the Earth all in one flame All that little share of the World which he called his own will be undiscern'd and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the Great Day When a Man dyes 't is with him as an End of the World all the Affairs of Peace and War of Trade and Commerce and Gain and Riches all his projects and designs his large reaches his forecast his â—â—â—ughtfulness about News or about providing for his own Name or for posterity all these things are at an end with him for ever It would put a mighty Change upon the Face of things and the Circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the World would be at an end in four or five years or in so many Moneths and no man knows but it may be so as to him because before or at that time Death may cut him off and then he has no more to do with this Earth or with the Sons of Men. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7. 9 10. Reason 3. Because when we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd l After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Wo. So that we may say with Nieremberg how
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
immortality to light and with that Saviour who is the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church who came from Heaven and is now gone thither and we may fully rest and Acquiesce in the discoveries that he has given us of that Countrey for he knew it very well was very faithful in the discharging of his office and does not impose upon us any thing that is either false or incredible by our Holy Prayers we are to maintain a Commerce with him and with that World and by our frequent going thither in our Meditations we may gain a clearer knowledge of it Though there are no bounds on which our thoughts can terminate but onely the Revelations which God has been pleas'd to make in his own Word What is above those Heavens and that Firmament that we see there 's none can tell us but God and our Saviour who are there For when Men have abstracted their Thoughts with as much industry as they can from All that is material and sensible when they have refin'd their Understandings to the greatest spirituality and pored never so long upon the state of separation they will still remain in the dark about it And he is the most happy Man who in the sincere performance of the Duties of Religion can resign his Soul to Christ in Death and trust him though he is to be removed to a strange and a new World For immediately after he is loos'd from the Body he will understand more in an instant then all the most Learned in this World have ever understood by the labour and diligence of many years Secondly That which renders the continuance of Time to us wherein to prepare for Death a great Mercy is because we are to dye but Once and upon the well or ill doing of it depends our future Happiness or Misery It is a great Mercy that we have time wherein to make ready for our last Combat for if we lose the Battle once we are overthrown for ever it must not be fought over again It is a Mercy that we have leisure to compleat our journey well for we must never travel over the same Road again There will be no second Edition wherein to Correct our former Errors when a period is once put to the last Line of Life Oh what Faith what Courage what Strength is necessary to Conquer the Fears of Death and Death it self If men fail in their Trades they may by the kindness of their Friends be set up again if they have suffer'd Losses by Shipwrack by Fire or by Plunder they may be repaired but a Soul once lost will remain so for ever 'T is a long long Eternity that succeeds our Time if we should live on Earth as many Hundred years as the most Aged live Months it would bear no proportion with that vast and endless duration Whoever compares the shortness of our present state with the continuance of that into which we enter when we are to dye cannot but esteem the being brought back from the Grave to be a great Mercy If you have been careless of hearing at one season you may hear the Word again at another if you have heretofore been cold in your Prayers you may now excite your Hearts and pray with more fervour but if you once dye ill you must never mend so concluding a Miscarriage All the Tears we shed cannot give Life to the Body from which the Soul is fled All the Anguish of Miserable Souls cannot procure for them another Tryal They that are once cut down must never be planted by the Rivers side any more There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground yet through the scent of Water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant But man dieth and wasteth away yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he Job 14. 7 8 9 10. Reason 5. Those who are brought up from the grave have cause to be thankful because by that means they have more opportunity to be serviceable to the Glory of God and to be useful in the World Meerly to live is not a thing very desireable considering how many Miserie 's there are in Life to what Evils and Inconveniences our Bodies are obnoxious and that the pains which they may suffer may be both very long and so secret that none can understand either what they are or how to remove them But it is a most desirable thing to Live when we can thereby obtain the Ends that are truly Great and Noble For First Hereby a man may do good to others He may teach the Ignorant reduce the wandring and by the sincerity of his Counsel by the zeal of his Prayers and the Lustre and Holiness of a good Example advance the power of Religion Our Lives are not our own they are Gods by a double title both of Creation and Redemption they are to be us'd for