of the burning lake They do not consider the pearl of price how orient it is how excellent and inestimable and therefore they do not sell all and buy it They do not consider the worth of their souls that they are immortal and their ransom precious and therefore they barter them away for a filthy lust and transient pleasure Men do not consider how sordid and odious a thing it is how ill-becoming them how hateful to God and how exceedingly it inflámes their reckoning and will one day add to their torments 〈◊〉 swill like a Swine to be filthy like a Goat to curse like a Devil and to swear like a Cutter to profane Sabbaths and 〈…〉 to hate the power of Godliness and 〈◊〉 â—hose that are peaceable in a Land Due and serious 〈…〉 my Brethren would correct all these things 〈◊〉 â—ould reform a thousand disorders and we should have another world And until this be the world will be the old world still we shall find it as bad as ever a wicked malicious and troublesome world Cain will kill Abel still And they that are born after the flesh will persecute them that are born after the spirit I shall not at all wonder to see men carry like Bedlams to see them raging-mad in sin so long as they live like fools without consideration Well my Friends if any will be vain and foolish still let them be so As for you reckon upon it as your wisdom and interest to do nothing rashly not to pass over things lightly not to run on headily look before you leap ponder your path try all things Consider those things which we deliver to you in the course of our Ministry and require of you in the Name of our God whether they be not most holy and just and good Consider those things we propound to you the great and gracious offers we make whether you can any where else better your selves and get a more gainful bargain see if we do not out-bid all the world and offer you such a match for your souls as is the chiefest of ten thousands altogether lovely without compare O ye fools be ye of an understanding heart We would not have you embrace our counsels and follow our directions blindfold We can say this We counsel you as we do our selves and we lay no other burden upon you than upon our selves and your souls are precious to us as our own and it sorely troubles us to think of your eternal miscarrying and our hearts would greatly rejoyce even ours if that danger were over and that we did but see you in that tender and mighty hand out of which none can pluck you yet we would not have you take all upon trust from us an implicit faith and a blind obedience do not please us No weigh things in right balances compare the service of Christ with the drudgery of a Devil and the service of sin peace of conscience with roaring in a Tavern the kisses of a Saviours lips with the caresses of a Minion the favour of Christ with the smiles of a Man a being filled with the spirit with a being drunk with wine in which is a brutifying excess Compare contrivances for God with plots for Rome and conspiracies against Princes an heavenly mind with earthly affections an interest in promises and an inheritance in Heaven with an ill-gotten estate in the world that hath a curse in it Compare I say these things together and consider and then chuse Let some men say what they will their tongues are their own only let them remember they must at last be accountable for their words as for us we would have you rational in your Religion rational in your believing and living use your reason in all things within its reach only to call that to determine in matters too high for it in points of faith that could never have been known by us but by Divine Revelation hath much more absurdity in it than to call a Countrey-clown from following tâ—e Plough to sit down at the Helm and determine in the Arcana Imperii mysteries and riddles of State Use all the reason you have only be not unreasonable in you reasonings and believe it we are not afraid of having things brought to a tryal the cause of Godliness is too good to be cast when it hath its hearing before a prudent impartial and righteous Judg. Consider then and that not only once but often so the Original word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considering again and again frequently repeat this act think of it now and think of it anon to day and to morrow every day The things of God the matters of Religion the product and issue of an holy life do deserve greatest seriousness and most frequent thoughts there is nothing in the world so considerable in it self as these things are and therefore nothing in the world is so worthy of your consideration Besides the merit of the things the dulness of the hearts calls for it Ahlas I we are not easily wrought upon our minds are blockish our wills stubborn our hearts obdurate our judgments do not readily assent to truth nor our wills close with goodness We are as the Disciples were slow of heart to believe and submit and embrace the things of God There must be precept upon precept and line upon line and there had need be consideration upon consideration and prayer upon prayer and all this is little enough nay all this and more than this would be too little were not God pleased to bare his Omnipotent Arm and to make it a day of power upon the obdurate and refractory sinner Slight thoughts and transient glances will make no impression will kill no sin nor kindle any holy heat it is the fixed eye that doth affect the heart as the Burning-glass must be for some time held with a steddy hand in the beams of the Sun before it will fire combustible matter Be much then in the work let not vain thoughts lodg but let holy thoughts abide and dwell within you So much for the Act. I now come to the Object What is it that we are to consider What truly you need never be at a loss for matter of consideration most choice and excellent matter viz. God himself and the operations of his hands in Creation-work and acts of Providence specially that admirable Master-piece sinners Redemption and Salvation Consider your selves your hearts and ways and latter end together with that infinite Ocean of Eternity into which you must lanch and those two places Heaven and Hell into which all Intellectual and Rational beings shall be gathered Consider the Sermons you hear and search the Scriptures daily bring all that is said in the Pulpit to the Law and to the testimony and see whether those things be so or not In Prayer consider in what a presence you are and with what a glorious Majesty you have to do what great Mercies and Blessings you have to seek
