humble us for our former Sins and direct us what to do for the time to come that our Speech our Conversation may be more profitable than it has been 1 Cor. 15. 58. Eccl. 9. 10. Fourthly Let us live so that our Examples may do good whilst we live and when we are dead For every Man that has the Spirit of Christianity i. e. a generous and a publick Spirit will not only be concerned for himself but for others and not only for the present but for the future Generation And as in this luxurious and most wicked Age of ours there is like to be transmitted to Posterity a great number of very bad Examples so it should be the Care and Endeavour of every good Man to prevent their mischievous influence by doing what in him lies to mend the World We live indeed in a time wherein the most part of People can talk very well but never was there any time in which there was less Practice It is a most easie thing to discourse well but none but a true Believer can live as he ought to do according to the Gospel which requires an universal and a shining Holiness Our Actions and Examples will have a more powerful efficacy than our Words and whilst the one does but touch the Ear the other will penetrate into the very Souls of those that observe us and render themselves Masters of their Approbation even almost whether they will or not We are obliged to have a great regard to the Salvation of our Neighbours and there is no course more likely to succeed than this They will easily follow us when we take them by the hand and advise them to go in no other way but in that where we go our selves When we are fervent in our Prayers it will shame their Coldness when we are serious in our attending on the Word the sight of our seriousness will make them more attentive and our Heat of Affection may kindle some Sparks of Love to God in their colder Hearts and the necessity of a good Example seems to be greater in Cities than in other places for as one observes Du-bose Serm. p. 495. It is certain that great Towns are ordinarily great Theaters of Vices as the Multitude is more numerous so wicked Examples are more frequent Sin hardens it self by the number and authorizes it self by the quantity of Accomplices And as the Fire burns more by a great heap of wood or coals put together so the Ardour of Sin warms and inflames it self by a great Throng of Persons that communicate to one another their criminal Affections Besides in vast and populous Cities they have more Liberty to sin because it is less observed and taken notice of as a Serpent conceals it self among a multitude of Bushes Whereas in little Villages the least faults are soon minded many times in greater places very great Enormities are not discern'd and it concerns us also whom God has raised from the Grave to be more exact in our Course for People will look with a more curious Eye upon us that are recovered to see what we do when they will not it may be look so much to the hand that heal'd us As the People câ—me more to see Lazarus that was risen than Jesus that reviv'd him from the Grave much people of the Jews came not for Jesus sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Joh. 12. 9. Wicked men are punish'd in Hell for all the Evil they have done 〈◊〉 the World and for all that they have been the cause of it is a new addition to their torments to think how many are going to the same miserable place whose damnation will lye at their door As 't is commonly said that Dives requested of Abraham that some messenger might be sent to warn his Brethren lest they came to the same place not from any Love to their Souls for there is no such Charity in Hell but from a fear that if they came to the same torment his own misery would be the greater for having been in a great measure the cause of theirs by his bad Example And on the contrary 't is a great pleasure to those in Heaven to think that they have been any way instrumental to the Glory of their great Lord and that the Seeds that by good Instructions and holy Example they threw upon the World flourish into Fruit when they are dead Thus they blossom in the dust and their Actions as 't is fabulously reported of some of the Bodies of the Popish Saints send forth a sweet perfume after Death to all the places round about The Saints of God do good indeed to the World when they are gone not by Intercession as Mediators for us but by the good Works which they performed here below and tho their Works follow them to increase their reward yet the remembrance of them stays behind It is hardly to be imagined how far the power of a good Example does diffuse its self when the person that gave it is removed from the World It does encourage others to Religion and to a perseverance in it seeing it has no new difficulties but only those which others have conquered who are now at rest with God Therefore are we commanded to be followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises Heb. 6. 6. We are to follow their Faith considering the end of their Conversation Heb. 13. 