him who preserves or takes them away as he will Not onely Ministers but every private Christian is obliged by the Name he bears and by the Relation that he has to the holy Society of Believers and to the Kingdom of Christ whereof he is a Subject to enlarge it by all good ways that he can and every man is the more obliged to this when God has bestow'd a new Life upon him When we are near to the Gates of the Grave and look back and see with how little Zeal and Diligence we had spent our time and how little we had done for him who blest us all our dayes then we are enclined most earnestly to beseech him that he would grant us another Tryal and that then we would improve it much better than we did our former time and when he does grant us what we have askt then it should be our great indeavour not to frustrate and disappoint the designs of his Goodness and Mercy Then must we teach transgressors his way telling them how dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Then we may tell the Healthful what Sickness is what we have found it to be by our own Experience then we may tell them how it makes very uneasie and troublesome Companions of our now beloved Bodies How it deprive us of all our Pleasures and Recreations in the day and of our rest at night That all their Friendships Conversations and Merryments without true Religion are altogether vain and not onely so but they leave a sting of guilt behind when the sweetness that once allur'd is gone away We may warn them to provide for the dayes of darkness and for the many Miseries of Life that will sooner or latter overtake them When we are Recover'd we can tell the Diseased of the Goodness and the Power of God that they can never be so distressed but that it is still
meet with Joy It will be a welcom day indeed when their Looks their Expressions their Carriage will all be changed for the better There will be no appearance of any thing that is dismal and grievous and it will be more welcom to us because we and our friends so suitable so loving and so perfect shall never part again Oh what a comfortable thought is this Oh what will our praises be when we are there where there will be no more sickness no more death for ever We shall behold what we were in our Mortal State how vain and how short-lived and what we are when we are made Immortal There will be no more restless and weary dayes nor nights as restless as the day not a sigh nor a groan will be heard in all the blessed place above What would one that is in great pain give for ease most readily would he give all he has in the World but upon our first entrance into that Land of pleasure and of health all our Diseases will be cured and so fully cured that we shall never Relapse nor be diseased again There will be no pain This to those that are at ease may seem a little part of Heaven but to those of us that have been in long and terrible sickness 't is a very sweet and reviving Consideration In this World one affliction is scarce past till another comes usually there is breach upon breach and a new sorrow treads upon the heels of the old one as one wave upon another We have scarcely dryed our eyes for one loss but another comes that will make us weep again but in the Heaven which we hope for there is no Language but that of Praise Here we are alwayes either bewailing our own Miseries or those of our Friends and Neighbours but there it will not be so God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21. 4. Oh what a joy will it be to us to be past death that is so terrible and to be for ever past it The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with sons and everlasting joy upon their heads tĥey shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isa. 35. 10. We praise God indeed here and we have Cause to praise him but our Victories are not so compleat as to make a perfect Triumph we have one great Battel yet to fight and one great Gulph to shoot and a dark and a solitary way to go This is that which is grievous to our thoughts but oh what a joy will it be to us when we are past death and have dyed well who can express the mighty pleasure of it When the deliver'd Soul can say I that have been so furiously tempted so violently assaulted so siercely shaken by the blast of the terrible one shall be so no more all the Rage of Satan shall not come near me nor give me an unquiet thought for ever And I that griev'd and was disconsolate with tedious and uncommon pain shall never droop nor languish any more What a reviving prospect will it be when we stand on the other side of the Grave when the terrible forerunners of Death and Death it self shall be no more Then we may say indeed Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory What consternation fear and perplexity fill'd the hearts of the poor Israelites when they were going out of Egypt when they were environed with rocks with their Enemies behind and with the Sea before They were in great trouble and knew not what to do But how different were their looks and Apprehensions when they beheld the Sea to give way and by an unheard of Miracle stand as a Wall on either hand till they past thorough How delightful was it to them when they were on the firm Land to see those very Enemies that Pharaoh and those Cruel Masters that had for so many years kept them in cruel bondage to find a grave in that Element which yielded and made a way for them Exod. 15. 