get ready that we may not have cause to desire its stay Thirdly Though they be gone yet it was not before they were fit to go Some of thm liv'd but a little time but they liv'd much in a little time and how are they to be commended and the grace of God to be admired in them who do happily dispatch that work in twenty years or less which others and those holy Souls too are threescore or seventy years about Some die young it is a sign they ripened apace The Husband man careth not when he plucks up his Weeds because they are either for the Furnace or the Dunghil but his Corn shall be white to the Harvest before he puts in his Sickle So a wise man will let the Fruit of his Orchard hang till it be ripe and when it is so he gathers it So doth the wise and ever-blessed God as for wicked men he is not so curious about them they only cumber the ground they bring forth wild Grapes down with them saith Justice it will be a good riddance let better be planted in their room but he doth otherwise with the Trees of Righteousness the souls of holy persons are prepared for glory by that time their bodies drop into the Grave The marriage of the Lamb will not come before his Bride hath made her self ready Now is not this enough to satisfy you give one good reason if you can why any should remain upon earth after they are once truly fit for Heaven why they should have their days prolonged when their work is finished they shall not die before it why should they live here after it why should they not receive the Crown of Righteousness when they have fought the good fight and finished their course and kept the faith To what purpose I beseech you should they live when they have no more grace to get here and no more good to do To such an one as loves God dearly and is set for his glory an useless barren and unprofitable life would be an heavy burden and a great deal worse than death Such an one in such a case would not know how to enjoy himself an hour but would long and pine and cry out for the coming of death as the Mother of Sisera did for her Son Why is his Chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Fourthly As they are gone to God so they had excellent company by the way It is not a little distance between this earth which the Saints now inhabit and the highest Heaven unto which at death they go the habitation of God and seat of the blessed and tho the holy Soul be exceeding swift in its motion when it is once freed from the heavy clog of dull flesh and got upon the wing yet will it be some time before so long a Journey can be dispatch'd and it arrive at its desired home At the beginning of Daniel's supplication the Commandment came forth and the Angel Gabriel was caused to flee swiftly yet he came not to him till the time of the evening oblation And there is an innumerable number of wicked spirits in the way Legions of Devils in the Regions of the Air which envy the happiness of those who are to have an everlasting abode in those places out of which they themselves were cast and therefore will be sure to do their utmost for the disturbing them in their ascent But for the preventing of it the great and holy God hath appointed them a strong Guard in Hebr. 1. 14. the holy Angels are said to be initistring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation and they take pleasure in doing so Little do we know the obligations we lie under to them how much we are beholden to them how they watch over us and pitch their Tents about us and are Assistants to us Many and many are the good offices which the good Angels do for the Saints while they live and when they die they are a strong Convoy to their Souls that will keep off from them all Enemies and Dangers and bring them with safety and honour into the King's Palace the Presence-Chamber of their God and Father Upon all these accounts I counsel you not to lay the reins upon the neck of your passions nor to mourn over them who died in the Lord as those who have no hope for they are blessed When they lived they were the habitations of God through the Spirit when they died they died in the Lord and their bodies sleep in Iesus their Souls upon dissolution are the charge of Angels It was they that carried the Soul of poor but precious Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham tho the rich Glutton suffer'd him to lie in his Rags and Sores starving at his door neglected and despis'd and both their souls and bodies at the Resurrection of the Just shall have a consummate happiness in the full uninterrupted and eternal enjoyment of God Therefore I say again mourn not for them there is no cause they are in a far better condition than you turn your Grief into another Channel and as our Saviour directed weep for your selves and for your children on the score of what you have lost and what you may feel in this world of sin and uncertainty The second Branch of this Use of Exhortation will be this Be you willing to go to God also whensoever he shall please by death to send for you You I mean who have been indeed made partakers of grace who love God and have made him your choice and have good hope yea assurance of your interest in him It would be a shame for any of you to be unwilling and loth to die God may very well take that unkindly at your hands and you for it have reason to be displeas'd and angry with your selves What is there upon earth that should make you unwilling What is there in Death that should affright and scare you Have you great affliction and trouble here would it not be better for you to be out of it to exchange a tempestuous Sea for an Haven of Peace Do you now swim in Delights and abound with Creature comforts shall you not find better in Heaven than those you leave behind you Would you stay yet longer that so you might provide for your Children and see them setled well and comfortably in the World Will you not commit them to the care of your heavenly Father who is their God in Covenant as well as yours Can you trust God with your Souls and will you not trust him with your Seed Do you think it is an hard thing to die cannot God strengthen you for it Is there a bitterness in it cannot God sweeten it to you Cannot he make it easy to you as he hath made it to many of his People Cannot he by the light of his Countenance and the witness of his Spirit and the shedding abroad of his love
