nature they are farre more dangerous The diseases of the body tend onely to the death of the body which of it self must necessarily dy and by the power of God shall most certainly rise again but the diseases of the soule tend to the eternall death and destruction both of body and soule 2 That those places of Scripture where the faithfull are said to be dead unto sinne buried with Christ to have the world crucified unto them and themselves unto the world c. are to be understood not according to rigour but according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or equity of the Gospell Repr Here come to be reproved 1 Such as are not sensible of the diseases of their soules like men who having their brain distempered by some hote and violent disease know not that they are ill when they are even hard at deaths doore but sometimes raile at the physician sometimes are merry and laugh whilest their friends stand about them with teares in their eyes But here is the difference that these mens ignorance of their disease is invincible they can not help it but those we speak of are ignorant of their estate either affectedly or of extreme negligence which can neither excuse nor be excused For if they would examine themselves by the Scriptures as they might ought to do they would easily discerne if not straightway all yet many of their diseases and the rest by degrees Which because they doe not their condition is farre worse then theirs to whom we liken them not onely because the death and destruction of the soule whereof they are in danger is far worse then that of the body but also because they are in more danger of it For they who are bodily sick by how much the lesse sensible they are of their disease themselves have their friends so much the more solicitous for them and the physick which is administred to them though they desire it not neither perceive when they take it working by the naturall vertue which God hath put into herbs c. may restore them to their health But they who are spiritually sick and yet wilfully refuse to know or acknowledge it can not whilest they so continue receive any good by spirituall physick neither will Christ the great Physician of souls take in hand to cure them Luk. 5.30 31 32. 2 Such as daily cast their soules into new diseases There are two principall means of preserving health and preventing diseases Diet and Exercise But for the former as it is Hos 12.1 many so feed themselves with vain and impious principles not onely speculative but practicall that thereby the mind and heart and whole man fall into sundry and great distempers Some eat the bread of wickednesse and drink the wine of violence Prov. 1.17 18 19. 4.17 Some eat the bread of deceit which is sweet at the first tasting but afterwards fills the mouth with gravell Prov. 20.17 Some swallow down riches ill gotten which prove the gall of aspes within them Job 20.14 15. Some by oppression swallow up the needy Amos 8.4 And is it any wonder if such diet breed diseases So for Exercise many giving themselves to spirituall idlenesse altogether neglect the exercises of piety and so both of themselves contract abundance of ill humours and also give the devil opportunity to infect their souls with his temptations yea tempt him to it Standing waters putrifie breed frogs noisome vermine c. Again this doctrine as it informs us of our misery Consol so it ministers unto us some comfort I Against the trouble which ariseth from the sense of these diseases For as the diseases themselves are common lesse or more to all Gods children in this life so the sense and trouble arising thereupon is a good both sign cause of amendment We may and ought whilest we live here to be daily gathering strength against these diseases but perfect and uninterrupted health is to be expected onely in heaven 2 Against the imperfection of our good works if grieving for what is wanting in them we seriously and diligently endeavour to grow in grace and holinesse He were a cruell master that should require the same work of a sick which he doth of a sound servant The Father of mercies Who knowes our mold and temper how weak and sickly our soules are doth not expect from us a conversation so every way perfect in all points as He did from Adam in the first covenant but if He sees us truly sory for our imperfections and daily to our power endeavouring towards greater perfection He accepts of our endeavours in Christ and pardons what is wanting Two things we are here to be exhorted to Exhort 1 To withstand these diseases as much as may be both by way of prevention and by way of remedy Motiv 1. From the worth and price of the soul the subject of these diseases 2 From the great and imminent danger wherein it is by reason of them 3 From the difficulty of overcoming them 4 From the possibility notwithstanding of doing it in some competent measure by the power of Gods grace Meanes 1 Withdraw whatsoever may nourish or foster these diseases 2 Feed upon the sincere milk and solid meat of Gods word and exercise the graces of His Holy Spirit 2 To search diligently what diseases we have Motiv 1 It is too certain we have our diseases we shall not seek a knot in a bulrush 2 Unlesse we know them we cannot be healed of them as we heard before Repr 1. 3 The sense of them will humble us will excite us diligently to seek after the means of health will make us more ready to pity and help others Means 1 Consider out of Gods word what is required to the health of the soule 2 Examine our selves according thereunto 5 Doctrine The LORD healed all Davids diseases Here we have three things to be explained Expl. 1 Wherein this healing consists As before it was said of diseases so there being the same reason of contraries healing also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bath for its proper subject the body naturall ill affected by some disease or wound but by Metaphor it may be transferred to other things also For as in the proper sense he is said to heale who takes away that which hinders the health of the body so in the metaphoricall he who takes away from any thing that which hinders the well being of it So 2 King 2.21 22. Psal 60.2 And thus it is often transferred to the soule though here the similitude holds not in every point For in the body nature being freed from the noxious humour doth of it self breed good blood and supply it to the repairing the strength of the whole impaired by the disease But in the soule after lapse there is no power to any saving good 2 How this healing is wrought Namely by the Spirit of God using the Word and Sacraments It is the work of the