1 2. So will it be with us when we shall see all our diseases all our Fears all our Temptations all our sinking thoughts to be destroy'd for ever The day of our death that will convey us to the blessed State will be better to us then the day of our birth that brought us into such an evil World as this Our Eyes will then no more behold grievous objects our Ears will no more hear any sad or doleful news Here we have many National and Personal Deliverances but alass we sin again and so bring upon our selves new Judgements But there which every sincere Soul reckons to be a great part of Heaven we shall sin no more for ever I that am now speaking come to you as from the Grave and can give you an account of Pain and Sickness but am not able to give you so distinct an Account of the Holy Cheerful Employment that is above But if one were to come to you from Heaven if he were but enabled to tell what he felt and your Capacities enlarged to understand the pleasing Narrative how would your glad hearts melt with an Admiring Joy and your Souls be raised to Praise and Wonder they will be much more raised and more joyful when you have your compleat and final Deliverance Then you shall say with those in Rev. 5. 12 13. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And again Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever The End of the Second Sermon The Third 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 IF Deliverance from the Grave be so great a Mercy and for which we ought to be very thankful what cause have they to be thankful that are delivered from a Death in Sin As the Soul is much better than the Body so the Mercies that are bestowed upon it are much more valuable and without this spiritual Resurrection temporal Deliverance and Salvation would not be so great a Mercy A Soul under the Dominion and reigning Power of Sin is in a far more deplorable Condition than a Body that is consuming in the Grave the one suffers under a sort of innocent Misery which it cannot help the other suffers under a wilful Obstinacy and Impotence contracted by its own fault How sad a prospect is it to see Men far from God in whom alone there is Life a Separation from whom is far more terrible than the
in all our other Actions to be regulated by the Will of God and not by our own But indeed when a Man that has been very faithful and laborious in his Generation is by Pain rendred altogether unfit for Service when the Strength and Vigour which he laid out for God is wasted and decayed by old Age or a tedious Distemper when his Candle that has long burnt to enlighten others burns with a feeble and almost undiscerned Light he may then desire to die as a poor weary Man to go to Bed But the Saints of God do even then desire it with Calmness and Deliberation if they be not in a raging Disease for then it is impossible they have much ado to bring their Hearts to be sincerely and freely willing to depart Their Fears and Temptations and remaining Inclinations to the Body and their Friends on Earth render it a Work of Difficulty There are great Strugglings in that Moment between Nature and Grace between Faith and Sense though at last their Grace gets the Victory and so they long to be with Christ. If Deliverance from the Grave be so great a Mercy then Self-murther is a very great Sin The Law that forbids us to kill does extend to this as well as to the Murder of another Man this is a violating of that Soveraign Power that is in God and a taking upon us to dispose of our Life which is not our own but his 'T is an usurping upon his Providence which has determined when and after what manner we are to die and though 't is very likely there are several Accidents of Life that are worse than Death it self yet it is that Eternity that comes after Death that is most formidable and into which no Man ought to throw himself and when we are reduced to such a condition that to live seems to be far worse than to die yet even then the Unalterableness of our State afterwards should be a most powerful Restraint especially if we are uncertain where we are then to go It is against that Patience and Trust which we ought to repose in God It is a woful sort of dying to die in the doing of such a thing as this which he has most severely prohibited to tear our Souls from our Bodies with our own hands in such an ignominious and shameful manner and because of our Distress to pass Sentence upon our selves as not fit to live and then to be our own Executioners A Soul at Death should be in the Exercise of Grace and in a quiet and humble Resignation but in this case 't is in Fear and Horror and Discontent and what the Romans magnifi'd so much for Gallantry and an Heroick Spirit was the real Effect of Weakness and Cowardise as it is much more Heroical to sustain and meet a coming Danger than to retreat and fly from it It was from a Meanness of Spirit that Cato chose to kill himself because he could not see the Empire flourish under Cesar whom he did not love and however such Acts may be extoll'd by Heathen Historians they are not so by that Scripture which is the Rule of our Faith and the Guide of our Actions and which furnishes us with no Examples of those that did this Samson only excepted whose case had several things in it very singular but such as were very bad Men as Saul and Achitophel and Judas and as we would not have our portion with them in the other World so it is to be wish'd and endeavoured that our end may not be like to them in this But so great is the Love of Life and so strong the fear of Death in the most so dark the Knowledg of Futurity and so great our Unwillingness to go from a World with which we are well acquainted to that which we never saw that few Men are in danger of Self-murther till some great Affliction and overwhelming Pain and by the means of that some great Perplexity seize their Spirits I think few are in danger of it till their Griefs are unspoakably great