7. Those of us that have been so happy as to have had a Religious Education tho we are depriv'd of our Parents yet we full well remember their serious pathetical Exhortations how they did earnestly intreat us to fear God and keep his Commandments We can remember how they set some portion of their time apart every day for Reading the Word and secret Prayer and the other Duties of Religion and when we are gone if we have been truly sincere others cannot but remember our Example Your Children and Servants will greatly mind what you do that are the Master of the Family and you either very much promote or hinder their Salvation for which you must be answerable to God in the approaching day of Judgment Is it not a Credit to your Reputation when your Servant and Apprentice shall thus remember your Example and say Oh how Conscientious was my Master in his Buying and Selling how afraid was he of imposing upon others or of cheating them with many good words whilst he had deceitful intentions in his heart How afraid was he lest the business of his Trade should Justle out Religion or the Shop be an hindrance to the Duties of his Closet or of Family Prayer How careful was he to set aside some of his Gains for the Charitable Relieving of the Poor As to you that are Parents your Children will certainly mind more what you do than what you say If you Sanctifie the Sabbath and are serious in your Service to God you may
longing Soul It is then upon the Mount and sees his smiling Face and would fain always see it it is loth to come down to the meaner Employments of this World and when the necessary Affairs of the present Life call it away it comes from the pleasant Work shining with brighter Grace and Holiness It is a thing of more Honour to You than a thousand honourable Titles that You keep up constantly the worshipping of God and reading the Scriptures in your Families Morning and Evening and indeed it is an Arrogance in those to call themselves Christians who neglect so sacred and so considerable a part of our holy Religion And your good Example in the due practice of these excellent Things will have a powerful Influence upon your Children and what you now do they will also do if they live to have Families and the sight of Religion in you will convey to them a greater Approbation and a more easy practice of it God has bless'd you with a numerous and an hopeful Offspring whose present and future Welfare I do with an undissembled Affection most heartily desire By their Seriousness their Ingenuity and their good Inclinations they give us cause to expect that though they are now as Olive-plants round about your Tables yet that they will hereafter refresh the Hearts of many more besides your own Families And that as it is expressed in Psal. 144. 12. Your Sons may be as Plants grown up in their Youth that your Daughters may be as Corner-Stones polished after the Similitude of a Palace I question not but the Prayers that you send up to Heaven for them will procure the Blessing of the Divine Providence which is the richest and the best Inheritance It is a Blessing of God that you have so many living Images of your selves in whom you see your own Life renewed And you are so happy as to have your Quivers full of them May they all live to be your Comfort and to maintain Religion in the World God has been pleas'd to give You several Instances of the Vanity of this World by the Deaths of several of your Relations some of which died in their most hopeful Youth and in the Flower of their Age whilst their Friends promised themselves a long Comfort and Delight in their Conversation who had they lived might have been of great use to their Country and to the Church of God And one Relation you lost by a way that was very afflicting to you but advantagious to him He died unseasonably as to us for we needed his Prayers and his good Example but his Death was seasonable as to himself for I do not doubt but he was prepared for it He died much beloved and greatly bewailed Those that knew him could not but esteem and value him for the Assableness and Civility of his Temper the Conscientiousness of his Dealings the Sincerity and Heartiness of his Expressions the good Order that he kept in his Family and for that Uprightness and unaffected Religion that appeared to all that observed his Conversation I may without any shew of Flattery say he was one of those good Men for whom many would have died could they have exchanged their meaner Lives for his more serviceable Life He died by a may somewhat terrible to Flesh and Blood but which by Faith he overcame His Zeal for the Liberties of this City and which he shewed whilst he was in an honour able Station rendred him obnoxious to those Persons then in Authority who gave liberty to their Revenge to fall upon those who knew not how to flatter or commend or promote their Arbitrary Designs It was a thing below him to use such sneaking and such unchristian Arts for Honour or for Safety There is nothing can satisfy his Friends for the loss of so excellent a Citizen so good a Man and so sincere a Friend but the consideraon of that Providence which tho it be mysterious and severe for the present yet will hereafter appear to have been very wise and very good to all those that love God Tho the Loss his Friends sustained by his removal from them be great yet it cannot but be a Satisfaction to them to consider that he was happy in his Death He is gone to that God that as he said himself knew his Innocence and to a Place where there are no false Accusations and where he and his holy Friends shall never part again This and much more than what I have said is due to the Memory