alienated from good men as whom he might suppose to be offended at his sins whereupon haply he might raise persecution against them 2 Chron. 16.10 and thereby such as had not already entred into a godly course of life might be kept back and such as had might apostatise or fall back from it Or suppose Davids sinnes could have been concealed from the vulgars notice yet it would have been very probable that a king conscious to himself of such sinnes would not have been very severe in punishing others whereby sin upon hope of impunity would have spread far and wide and have overflowed the whole land The internall causes are different according to the diversity of sinnes But the principall and direct cause perse consilio was the will determining the power or faculty to an undue object or an undue manner The previous or antecedent causes which made way for that determination were negligence in using the means to avoid sin viz. watchfulnesse prayer attention to Gods word c. and the entertaining and harbouring wicked thoughts so long till they had driven away the Spirit of grace captivated right reason and obtained the consent of the will Uses Hereby we learne 1 That even the best men are not in this life free from possibility of sinning Instr and therefore that Christianity is not a state of security but of watchfulnesse wherein we ought to work out our salvation with feare and trembling 2 That even the greatest and mightiest of men for who greater then a king or who can challenge any exemption or prerogative above him are yet subject to the law of God For sin is a transgression of the law now no man can transgresse the law but he that is subject to the law The sinnes therefore of great men are sins and seeing He that is higher then the highest observes them Eccles 5.8 they must without repentance render an account to Him of them and that so much the heavier by how much their sinfull example hath been more dangerous to others and their sins in themselves so much the more hainous as they being obliged to God by more benefits have broken more bonds of duty This reproves Repr 1 Libertines c. who think they are come to that height of perfection that they can not by any temptation be drawn into sin yea that the acts which they commit though sins in other men as drunkennesse theft whoredome c. yet in them are no sins neither can defile them seeing to the pure all things are pure But against this opinion so absurd that it is a wonder the devil himself is not ashamed to perswade any man to it there needs no more to be said for the present but that David another manner of man for holinesse and perfection then the best of them had his iniquities and so called and accounted of them 2 Carnall Gospellers who have little or no care of hearing the word or performing other duties of religion who know not what belongs to the girdle of sincerity the helmet of hope c. yea who dare adventure upon any occasions of sin and yet think they have so good command of themselves that they can keep within compasse well enough What 's the matter I wonder Is sin grown lesse dangerous or men more skilfull to avoid it now then heretofore Sin was wont to be very watchfull and crafty to catch men Gal. 6.1 Eph. 4.22 Heb. 3.13 2 It was wont to be so strong that none but Christ Who hath power to subdue all things unto Himself was able to deliver any that once came within the reach of it 3 It was wont to be so cruell that look who were not pluck'd out of its jawes by Christ it would use them most unmercifully All the miseries of this life proceed from sin and yet all doe not satisfy the cruelty of it but at last it brings to death Rom. 5.12 Nor is it yet satisfied for it drawes the soul also to the place of torment and at last the body also united to it and so drowns the whole man in wofull perdition Nor is it yet fully satisfied for being committed against an infinite justice it requires that the sinner should likewise undergoe an infinite punishment But because the creature being finite can not undergoe a punishment infinite in measure therefore it rests though hardly content with a punishment infinite in duration Such was sin wont to be And is it now grown to some better terms of moderation No surely it is as ready to intrap men now as ever which appears by the abounding of it every where and daily ensnaring such as would think much not to be accounted very wise men And 2ly it holds those it once seises upon as fast now as ever for still that stands good that there is no Name under heaven whereby men can be saved but onely the Name of Jesus it is onely He that can save His people from their sinnes Lastly the rigor in binding over to punishment is nothing abated the same law being broken and the same infinite justice offended Well then sin being the same it was wont to be why are not we so watchfull against it as the servants of God have been in former times who were so wary that in some things they would not doe all they might but used to make railes on either side their way to heaven lest unawares they should fall into sinne as never thinking themselves far enough out of the reach of it till they should get to heaven But oh the piercing wit the undaunted courage the firm faith of our age All foregoing generations were but babes to us the world had never any men to shew till we came in play We know so exactly how far we may goe in every thing and can so accurately to the very cleaving of a haire distinguish between the use and abuse of things that we scorn to lose any jote of our privileges Yea many times we make a sport of it to shew how nigh the pits brink we can goe and yet not fall in Nay we mock and sometimes deadly hate such as dare not goe so far as we think they might Those proverbs of not touching pitch or not putting coals into the bosome c. befitted those simple souls in time of yore but are now out of date Simple Job why wouldst thou so restrain thy self as to make a covenant with thine eyes not to look upon a maid Job 31.1 we have such as can dally with them and dance with them and court them whole nights together yet look to the main chance well enough who much delight in lascivious songs wanton plaies and such like frothy execrable filth yet never any infection once comes neare them nay they can pick as good lessons out of these as others doe out of sermons David what a silly weakling wast thou to think thou couldst not keep Gods commandements unlesse thou didst first proclaim Away from