or their Minds in that Anguish that is as the sad Foretaste of Hell till all their Thoughts are in hurry and Confusion and as then they are no way capable of being bettered by those Advices that seem proper to restrain them so it concerns you that are at ease and are able to pursue the Business and Affairs of Life and of Religion to pray earnestly to God that he withdraw not his Protection and the Guard of his Providence from you that he do not leave you to thick and gross Darkness nor to the Power of Satan who will push you forward to things that are most sinful and unwarrantable Pray hard that violent Tentations and overwhelming raging Pains may never overtake your for how evil soever Self-murther seem to you now you know not what you may be then prest to do pray earnestly that you may never be without the sense or hope of the Divine Favour for if which God forbid you once lose that woe unto you then you will be like a Ship without Sails or Rudder in a Storm you may be swallowed up or driven on the Rocks and broken to pieces It is Distress and violent Sorrow that exposes Men to the Commission of this Sin Saul fell not upon his Sword and killed himself till God had forsaken him and till he knew not what to do though it was his own Sin that brought him so low Cicero tells us indeed of one Cleombrotus who reading the Discourse of Plato concerning another more happy Life after this which could not be attained but by Death did thereupon kill himself to attain that Happiness but if that be true it is a thing that most rarely happens that any that have either hope of Heaven or Assurance of going thither are so impatient of being absent from it as to kill themselves to go thither And it may be you will be ready to ask me If they have no hope of being better when they die why do they long for Death or attempt to kill themselves They should rather strive to live that they may be better prepared for another World It is a Question that has been ask'd me by some People and seeing it is perhaps what you seldom have met withal I will give you an Answer to it and if it do not appear very rational yet I am sure it will contain that which has been the real Apprehensions of People under those Temptations I say then Men may desire to destroy themselves though they have no well grounded Expectation of Happiness after Death 1. Because of that Pain of Body and that Anguish of Soul which is intolerable to them they have no natural nor spiritual Rest nor Prospect of either and this fills them with Amazement and Horror and in that Amazement there is nothing which they will not dare to do 2. Because they may reckon that they are already as in Hell and that if they
be dead they can but be in Hell and so dare even to try the worst They think the longer they live they aggravate their Guilt and heighten their Punishment and add new Fewel to the Flame which is already too too hot and scorching the Burden under which they groan is so heavy that they do not desire to have more Weight added to it Or 3. It may be they may have some little very little hope that were they out of the Body they would be better than now they are and therefore they 'l venture As to living to be better prepared they have usually such dismal perplex'd Thoughts that they cannot think to any purpose at all nor find themselves by Living to be any better You 'l say these are desperate Conclusions and so they are but that makes me think that none but in Despair or in very sad Diseases for which the World has no Remedy are under a Temptation to take away their own Life And if it be a Disease there is room for the more Charity as to those that die after this manner for God will not impute the Effects of Phrensy and a decayed and disordered Reason to the Malice of the Will nor judg the Disease to be a Sin though he may have sent upon them such woful Distress for their former Sins There is another way of a Man's killing himself which because 't is very frequent is less taken notice off and that is by Gluttony and Excess in Drinking When a Man continually loads himself with vast Quantities of Meats and Drinks and so suffocates and strangles Life and brings upon his own Body Diseases and Death and tho this is not an Evil punish'd by the Judges yet it ceases not to be an Evil and a Man may by continued Intemperance and Riot be as guilty of Self-murther in the Sight of God as if he took a Knife and cut his own Throat Some will say indeed that such live apace and if their brutal Actions deserve the Name of Life 't is very true for they go with a swifter course into the Grave than they need to do Seeing the being brought up from the Grave is a great Mercy how great a Mercy is Health when the Restoration of it is so great a Mercy and so greatly to be acknowledged Some think it a very needless Labour to speak of this seeing it is that which all People know as it would be needless to praise the Sun which gives us Light or the Air in which we breath But though these are very common yet they are nevertheless very great Mercies like Gold which though it were never so common yet would continue still to be a very excellent and valuable Metal There is as much Difference between a Man in Health and a Man in Sickness as between a Man at Liberty and a Man in Chains Sickness whenever it comes will give you great Subjects of Sadness and Disquietness and long before you die you may see the Days wherein you will have no Pleasure you cannot then especially if it be violent with any Freedom or Clearness of Thought express your selves either to God or Man you will be very ill able to manage the civil Affairs of Life or with any vigor to perform the Duties of Religion