this is the way to glorifie your God to honour your Religion to credit your Pastors In this way you shall be their comfort while they live their Crown when they are dead yea their joy and rejoycing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming The exemplariness of your carriages is the best commendation of the Ministers you have and of the Sermons you hear whereas when you walk disorderly and as Enemies to the Cross of Christ you are our shame and reproach spots in our Assemblies goads in our sides and burdens upon our spirits Let no man nor woman tell others they sit under my Ministry unless they resolve by the grace of God to depart from iniquity 2. Follow them in their Love True faith works love and by it it kindles a pure flame of love and then makes use thereof for the promoting and furtherance of all duty Have you not taken notice of your Pastors love What did they think too much to do for you They have hazarded their liberty and spent their strength and broken their rest and wasted their lungs for you They mourned under the untractableness of some and were humbled for the unreformedness of others who had sinned and had not repented they longed for your Conversion to God and progress in Religion and growth in grace They had no greater joy than to see you walking in the truth Oh! how did they prize God and Christ and you how did they rejoyce in their work though hard yet sweet how welcome was a Sabbath upon which they might draw their breasts for your consolation and open their treasures for your inriching imitate you them in their love give the best the flower the quintessence of it unto God Erect in your hearts a Throne for Christ love him as well as you can and then mourn because you love him so little and always pray that you may love him more Love one another dearly for you are brethren and so fulfil the law of Christ and prove your selves his Disciples Have an universal love for all the Saints all in whom you can see aliquid Christi any thing of Christ yea so love all men as to wish their good and to do them all the good you can even your Enemies your Persecutors those that hate you do you hate their sins and wicked ways but love their persons and pray for their conversion and salvation 3. Follow them in their Joy You read of the joy of faith and of the Saints rejoycing in believing with joy unspeakable and full of glory Certainly it is a duty incumbent upon all the Saints to rejoyce in the Lord and that evermore and call to remembrance the times that are past Have you not seen the faith of your Pastors budding and blossoming with joy when you have been sinking and days have been dark and fears many Have you not seen a smile upon their brow even then when there was a Cloud upon their tabernacle You have indeed been acquainted with their sorrows and their tears because men hated to be reformed would not keep Gods Law but dishonoured his Name and opposed his Gospel and would break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from them but you have also been privy to and witnesses of their joys follow them in this Let them that are of a fearful heart be strong be you of a cheerful spirit and let your brethren and others see you are so You have O Saints matter of rejoycing in your worst conditions nay let me say this You have much more matter of rejoycing than you now have or ever shall have of sorrow and disquiet For if you be really what you profess your selves to be God is the cause and matter of your rejoycing it is he that is your comfort and your glory Psal. 43. 4. I will go saith that sweet singer of Israel unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy or as the margin tells you it is in the Hebrew unto God the gladness of my joy Now I beseech you if you can tell me What can possibly be I ask you again what can possibly be so great a cause of sadness and sorrow as your God is of joy and rejoycing Thou O poor drooping soul thinkest thou hast a great many sins in thy heart and the Church of Christ hath a great many dangers at this day in poor England City and Country is full of them and doubtless all this is very true too too true the good Lord help us Yet know God is above them all and greater than them all He is greater than all thy sins and so can both pardon and subdue them He is greater than all his Churches enemies and so can either reconcile and change them if he pleases or curb and conquer them As he is greater than all our dangers and so can easily obviate and prevent them He can with a word command deliverance and create peace and place a defence upon and about all our glory You have my Brethren at all times in the very worst times more cause of joy in God than you can have of sorrow and discouragement in any thing nay in all things This made the holy Prophet take up that brave resolution Hab. 3. 17 18. To rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of his salvation though there should be a famine in the world and the staff of creature-comforts should be broken to pieces though earth should sink under him yet he would by faith hang upon a God above him and as long as he had a God above to live upon his joy should live and flourish He knew not only how to make a meal but how to feast it upon God alone Thus have I at large set before you that duty which is incumbent upon you in reference to your deceased Pastors who have Preached to you the Word of God it lieth in these two things Remember them Follow their faith Now I come to the last clause in the Text which you may look upon either as a third duty or an excellent means for the commending of the two former and facilitating them unto you and that you have in these words Considering the end of their conversation Here again you have the Act Considering and the Object The end of their conversation I will begin with the former Considering We ought to be a considering people it would be our safety our honour our comfort and advantage every way as I could easily shew you We should sin less if we would consider more Most if not all our sins come in at this door want of consideration Men do not consider their ways lead directly to Hell going down to the Chambers of Death and therefore they go on in them They do not look into the state of their souls nor consider how affairs stand with them and so when they should mourn and weep they live jovally and frolick their days away dancing and roaring upon the very brink