of so great and so good a Man whom it is impossible for a true Lover of his Country ever to forget My Zeal to the remembrance of those Persons which I have mentioned and whom I honoured and esteemed together with the Respect that I ought to express to them has drawn me to a much greater Length than what I at first intended and tho when I consider the multitude of your Affairs both publick and domestick I am afraid I have too much presum'd upon your Time in this Dedication yet the Experience that I have often had of your Candour makes me to believe that you will forgive even so criminal a Presumption God has given you plentiful Estates and which is as great a Mercy Hearts to use them You have often been Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame There are many hundreds whom your Charities have refresh'd the Blessing of those that were ready to perish has often come upon you And you have made the Hearts of the Desolate to sing for Joy And it is no small support of your Prosperities to have many praying for you to God and who are the more earnest as having been greatly obliged by you I do now thank you for all the many Kindnesses that I have received from you both in my former Health and in my late sore Affliction I thank you for Visiting me in my low Estate tho the greatness of my Pain and the anguish of my Thoughts allowed me not to take such notice of so great an Honour as otherwise I should have done I have often said when I was greatly afflicted That I should neither see you nor any others of my Friends till the great Day and till the Heavens were no more And God alone by his Soveraign Goodness hath brought me from the lowest Pit It was to manifest my Thankfulness to my great Deliverer that I preached the following Sermons in a Place where were many of my Friends many that had prayed for me many that had continued their Kindnesses to me when I could no way be serviceable to them and to whom I can make no other Requital than by praying for them and endeavouring to live to the Glory of that God for whose sake both you and they so kindly remembred me In these Discourses you will find a Relation of some part of my Affliction It is impossible to relate the whole of it for my Sorrows were beyond expression I have not here
Love will produce the most sincere and constant Obedience For that which is the sole effect of a slavish Fear as it will be forc'd so it will continue but a little while We are his own by a double Title by that of Creation and by his innumerable Preservations We are his by the common Care of his Providence that maintains our Life and more his by the manifestations of his extraordinary Power and Kindness when he brings us from the Grave What can we poor Creatures give to so good a God for all his Mercies we are below the possibility of a Recompence But however we must give him our most earnest Desires our most painful diligent Endeavours our frequent Meditations our highest Praises our very Souls and all that is within us seeing he is pleased to require nothing else His must be all the Motion all the Being all the Strengh that we have and to divert any part of these from his Use is both Ingratitude and Sacriledg We must not be like the greatest part of Seamen that are very devout whilst the Storm lasts but when 't is over they return to the same Sins At his Command we must part with our dearest Sins with our earthly and our sensual Inclinations with our Pride and our Follies and deny our selves And there is more true Thankfulness express'd in one Act of Self-denial than in twenty Thanks giving-Days without it Leaving of Sin is not only the way to Thankfulness but the proof of it So many Sins as the Love of God constrains us to leave so many Songs are as it were presented to God For every slain Lust is a gratulatory Sacrifice And Men will rather than do this run to all the toilsom Pomps of a ceremonious Gratitude and outward Ostentations for 't is much easier to perform a thousand external Duties than to kill one Sin A Man will more easily part with all his Goods and Substance than he will cut off a right Hand or pull out a right Eye What can a miserable Beggar add unto a Prince that gives him an Alms What can we by our mean Acknowledgments return to the Mighty God But they are such things as he requires and which we are bound to give 'T is usually after some very great and remarkable Deliverance the next Enquiry of a Soul that is under the Power of Religion What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits What shall I do that may bear some proportion with so great a Mercy What Thing what Service is there that I may set about to testify my Thanks to my gracious Benefactor O can I ever do too much for that God that has done so much for me I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 31 32. And we must expostulate with our selves as he in Ezra 9. 13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such Deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments It is a very great Blot that is left upon the Memory of so good a Man as Hezekiah though in that far unlike himself that 2 Chron. 32. 25. he rendred not again according to the Benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up Let us often set before our selves that most earnest Exhortation of our Apostle Rom. 12. 