and the Truth of this you would see if you went often to the Chambers of those that in long and grievous Pains languish away if you heard their doleful Groans saw their pale and decaying Looks it would give you a new taste of Health but there is such a nice Delicacy and Tenderness for the most part in those that are well that they care not for the Visitation of the Sick nor to be near to Persons when they are dying It would affect them if they saw more frequently their Faintings their Convulsions and their Agonies but they care not for it and yet so to be sick and so to die may in a very little while be their own Lot Health is not less a Mercy for being common What is more common than Sleep which is but a part of it and yet in all the World there is not a thing the having of which is more sweet or the want of which is more terrible for as I have observed in a former Discourse all Business and the Comforts of Life depend upon it and the Refreshment that it gives to our natural Spirits for let but a Man be for one Week or two without Sleep and he 'l be fit for no Business and if Health were not so usual a thing it would be a Miracle considering to what Variety of Evil we are every day exposed by the Frailty and Weakness of our Nature It would make a Man tremble to read what others have endured or how many several sorts of very painful Diseases belong to almost every part of humane Bodies how painful are the Methods that must be used for a Cure and how these painful Methods may be used and yet but encrease our Pain and be to no purpose And indeed when I consider saith Mr. Boile in his Occasional Reflections how many outward Accidents are able to destroy the Life or at least the Health even of those that are careful to preserve them and how easily the Beams of a warm Sun or the Breath of a cold Wind or too much or too little Exercise a Dish of green Fruit or an infectious Vapour or even a sudden Fright or ill News are able to produce Sickness and perhaps Death and when I think too how many inevitable Mischiefs our own Appetites or Vices expose us to by Acts of Intemperance that necessitate the Creatures to offend us and practises of Sin whereby we necessitate our Creator to punish us when we well consider this and consequently how many Mischiefs he must escape that arrives at gray Hairs the Commonness of the Sight cannot keep me from thinking it worth some Wonder to see an old Man especially if he be any thing healthy It is not to be imagined but by those that feel it what a damp the Pains and Indispositions of our Bodies put upon the motions of our Souls their Faculties are straitned bound and fettered that they cannot in their former manner perform their usual Operations When the Soul either in natural or spiritual Actions essays to do as it used to do it finds it self under a very great Weakness and Disability for the Body lies as an heavy Clog and Weight upon it as you know it is in the Head-ach the Tooth-ach or other pains which though they be of a short Continuance are very troublesome and would be more so were they to continue for many Months together How speedy an Alteration will the sharp sense of Pain make in the briskest and most merry Man For as Doctor Harris describes the sick Man Hezekiah's Recovery p. 172. He hath Eyes and scarcely sees Ears and hears not Mouth and speaks not Feet and walks not Those very Senses which let in
Comfort to the Healthful are an occasion of a new Sadness to him The sight of his Medicines is ingrateful to his Eye so is the smell of his Meat and the taste of his Drink the least noise offends him the least Air pierces him This turns his Comforts into Crosses his Bed tires him his Chair troubles him his Friends disquiet him their Absence offends him and so does their Presence their Silence and their Discourse their Mirth and their Sorrow Being uneasy himself every thing is uneasy to him poor Man something he would have but he cannot tell what he is not well and therefore nothing is well about him Health is is the Repose of Life 't is that alone which gives a relish to all the other Blessings of it The poorest Clothing the meanest Fare the sorriest Cottage that is bless'd with Health is more bless'd than if it were throng'd with Gold and Silver but with Sickness and Diseases For if a Man have never so vast an Estate never so glorious a Reputation never such honourable Friends never so well-surnish'd a Table never so sine an House and yet be without Health all these are dead Comforts they are as nothing emptiness and vanity Health as the forementioned Person expresses 't is the poor Man's Sauce at his Table his Cloak in his Journey his Warming-pan in his Bed his Boots in the mire and whatsoever else he is destitute of he can rejoice in this What cause have we that are returned to some measure of Health to return Thanks to God for it And you that have always been healthful have cause to prize it lest you be taught the value of it as the Men of Succoth were with the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness O what Miseries belong to Men which you have yet escaped and for which you have great cause to be very thankful Do not attribute your longer Health to your Temperance to your own Prudence or Forecast or Recreations or Exercise or Skill but give the Glory of your Preservation to the Providence of God that alone gives you Ease and Health whilst others are in Sickness If you were to survey the Hospitals and to see but how many poor lame People are there how many dying by degrees with incurable Diseases if you were to go to the Chambers of the Sick and see under what various Miseries they are groaning there you would see great cause to