praises from you When you are under smarting rods sore afflictions pore not so much upon them as to become by that means injurious to God Some that did too little mind and prize and improve mercies whilest they were in their hands do view them and curiously study them when taken away until their spirits be imbittered and discontent raised up against the Providence But Christians beware you of that I advise you to be sensible of your loss Let the Widow be sensible what an husband she hath lost the Children what a Father if their tender age will admit it the Family what a Governor the Society what a Shepherd I and others what a Friend and Brother But let us all remember to bless God that we had him once that we had him so long let this Congregation bless God that ever it was committed to the care and charge of such a Minister that ever such a shining and burning light was set up in this Candlestick that ever such a labourer was sent into this Vineyard My dear friends I do most earnestly beg this of you for my dear Master Whatever your loss is how great soever how painful and afflictive soever let not your and my God be a loser look carefully to that as you love your selves Gods loss is your loss Therefore how sad soever your case is how dark soever your day how low soever your spirits do not now do not at any time withhold from God those praises which are his due Truly he hath been good to you and he is so now and he will be so still if you will but do your duty therefore be sure to love him and bless him let the holy God ever inhabit the praises of Israel 2. Remember them so as to bewail the loss of them You ought indeed to moderate your sorrow keeping it within the bounds of Reason and Religion as becomes those that have hope nay let there be a mixture of joy with your sorrow being sure it is well with them perfectly unspeakably and everlastingly well their happiness doth exceed their thoughts and not only afford satisfaction to them but likewise raise admiration Oh what am I that God should ever bring me hitherto Yet mourn It becomes you to be both affected and afflicted in your spirits What! shall the Father be smitten and the Children not grieved the Shepherd taken away and the Flock not troubled that would be a grand Solecism both in Nature and Religion When Samuel dyed all Israel were gathered together and lamented him 1 Sam. 25. 1. The tears of an whole Nation may well be poured out upon a Samuels death When Stephen the Proto-Martyr was carried to his burial there was great lamentation made over him Acts 8. 2. Those devout and holy men broached their sorrow they went on weeping as they went When Elisha was arrested and confined to his bed by his last sickness Ioash the King of Israel wept over his face and said O my Father my Father the chariots of Israel and horsemen thereof 2 King 13. 14. And well may there be such great sorrow else it will hold no proportion with the occasion Losses of such persons are great how little and vile soever in the worlds eyes while they lived for they were their peoples blessings the Nations pillars the stakes in our hedg and their death is not seldom ominous it speaks a storm-brewing evil to come When they are hous'd in the silent and safe chambers of the grave what may we look for next but that the great God should come out of his place cloathed with righteousness and armed with vengeance to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity This know for certain the Lord is greatly offended it angers him at his very heart when he sees men stupid and insensible under such dispensations specially when they become ordinary when the righteous perish and are taken away none considering or laying it to heart It is true there is now joy in Heaven but let there be sorrow on Earth that will not be jarring Angels and perfect spirits above welcome those departed Saints with shouts and acclamations let us part from them with tears at least with sighs Possibly there are some who do rejoyce at such a mans death but whether they will believe me or no I will tell them they have no cause God will make them change their note even they shall mourn at the last 3. With your remembrance of them joyn heart-grief and trouble that you gained no more by them consult and listen to your own consciences see what they will say deal impartially and ingenuously Have not you been asleep in your seats when they have been at work in their Pulpits Have not your minds been wandring after vanity and your eyes gazing about upon this body and that this face and that fashion while they have been fixed and intent wholly taken up about the good and salvation of your souls Have not you been cold at heart while they were fervent in spirit serving the Lord They have mourned but you wept not they have piped but you danced not when they poured out their souls in confession of sins you were not humbled your hearts not broken within you many a sad and foul story hath been told of you yet you did not blush neither were you ashamed They have mightily wrestled with God and tug'd hard for mercy mercy for you your pardon and your lives but you have sate and seen all this with a most wretched indifferency as if you were persons altogether unconcerned and did not care whether they prevailed or no. How have you slipt the precious truths they delivered to you and been disobedient to the counsels they ordered out and have been little the better though they came to you in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ They have come and blown upon your garden now with the North-wind of dreadful threatnings then with the South of gracious promises yet your spices have not flown forth nay are not too many of you unto this very day like the dry and barren Heath And surely you have cause to be troubled and oh that you may be so the good Lord trouble you kindly let your souls have these losses and afflictions still in remembrance and be humbled within you 4. Remember them so as to be quickned by that remembrance Think of their death and go to their graves and fetch life and liveliness from thence We Ministers should do so When our fellow-labourers grow fewer it stands us in hand to work the harder What! shall some drop on our right-hand and others upon our left yea many round about us and shall any of us notwithstanding be idle and lazy and half asleep at our work Oh that the ratling of deaths Chariot-wheels might awaken and rouze us up When Elijah is taken up to Heaven let every Elisha look out for a double portion of the spirit and go forth in all