but as comfortable as they can But alas how short is their Arm how many outward and inward Troubles are there which their skill and power cannot reach But it must be granted all that which they can do is not comparable to that which God doth for his People nor to be named in the same day with it All that own a God must acknowledge he is infinitely beyond the greatest of men in power infinitely above the highest and best of Creatures in love What is a broken Cistern that will hold no water to the Well of Salvation the Fountain of living waters What is a pitiful little Drop but one remove from nothing to the boundless bottomless Ocean of Being and Goodness Suppose there were ten thousand thousand worlds and put them all together what would they all be to one God And then though the enjoyment which the Saints have of God now doth far exceed all the sinful and sensual enjoyments of carnal and profane Worldlings which was the reason why Moses did esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt and rather chose to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and made that Noble Italian Marquis Galeaceus say Cursed be that man who counts all the world worth one hours enjoyment of Iesus Christ. Yet compare the best and fullest and sweetest of the Saints enjoyments here with those in the mansions above and they fall exceeding short of them for what is sitting under the shadow of Christ to the beholding of his glory what is the joy of Faith to that of sight what is a love letter or message of peace or kind token from God now and then to a lying in his bosom to a being and continuance in his joy what is seeing of his power and glory in the Sanctuary to the beatifical Vision what is seeing in a glass darkly to a seeing face to face seeing as we are seen and knowing as we are known what are the first-fruits of the Spirit to the whole harvest what some Praelibamina foretastes to a sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in that Kingdom of God at the feast of glory and there taking the fill of love to all eternity while the Saints are present in the body they are absent from the Lord and a state of absence neither doth nor can afford satisfaction the holy Soul during that will with the enamoured Spouse be longing and crying Make haste my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of spices It is only in the glorious presence of God that such an one will find a fulness of joy and at his right hand those pleasures which are for evermore Let us now come to the improvement of this Point in a way of Application and the first Use shall be for Information in three things If it be just matter of rejoicing to holy Souls that at death they go to God then from hence First We may learn the folly and misery of those who do now depart from God whose lives are nothing else but a continual departure from him Yea in the very Acts of Worship when they draw nigh to him with their lips their hearts are estranged and far from him running after their covetousness The folly that is in this course of life is very apparent and the misery that certainly attends it will be one day no less sensible but there are too too many among us guilty hereof some through the principle and power of Unbelief their not giving credit to the reports of the Word neither to its dreadful Threatnings nor to its sweet and gracious Promises Do you I beseech you look carefully to it that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Others yea and the same persons too make this departure from God out of love to the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And it is no wonder to see men going from that place and company where and with whom they do not love to be have a care of the world therefore let it not bewitch you While ye live in it be ye not devoted to it but weaned from it If you do set your hearts upon the world you will turn your back upon God Demas saith the Apostle hath forsaken me and in forsaking him he forsook Christ what was the reason of it but his embracing this present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. How powerful and prevalent are these two things unbelief and love of the world with the generality of men what a vast multitude of persons do they carry away from God! What is there that in a moral way he could have done more than that which he hath done He hath frequently and loudly called them by messenger after messenger he hath most graciously invited them most lovingly and sweetly allur'd them and used variety of means and arguments to conquer their aversness to convince their judgments to gain their hearts and bring them to him yet after all he hath cause to complain Ye will not come to me that ye may have life Nay in stead of coming to him they are running further and further from him as if they thought they could never be at too great a distance whereas they have no cause to run from God for in so doing they run from life and rest and happiness and into the mouth of ruin and destruction and are too far removed from him already They are already without God in the world Ephes. 2. 12. They were born with their backs upon God were Transgressors from the womb going astray speaking and seeking Lyes and so they continue to do for every wilful Sin is a step from God Now I would desire such to consider and that seriously whether this their way be not their folly The Scripture doth expresly tell us They that are far from him shall perish Psal. 73. 27. and that he hath destroyed all them that go a whoring from him And as he hath done so he will go on to do for he is in one mind and in this case Repentance shall be hid from his eyes And to this add one Consideration more You must appear before him at the last whether you will or no though you should call to the rocks to cover you and the mountains to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb and from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne yet you must appear Now you will not be invited to him as a Saviour then you shall be dragged before him as a Judge Suppose you should then beg and plead Lord Lord open to us what answer can you look for at his hands but this Depart from me for I know you not And how do you think he should know you since as long as you liv'd you would never acquaint your selves with him Oh