return and praise God that has not brought you so very low I come now in the next place to shew what Improvement we are to make of our Sickness and of our Recovery from it and so to close this Subject with an Use of Exhortation First That we may in a due manner improve our being brought from the Grave we must always remember so great a Mercy We ought especially to remember the more signal and eminent Mercies and Afflictions of our Lives our great Straits and our wonderful Deliverances And we must also remember what Condition we were in before we were delivered It is commonly said that nothing makes us better understand the excellence of Liberty than the consideration of the Miseries of Bondage The hideousness of Obscurity sets off the beauty of Light and the sweetness of Health is best represented by considering the bitterness of Sickness Seeing therefore I would desire to praise God my self for his great Mercy in my Recovery and also beg of you to praise him in my behalf I will give you a short Account of the deplorableness of my Condition before I was delivered I would indeed remember so much of it as may enable me to glorify my great Deliverer but the whole of it as it would be most astonishing to you so it would be very overwhelming to me The consideration of the greatness of the Danger heightens the Mercy of Deliverance and Salvation from it It will be somewhat a melancholy Relation that I am going to make but it shall be very true for I would not lie for God nor make the Danger from which he has saved me greater than it was It will not be a very delightful Account but yet as Solomon says Eccl. 7. 2. It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting It is better sometimes to hear sad than always pleasant Things And in as much as Grief and Mourning is in it self a very grave and homely thing that requires not Ornament or artificial setting off I shall without affecting to be thought eloquent give You A plain Relation of some part of my sore Distress AFter an ill habit of Body that had for some years attended me together with some little Illnesses now and then which were but as drops to the greater Storm that was to come upon me and which I could not foresee it pleased God at length in his just and righteous Judgment to suffer my growing Distemper to arrive to a most formidable height So that before I desisted from coming to this Place my Sleep departed quite away and for several Nights in a week I slept no more than I do at this time upon which there immediately followed a general Weakness and decay of Spirits a general Listlessness and a total Indisposition and by feeling of this I had a strong Impression in my Mind that I should very speedily die as strongly fix'd in my Apprehensions as if it had been said to me as to Hezekiah Thou shalt surely die I thought I was immediately to go to the Tribunal of God and the Thoughts of immediate appearance before him continued with me for about a year there was not a Day past wherein I did not think that I should be dead before Night and at Night I should be dead before the Morning I thought my self just at the entrance into the Grave And what a strange prospect that is and what a mighty Change it causes in a Man's Thought none know but those that have apprehended themselves so near it nor do they fully know it unless they have been near it for many Months together Those Nights that were Nights of comfortable Rest to the most of you were tedious and long and doleful Nights to me I could say with Job chap. 7. 3 4. I am made to possess Months of Vanity and wearisom Nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the Night be gone And I am full of tossings to and fro till the dawning of the Day And ver 13 14. I was all the day and all the night long in Pain and Trouble and in a Pain very singular and uncommon so secret and yet so violent that as I fully believe it was not known what it was so I am sure none of the Methods that were used to remove it though painful enough were of any value I have been sorely wearied with Anguish and Trouble I have often said though I have had no Rest the Night before yet perhaps in that which is to come
his Family as a Little Church when he is at home and that by an unintermitting Diligence and Watchfulness antidotes himself against the Contagions of bad Examples and vain Company and the Temptations of an evil World when he is abroad Who is it that walks so circumspectly as to be unblameable and without Offence Who is it that is so couragious in his Reproofs so zealous of good Works so tender of his own Salvation and of the Salvation of others as he ought to be Our neglect of many thousand Duties calls for long and severe Punishments at the Hands of God And it is a Subject of great Wonder that he will be gracious even to any of the Sons of Men. And what reason has every one that is delivered from Sickness and Pain and Death to bless his holy Name and to say What am I O Lord God that thou shouldst visit and uphold and refresh so great so inexcusable so wilful a Sinner as I have been What am I a poor Worm of the Earth that thou shouldst so mercifully regard me What am I that I should live by thy Goodness when I have so often deserved to die by thy Justice What am I that when I had spent so much of my Time to little purpose thou shouldst give me still more time that he should again put me into his Vineyard when I had loiter'd in it for so long a space and when I had misimproved many thousand Talents and knew not what to answer for them he should pass by and remit my former Debts and put into my Hands a new Stock What am I that his Dew should remain upon my Branches when he might have said