1. There are two things that should render our Obedience after the Receipt of very great Mercies such as is this of being brought from the Grave more sincere and uniform for if we do it not 1. It will greatly aggravate our after-Sins and make them more sinful as it was with Solomon after the Lord had appeared to him twice 1 Kings 11. 9. Not to use that Life and Strength for God which he hath given us is to fight against him with his own Weapons to affront him with his own Royal Bounties There is no Contempt of which he will be so sensible and at which he will be more displeased than when we despise the Riches of his Goodness which should lead us to Repentance Rom. 2. 4. To sin against a patient and a loving God is inexcusable against a God that has helped us in our Troubles that by the wonderfulness of his Mercy has been vastly better to us than our feeble Hopes and our unbelieving Fears How often have we said that we should one day fall by this or that Distress and he has held us up from our Birth to this very time How often has his Justice seiz'd us for our Sins and call'd upon him to cut us off and his Mercy has interposed and saved our Lives How often hath the Idleness and Unfruitfulness of our former Health and the base Impatiencies and Murmurings of our later Sickness provoked him to destroy us but he has not done it he has spared no Pains he hath tried us both by Affliction and Prosperity by his gentle and his louder Voice by Judgments and by Mercies to do us Good How often have our Iniquities made him to draw his glittering Sword and yet his Compassions have sheath'd it again when we have been in all appearance very near to the killing Blow How many others has his Displeasure struck dead whilst he suffers us that were as great Sinners as they were to live He has waited upon us from Sabbath to Sabbath from Year to Year He hath stayed many long Years to see if we would repent He has beseech'd and entreated us to forsake our Sin crying to every one of us Wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be We have wanted nothing God has maintained us all our days and shall we sin against Goodness and Love it self such great such undeserved Love Shall we affront his mildest and most tender Attribute Shall we trample on his Forbearance and on his very Bowels God forbid When he has tried so many several Dispensations with us when he has tried us both by gentle Usage and severe Stroaks by his Frowns and by his Smiles shall we be no better The Day is coming when our sore Calamities will force us to cry Mercy Mercy Lord. Let us now prize that whereof we shall then stand so much in need If we abuse his Mercy what Plea can we hope to make It will sink and overwhelm us and no Reflections will be so terrible as those that cause us to remember how we did forsake and sin against a good and a patient God this will wound and cut us to the Heart and we shall be continually upbraided with that stinging Question Deuter. 32. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise and give him cause to say of us as in Isaiah 5. 3 4. 2. Our not yielding Obedience to God after he has brought us from the Grave may
consider how they give you notice of the haste of Time and to this purpose your Clocks may be of excellent use if as one says you design them not only as Civil Servants but as Militant Sentinels to advertise you every hour that your Enemy is advanced a step nearer to you for as every toling Bell may be said to be the Clock of Death so every Clock may not unfitly be called the Passing Bell of Time Thirdly Our Sickness should also teach us to be moderate in all those Pleasures that relate only to the Body Such we may use indeed as are necessary to divert our Minds when we are wearied with Study or the Duties of our Calling Such as are â—east expensive and take up the least me such as are no way scandalous and such as are both lawful and â—onvenient but we must especialâ—y avoid all those things that minister to Temptation to Sensuality to Covetousness to rash Anger 's and whatsoever else it is that indisposes us for Prayer for Self-Examination and all the other serious Acts of Religion for which we must be in a constant readiness We must enrich our Souls with nobler and higher Joys in communion with God in meditating on his Works and Attributes the Wonders of his Grace in Christ the mighty Preparations that he has made for our Happyness and Glory and these will be a good improvement of our Sickness and Recovery Nor will they be followed with such gloomy sorrows that eclipse all that which the World calls a brisk and a merry Life After this manner should our Sickness teach us to regard our Bodies not to be over-fond of them not to glory in our Strength in our Health in our Riches or any thing that is but of a short Continuance For wherein are all these things or wherein is Man himself whose Breath is in his Nostrils to be accounted of Jer. 9. 23 24. Secondly Do not provoke God to cut off your Life Your Life is an excellent Gift which those of us that have recovered have but newly received let us not by any means abuse it lest it be taken from us again which God will do if we make no suitable returns to the Kindness of him our Benefactor Eccl. 7. 17. Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dy before the time i. e. If we continue in a course of sin the Divine Vengeance will overtake us and make us to feel the sharp Effects of his just Severity and of our own Transgression To this end we must First Beware of all gluttonous Excesses in what we eat and drink For though by going beyond the bounds of what is lawful we discern no great hurt for the present yet we shall lay the foundation of manyfold Diseases which may break out afterwards and vitiate our Blood and waste our Spirits and when the pleasure of our Appetites is past we shall have a remaining Bitterness and Wounds and Sorrow Many wise and observing Men believe that of those that outlive their Childhood there is scarce one of twenty yea or of an hundred that dyeth but Gluttony is the principal Cause tho not the most immediate There is nothing that makes a Disease more insupportable than the thought of having brought it upon our selves by our own Carelesness and Security How many by this Method are withered in the Flower of their Age when they thought their Evening and Decay at a mighty distance What Havock and Murder and Desolation is made in the World by the force of the Sword and the violence of unjust Wars and yet more perish by their own Intemperance and all Diseases even those that are Epidemical Natural or Casual are by this and other Vices that attend it rendred far more sharp lasting malignant and incurable by that stock of corrupted Matter that they lodge in the Body to feed those Diseases and that Impotency that these Vices bring upon Nature to resist them Hale's Letter to his Son p. 17. Tho it be very true That let a Man be never so Religious he must both be sick and dye yet the prevailing sense of a Deity will sweeten these Evils when they come and also keep them longer off As t is said of Wisdom Length of Days are in her right Hand Prov. 3. 16. And 't is said by the Fear of the Lord Prov. 3. 11. By me thy days shall be multipled and the years of thy Life shall be increased And Chap. 10. 27. The Fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned But if our Belly be our God our end will be destruction even in this World Phil. 3. 19. When Men are gratifying their Appetites in all that they desire they are undermining their own Prosperity and giving fire to that Train which will certainly blow them up and at the rate they live they may well say Come let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye For indeed their Excess to day may cause their Death to morrow How many are now in their Graves over whom it may be truly writ This Man killed himself with drinking And how odious must the Memory of such an one be that so made himself away But let us remember Life is so great a Blessing that it is not for the sake of a few merry Companions or to gratify their humor to be parted with There are a sort of People that through the Power of their Ignorance are very apt to quarrel with the Providence of God for making their Lives so short and yet they will make them shorter than otherwise they might be and truly such sort of men have the least reason because their chief happiness lies in this World and not in that which is to come and their action is as foolish as if one would make haste to pull down the House he lives in and yet when he has done it knows not where to get another Secondly We must avoid all anxious Fears all inward fretting and discontent all foolish Anger Envy and the like passions for these are great enemies to Life As also all uncommunicated sadness and lasting griefs for any of those troublesome Accidents will unavoidably molest our present state And no less prejudicial are all uncertain hopes all immoderate cares and over-eager Studies for the mind by too vehement an intention will communicate its trouble to the Body and this will pine and languish by its sympathy and nearness to that and the Body cannot conceal the displeasure that arises to it from the more inward and spiritual troubles of the Soul There will be a Cloud of Sorrow in the Forehead when there is an abiding sadness in the heart whereas the Right Government of our Affections will spread a chearfulness both over the Body and the Mind 'T is said of Moses Deut. 34. 7. That he was an hundred and twenty years old when he dyed his Eyes were not dim nor his natural Force abated and to this
have good hope that they will be so but if you are immoderate in your Recreations your Eating Drinking or your Apparel 't is very likely they will be so and what flames will it add to your misery to think that you were the Cause of their Everlasting destruction And how will you bear it to hear their Cries and bitter Expressions when they shall Curse you for not having given to them good Instructions and seasonable Warnings and an holy Example by which they might have been enabled to fly from the Wrath to come You may now do much more good by practising one Command than by causing to learn all the Ten And though you be so poor that you have no Riches or Estate to leave them yet you may leave your Prayers and your good Example to the next Generation We commonly say of a rich covetous Miser That he will never do any good whilst he lives and we may say of him and all others that are not true Christians That they will never do any good when they are dead for when they dye they are like Nero they leave abundance of poison behind them they infected the Air with their Oaths