hope But to diminish this hope they must know that whatsoever they have of that which is past they have not much of that which is to come unlesse in their own imagination reckoning without their host For God in whose hand is the soule of every living thing and the breath of all mankind Job 12.10 saith unto all To day if ye will heare his voice c. Psal 95. And Boast not of to morrow Prov. 27.1 Rabbi Eleazar sayd that we should repent one day before the day of our death And when his scholars asked Which should be the day of their death he answered That was uncertain and therefore it was best to repent to day The Jewes have a proverbiall speech That many times Old camels carry yong camels skinnes to the market And how often do we see elder folk carry yong mens and childrens bodies to the grave It is then a fault even in yong men to presume of long life How much more therefore in old men who have already one foot in the grave and yet under gray haires nourish green hopes and desires Lastly Exhort this serves for exhortation 1 To such who in respect of their callings are commonly exposed to more then ordinary danger of their lives See that the thing thou goest about be lawfull that it lie upon thee in respect of thy calling that it be such as God would not have thee to omit whatsoever may thereby befall thee and then goe on couragiously and doe it Thy life is like unto grasse It is appointed unto thee once to dy and but once If therefore that once shall then happen blesse God that He will accept of thy death as a free-will-offring which of it self was due unto nature Or if that thy danger be from men consider that their life also is like unto grasse and therefore though thou maist so farre feare their power and malice as to implore Gods help the more earnestly and to order thy businesse the more cautelously as Jacob Gen. 32. and Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. yet do not so feare them as to be wanting to a good cause and thy duty Thus God Himself reasons Isa 51.12 Sennacherib gave out great threats against Hezekiah and Jerusalem 2 King 18. But his soldiers in whom he trusted were but grasse and one Angel in one night mowed down 185000 of them Chap. 19.35 2 Seeing this life is so fraile let us so much the more diligently seek that life which is eternall in the heavens and fadeth not away 3 Seeing our life is like unto grasse which perishes so many severall waies therefore let us alwaies every where expect death and be ever ready and prepared for it 2 Doctrine As a flower of the field so he flourisheth Thus is the life of man compared Job 14.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 28.1 40.6 Jam. 1.10 11. 1 Pet. 1.24 Why or in what respect David likens the flourishing estate of man to a flower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself is his own best interpreter vers 16. Which tending onely to this purpose we may here consider it without further handling In a flower therefore David observes two points of frailty or vanity 1 In respect of the essence of it Though no hand pluck it nor foot tread it down nor beast crop it nor any other casualty befall it yet as soon as the wind that is the nipping or blasting wind such as the cast wind Gen. 41.23 passeth over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not that is it neither continues any longer in being nor returnes any more into being So how greatly soever any man flourishes in his time yet as soone as a deadly wound or disease cometh upon him all his glory can not save his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is gone he is not he both must die and being dead he returns to this life no more Psal 78.39 Job 14.7 8 9 10 11 12. 2 Sam. 12.23 14.14 2 Which necessarily followes upon the former in respect of the appearance of it Though whilest it flourishes the place of it seems as it were to know nothing but it the glory and beauty of it drawes all eies to it nothing else of all that is round about it is lookt at or regarded yet when it is once nipped with the wind not onely the glory and beauty of it but even all appearance and signe of it perishes together with the essence and never returnes againe the place thereof shall know it no more So though whilest a man is in his flourishing estate he is eminent in his place lookt upon and regarded by all pointed at and shewn by one to another This is the man yet when his life is once taken away his glory and appearance in this world vanishes together with it and never returnes againe yea being once out of sight he growes by litle and litle out of mind also litle thought of lesse spoken of many times not so much as his name mentioned or remembred in the next generation Job 7.8 9 10. 14.10 Where is he Eccles 1.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of former men 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man 8.10 9.5 Hence the state of the dead is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the land of forgetfulnesse Psal 88.12 And Psal 31.12 I am forgetten as a dead man out of mind And that this is the meaning of this phrase appeares not onely by the place first before quoted Job 7.10 but by divers other places also where this and the like phrases are so used See Job 20.9 Nahum 3.17 Psal 37.10 compared with vers 35 36. of the same Psalme Object But we read of three in the Old Testament and five in the New raised from death to life Answ I answer 1. These few examples of men raised from death to life by Gods extraordinary power do not infringe the truth of what the Scripture affirmes of all mankind according to the ordinary course and law of nature 2 Even those men also afterwards died againe and vanished no more to return or appeare againe in this world Uses Instr Observe here 1 That men ordinarily have a time of flourishing whilest their gifts of mind faculties and habits their endowments of body health strength beauty c. their outward good things wealth power c. are in their prime And all these come down from the Father of lights and are given unto men partly that by enjoying them the many calamities of this pilgrimage may be mitigated but chiefly that they may glorify the Giver promote their own salvation benefit the Church common-wealth and particular persons by the rightuse of these according to Gods word 2 When they most flourish they are but like unto a flower whose short continuance and fading condition no man but knowes And that to a flower not of the garden which is much sheltered from sharp winds fenced from the teeth and feet of beasts from the hands of children strangers