of me as of the barren Fig-tree Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground any longer O what Grace is this that a God whom I had so frequently and so heinously provoked should spare me to recover Strength That when I had mock'd him with so many cold and lazy Prayers he should give me opportunity to pray again when I had so often misimproved his Sabbaths and his Gospel and the Offers of his Son that he should continue to me the Blessings of his holy Day the Invitations of his Word and the Calls of Christ that so I may repent of my careless Hearing my Lukewarmness and my Unbelief In the humble sense of our own Unworthiness let us contemplate and admire that God that brings us from the Grave Many People will say If we were humbled and if we did repent God would soon help us This is very true but if God should never be merciful to us till we are prepar'd for Mercy his Mercy and his Help I am afraid would come very late For as we may say It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not so 't is of the Lord's Mercy that we are delivered and he is gracious because he will be so 2. When we are delivered from Sickness and from the Grave we must remember that Deliverance so as to excite our selves to more Fervour and Affection Before all our Duties we should stir up our selves and that is to be done by an intense and serious application of our Minds to that particular thing which we go about by considering aright the Nature and Consequence of a well-performed Duty Thus when we are going to pray we should say Remember O my Soul to what a glorious God thou dost approach and with what humble Self-abhorrence thou shouldst look unto his Majestick Throne Remember thy own Vileness thy Sins thy Miseries and thy Wants and what need thou hast of a Mediator to make thy poor and thy mean Oblation to be an acceptable Sacrifice what need thou hast of wrestling and striving that thou mayst obtain a Blessing Thus when we give Thanks we may say Remember O my Soul the excellent Perfections of God and the Benefits which thou hast received their Seasonableness their Worth and all the wonderful Particulars they are attended with This excitation of our selves is not acquirable by a few cold and transient Thoughts 't is not one Sally of Religious Meditations now and then but a continuance of these Acts arguing and pleading the Case with our own Souls till the Fire of our Love and Thankfulness begin to burn We should think of the Mercies of God till our Hearts under the sense of his Goodness begin to melt and warm till all that is within us move and stir with holy Elevations towards him Then will the Holy Spirit cherish our Endeavours And when we are with all the Skill we can tuning our Harps he will come in to our Assistance and make the Musick more harmonious and our Praise more sweet and by his vital Influences banish all that Coldness that does usually damp and clog our Hearts in the Duties of Religion There is a great advantage in Soliloquies and a Man may in this Work talk to himself without the reproach of folly This is a means to quiet and appease a rising Storm Psal. 42. 5. and this is the way to make us look upon it with Delight and Thankfulness when 't is past and gone We know that those Sermons which do but explain Truths to us and present them only in their native Excellency and Reasonableness do not equally affect us as those do that are pressed with a fervent and lively Application Nor do those Mercies which we only remember make so much impression as those which we often call to mind and as often urge upon our Hearts When we come before God we must make his Altar smoak with burning Frankincense we must cover it with our chearful Praises and a flaming Love Our knowledg of his Persections is obscure and weak but our Sense causes us very distinctly to feel his Benefits and therefore all our Affections should ascend towards him When his Sun shines full upon us our Hearts should open at his Coming smell with a sweeter Savour upon the being visited with his comfortable Beams As upon our being brought from the Grave and restor'd to Health there is a new Strength in our Bodies so there must be a new Vigour in our Souls and as we discover a very great Earnestness in our Petitions when we want a Mercy so there ought to be as much Fervor in Acknowledgment and return of Thanks when we have received it 3. After we are delivered from the Grave we ought to remember such a Mercy with very great Sincerity i. e. there ought to be a Correspondence between our outward Expressions and the more undiscernable Motions of our Hearts There must be in our Understandings an high Esteem of him who is the Author of all our Good a most deliberate and free choice of him as our Happiness and this Esteem and this Choice is the genuine Product of a real Admiration There is nothing indeed more common than for People on the smallest occasions to say I thank God for this or that but the manner in which
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