things are not so much to be insisted upon Were they Holy and Gracious Were they born twice before they died once Were they partakers of the Holy Ghost in his renewing Influences Was their Walk with God and their Motions toward Heaven Did they carry Grace along with them into the other World and leave good ground of Hope in this concerning them Then keep your Grief within its due bounds You may yea you ought to be sensible of God's hand and of your own loss and of the Nations and Churches loss God would not have his Children stupid he allows not in them a Stoical Apathy Paul doth not forbid all Mourning upon this account but would not have yours like that of theirs who mourn without hope You may be sensible but not sink drop some Tears over such an o 〈…〉 s Herse but not be drown'd in Sorrow While by your Sorrow and Tears you express the dearness of your Affection to your deceased Friend be sure that by your patient Submission and humble Silence you do equally manifest your Faith and Hope And to that purpose I offer these Four following Particulars to your Consideration First Your departed Relations and Friend◠are gone to him that loved them best and that both can and will do most for them To him that is all Love and hath all Power To him who hath Earth with all its fulness Heaven with all its Glory at his own dispose and is himself alone better than both They are gone indeed and shall not return their Places here will know them no more Oh! saith one my Husband is gone and he was my Guide and my Support He lived with me as a Man of Knowledge and helped me on in the way everlasting And saith another My Wife is gone and she was a suitable Yoke-fellow a delightful Companion the desire of mine Eyes And saith another My Child is gone and it was a pleasant One the Child of my Hopes but now that is gone that Bud is nipt and those Hopes are blasted And say others Our Shepherd is gone who led us by the skilfulness of his Hands brake to us the Bread of Life and sed us with sound Knowledge and Understanding These are gone and gone for ever and they will not return any more and you say true for they cannot Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again Yes in another World Iob did not question that but rejoyced in the Faith of it but not again in this World The most holy Persons that lived best and pleased God most cannot return to live again here and indeed as they cannot so they would not if they could they would not For remember this as they are gone from hence and from you so they are gone to God and to Heaven They are gone but it is from their Labour to their Rest to an undisturbed and everlasting Rest after a wearisome and tedious Life They are gone but it is from the Work of their Lord in which they were faithful and industrious to the Joy of their Lord which nothing shall imbitter neither can any take it from them God will not Enemies shall not They are gone but it is from a life of Conflicts which they had with the Corruptions of their own Hearts and the Temptations of Satan to maintain an everlasting Triumph with the Lord Jesus the Captain of their Salvation In short They are gone but it is out of the Wilderness which was over-run with pricking Briars and vexing Thorns and full of Beasts of prey Lyons roaring and Serpents hissing the Devil and his Instruments creating them all the trouble they can and now they are entred into the Coelestial Canaan a Land flowing not with Milk and Honey but unspeakably better Enjoyments infinitely purer and higher Delights Do but you tread in their Steps and follow them in their Faith and Holiness considering the end of their Conversation and then you shall meet them again and that meeting shall be with Joy Secondly Tho they be gone yet their time of going was first come The Apostle Paul speaks of a time of departure 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand The time which God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness had ordained and prefixed by an eternal and unalterable Decree They liv'd till the last Sand in their Glass was run out till they had reached those Bounds which they could not pass There is one thing which some surviving Relations do most unreasonably afflict and torture themselves with notwithstanding all the care they have taken it is this they think if this or that had been done their deceased Relation might have been still alive but that is a foolish Fancy and I am apt to think it a Suggestion of the Devil who thereby would pour Vinegar into that Wound which Providence hath made for if this and that and an hundred nay a thousand things more had been done they all would not have kept them here It is indeed unquestionably our Duty to be in the diligent use of all lawful means for the preservation of Health the cure and removal of Diseases and the continuance of our own and our Relations Lives and a known wilful neglect of any doth bring guilt with it and may breed a painful sting in the Conscience but all the means that can be used cannot possibly hinder the accomplishment of any of the divine purposes Who hath resisted his Will and who can resist it Will you consider this and work it upon your hearts by repeated thoughts such Friends and Relations of yours are gone but not before they were sent for God bid Moses go up to Mount Nebo and die there the same God in whose hand our times are did also bid them lie down upon such a Bed and die there Death was God's Messenger he commission'd it and gave it his order its work was to cut off the thread of their lives and fetch them home and that work must be done how unacceptable and afflictive soever it is to any yea and it must be done at that very time too Tho in other things God exerciseth admirable patience waiting that he might be gracious and being exulted that he might have mercy upon sinners yet in this case he will not stay nor is it at all fit that he should nor is it lawful for any to desire it What reason can be given why Infinite Wisdom should give way to humane weakness and folly or why God should in the most minute and smallest Circumstance act counter to his own most Holy Will and Purpose for the gratifying of our humour and imprudent desires let us leave God to chuse and order as being best able and learn our selves to submit and accept and since Death must and will do its work at its time let us be before-hand and do our work in our time since Death will not stay for us nor any body let us so prepare and