and Blasphemies when they lived and when they are gone the Contagion spreads and their ill President meeting with corrupt Nature which inclines all Men to what is bad does convey its Venome to several others that they left behind What an Impression many times does an unbecoming Word leave upon the Hearer for many years after Much more does the Remembrance of an ill Example Thus their evil Works prove Factors for the Devil and inlarge his Kingdom when they are rotting in the Grave Whereas if you be zealous for God the remaining Flames of your Zeal may awaken some luke-warm and slothful Christian to do what you have done For he may thus argue If that holy Man prayed so hard and strove so much what cause have I to pray and strive for I have a Soul to save as well as he And as the Gate was strait to him so will it be to me and as 't is impossible to handle Perfumes without bearing away part of the scent so it should be to converse with you without savouring of your Goodness You should so live that others may reap the benefit of your holy Life when you are gone As the Earth does not lose the Vertue of its Beams when the Sun is set that Heat and Warmth and Vegetation which it has given to Herbs and Plants does remain and its Influence is felt when it is no longer to be seen thus you will be as Herbs and Flowers which when they are gathered are medicinal and yield juices healthful and necessary to the Body or as the Corn which when it is cut down is serviceable for Food and Nourishment Thus every Man may so contrive it that he may be serviceable to the World when he does not live in it any more Thus the Apostles spread a most diffusive Light by their Holiness and Doctrin which all the Malice of Hell and all the Rage of Tyrants has not been able to extinguish but though they shone with an extraordinary Brightness yet every Believer is a Child of Light every Believer is a Star of great use and benefit tho one Star differeth from another Star in Glory tho he be never so obscure yet he may be beneficial as a Pearl or a Diamond tho it be set in Lead does not cease to be of great Value Thus your Name will be as sweet Ointment delightful and dear to others Whereas if we be wicked we shall have the same Fate with Jehoram who died without being desired 2 Chron. 21. 20. Thus I say our Examples will do more good than many bare Instructions As Souldiers will be more animated and forward when they see one Example of couragious Fighting before their Eyes than by a thousand Rules that teach them the Policies and Designs of War Thus I have shewed you what Improvement those that are recovered and brought from the Grave ought to make of it and what mischief will ensue if they do it not and indeed it is a Mercy to the World that the Lives of ill Men are so short for as one hath lately observed the World is very bad as it is so bad that good Men scarce know how to spend fifty or sixty years in it but how bad would it probably be were the Life of Man extended to six seven or eight hundred years If so near a prospect of the other World as forty or fifty years cannot restrain Men from the greatest Villanies what would they do if they could as reasonably suppose Death to be at three or four hundred years off If Men make such Improvements in Wickedness in twenty or thirty years what would they do in hundreds and then what a blessed place would this World be And to excite you to be the more careful in the improving of your Sickness Let me add these three following Considerations Cons. 1. How many are dead since you were first ill How many excellent Ministers whom you must never hear again How many of your dearest Friends are now in the cold Grave with whom you cannot now discourse and whose Faces you shall never see till the Great Day Many have sunk in a Calm and several among us have outliv'd a Storm Many have perished with less pain and less violent diseases than those which some of us have had This should engage us to make suitable returns to that God who has spared us when he hath taken them away Cons. 2. This Improvement of our Sickness and Recovery will exempt us from the Number of those hateful People that are not only no better but a great deal worse when they are brought out of Distress than they were before and 't is generally thought that of a thousand People that make large Promises in their Sickness there are scarce fifty that keep their Word and perform their Vows when they are recovered Those good Purposes which they had were the Product of their Fears and when those are over their intended Goodness does also vanish away Cons. 3. This good Improvement of your new Life may ingage God to prolong your time to an honourable old Age. For though we can merit nothing at his Hands yet if we labour hard in his Service it may be he will not cause our Sun to go down at Noon but continue us in his Vineyard till the Evening of the Day I now proceed briefly to consider the fourth Verse Ver. 4. Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the Remembrance of his Holiness From these Words I shall insist on this Proposition That Person that has received wonderful Deliverance from Death ought not only to praise God himself but to excite and call upon others to praise God with him And all the Servants of God should be most willing to joyn in the return of thanks for any Mercy