that they see bestowed on others It is not enough that we have an inward and a silent Gratatitude we must publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all his wondrous Works Psal. 26. 7. I shall not die but live and declare the work of the Lord Psal. 118. 17. And the grateful Leper Luke 17. 15. when he saw that he was healed turned back and with a loud voice glorified God The poor Man was so full of Joy in the sense of the newly received benefit that he could not forbear telling others what Mercies he had received So says the Prophet Psal. 116. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his People And there are these several things that should cause our mutual Praise to God upon any great Deliverances First Our mutual Praises will warm our Hearts better than if they were single When many Beams of the Sun are united they give a stronger Light and burn with a greater force and many small Rivers united run with a swifter Course to pay their common Tribute to the Sea When many joyn together in the same Prayers the Cry is more loud and the Flame of our Desires ascends with a quicker and a more speedy motion and when many Voices joyn in the same Psalms of Praise then as in a Consort of Musick our Praise is more harmonious and moer sweet and then it is that we find our Love and our Joy much moer kindled than when we are alone The praising of God for our Mercies in publick will make others call to mind their own Mercies and they and we shall both agree to yield our common Thanks to this Mighty Lord. Let all the people praise thee O God yea let all the people praise thee And greatly to blame are those who do not openly manifest their Sense of Gods Goodness but are as silent as to any publick acknowledment of it as if they were in the very Grave Secondly This mutual giving thanks will greatly incourage others to trust and hope in God The Experience that we have had of his Goodness may be of great use to them that when they come to be in straits they may wait upon him and strengthen their Patience by remembring how gracious he has been to us and that seeing he is ever faithful and unchangeable he will be so to them for his Arm is not shortned that it cannot save The Righteous Psal. 14. 27. shall compass me about for thou hast dealt bountifully with me They that fear thee will be glad when they see me Psal. 119. 74. Glad to see that God has compassion for the desolate and the miserable Glad to see that he does not shut up his Bowels in a perpetual Displeasure nor forget the Work of his own Hands What Encouragement have they still to pray when they see in our Deliverance that their Prayers are heard and when they are very low to consider That this or that poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles Psal. 34. 6 They have the same promises to plead and late Examples before their Eyes of his Goodness and his Readiness to save It is a very merciful dispensation of God that he will not have all his Servants under Troubles and Afflictions at the same time Some will he suffer to be at ease that they by their advice their prayers and their seasonable pity and their love they may minister to the wants of others whom he has bound with the cords of Afflictions All Churches are not persecuted at the same time nor all in the same Churches that so those who are whole may bind up the wounds of others Thus when the poor Protestants in Germany were under low Circumstances it pleased God to set Edward the Sixth upon the Throne in England under whose most excellent Government many Ministers and People that were forced to leave their own Country found a secure shelter and retreat And when the Massacre was in Ireland God was pleased to save this Land from so terrible a Judgement And whilst France is at this day groaning under a most cruel and barbarous Persecution we by a wonderful Providence have Ease and Liberty and are in a capacity to give relief to our distressed Brethren He does not fail to give us now and then some instances of his Wrath for our Sin in long and severe Tryals yet neither does he fail to raise up some wonderful Monuments of his Mercy after such Severities That the Consideration of the former may teach us to walk with an holy Fear and the Consideration of the latter may keep us from being overwheml'd in the greatest straits Our being publickly thankful for our deliverance from great dangers may fortifie the hearts of others against all unreasonable fears and dispondence Thirdly Because they are by the Profession of Christianity to have a Communion with one another in all their Prosperities and in all their Troubles to grieve in their Afflictions and to rejoyce in all their Mercies They are all of the same Body and one part cannot be at case whilst another in is pain nor can one mourn whilst another does rejoyce they participate in their mutual Sorrows and their Joys they cannot see one of their Brethren sitting alone and keeping silence but they condole with him for his sadness and when they see him watering his Couch with tears their Eye does affect their Heart and mingle their tears with his they cannot laugh whilst another groans nor be sad when another is exalted and delivered For as you cannot touch one string of an Instrument but all the rest sound so no part of the Body of Jesus Christ can be well or ill affected but the rest discover their sense either of its joy or grief The Saints of God have a similitude of Nature and inclinations of the same kind all the World over they have a Conformity to their blessed Lord who has a great tenderness and pity for the whole Body of the Church The Wicked that are not of the Family are no way troubled when Sion is in the dust nor have they any pleasure when it is rebuilt A private Spirit does but relish its own joys and weep for its own griefs but those that are good Christians are glad to hear that it fares well with the Servants of God tho such as they never saw and when others are affflicted tho in Foreign Countries yet their Groans tho at a great distance do reach their Hearts Thus it was with our Apostle Col. 2. 1. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh Tho he was in dangers himself yet he was full of fear and solicitude for them neither the Prison in which he was at Rome nor the death he had in prospect did abate his Care in this like to Christ