gone riches are soon gone the life of man is soon gone the life of man is but a breath a vapour which is presently consumed but a glass of a brittle substance all our comforts are of a changeable nature that whereon we set our affection is taken from us in a moment Thus I have opened these two points now give me leave to make some use I will spare to speak to you of the occasion of our meeting together for Funeral Sermons are not for the advantage of the dead but for the instruction of the living there are two Uses that I will make of those two propositions I know many more may be produced but I consider the time The first Use is this Since great tryals may befal great Christians then let us prepare for great tryals for as much as such kind and degrees of affliction and crosses may besal us There are two things that a man should alwaies provide for one is while we live to provide for Death the other is while we are in prosperity to provide for affliction for a change and for this consider two things First our outward condition is but a shadow it hath a natural aptness to change there is not a person that hears me this day but this may concern his outward condition Man is born unto trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upward as if trouble were his natural sphear wherein he is to move Thou canst not assure thy self of life no not a moment nor of any of these outward comforts neither canst thou promise thy self security in any state or condition though thou maist get assurance that God wil save thee yet thou canst never get assurance that God will never try thee we see that Death enters into many houses of this City at this time in one house one hath lost a Father another hath lost a Wife another hath lost a Husband another hath lost a Child another is in sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and therefore we should provide for a change because the next commission of Death may enter into our houses it is our sins that puts our lives upon these conditions our sins do alwayes leave something contrary to our comforts to alter and change our present condition Death takes away our life and plucks away our comfort and dis-inherits us of all these outward things how soon doth Death lay honour in the dust how soon is beauty ecclipsed by deformity our strength laid down by weakness our health overcome by sickness our life overtaken by Death all these may ecclipse our comforts these clouds may soon darken our sun one thing or other every moment is ready to put out our candle to darken our day to cease our life alas what is life but a shadow What is honour but a blast what are the things we do so much pride our selves in they are but as Jonahs Gourd which perisheth in a moment and many times the cause of our sorrow and affliction the loss of them a greater griefe then the want of them this staffe on which we lean will soon be broken a Ship may last for a while but she will sink at the last What is the Wife mans verdict of all things under the Sun he concludes they are all vanity that is not enough they are nothing but vanity that is not enough neither they are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit things less then nothing then how little is it that we are to expect from them we should provide for a change not only our outward condition is thus changeable but our inward condition too our spiritual comfort is changeable though there is stability in the main yet a Christian meets with many intermissions Beloved if our condition were not changeable I would hold my tongue from exhorting you to provide for a change Secondly as our outward condition is cast upon many changes so when these changes do befal us when they come to strip us of our comfort verily they will put us to it Thou art mistaken thou thinkest thou canst bear a loss or a cross it is not so easie a matter to bear the loss of a Child or a Husband or a Wife or a Father or the loss of a dear friend it is not so easie a thing to bear the loss of an estate as thou thinkest thou shalt find it a hard matter to bear in worldly sorrow we may seem to take courage before affliction comes but when afflictions and trials fall upon us then we are put to it it is with us as with a Ship when the Sun doth shine and the Seas are calm and the Wind fair then she goes on pleasantly in her motion but in a storm all little enough to keep her steady in our easie dayes in our dayes of peace in our calm estate then we can hold up our heads well enough but in our losses and crosses we shall hardly bear up unless the Lord do mightily support us We may observe two sorts of persons in the world some are insensible persons who are like the Rock that nothing can break it who are so hardened that though God do scourge them yet they feel it not though God doth threaten them they fear not though Gods hand be already upon them they regard it not a condition not so much now to be checked as to be deplored To such persons it is all one whether God bless or whether God curse whether he speak by his Word or by his Rod it is all one to them they feel nothing nor fear nothing Secondly there is another sort of persons who are sensible persons sensible of Gods love and sensible of Gods anger they know that God is good and wife that he doth not strike off our comforts from us but upon some special cause Now to stay upon God and to yeeld to the Lord It is the Lord let him do what seems good unto him God doth not deprive me of such a comfort but he sees it best for me Beloved it were good to learn this lesson it will cost thee something in a neer trial to acquit thy self by faith to acquit God and to submit to his chastisement to kiss the rod to judg the sin to bend the soul to better the life this were an excellent lesson to learn in all our trials and afflictions Secondly if great trials may befall great Christiaus and faith is that which will make a man acquit himself in great trials then get faith use faith What faith is I have divers times discovered in this assembly whence it comes from heaven how we may attain it by the word and Prayer but to omit these I say get faith labour for this grace of faith if there were no other reason but this it is able to support us in our dayes of trial it is able to give us comfort in our greatest sorrow this were motive enough to make us labour to get faith the day of trial
of doing holy duties Would you be found praying pefunctorily and carelesly Would you be found coming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you do holy actions that are good for the matter would you be found doing of them with unfit and unprepared hearts You see what the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 11. For this cause many are sick and weak and many sleep they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore be found doing of holy duties and not in a right manner The serious consideration of this that Death is the end of all men with the particular application of it to a mans selfe that as it is the state of all men so it is mine in particular I must die and I may die now it hath an influence into all the actions of a mans life To conclude In the last place This point is of use to us also in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous not too doleful to any man We would not have our freinds to be in another condition in their birth then others we would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would we have them have more dayes Let this serve as a brief touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are useful to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore This will make the death of others bitter and will be worse than the death and losse of our freinds the guilt upon a mans conscience that he hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our freinds easie by making good use of them while they live It did smite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them think you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministry before Think with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian freind that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when freinds are took away we may have cause to thank God that we have had communion and confort of their fellowship and society the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death So much for that I come now to the second and principal reason why it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting it is this because the living shall lay it to his heart What shall he lay to his heart That that is the end of all mèn he shall lay the death of all men to heart The point I observe from hence is thus much It is the dutie of those that live to lay to heart the death of others That is seriously ro consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is clear for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that cometh to God Secondly in respect of the good that cometh to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when we lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods works in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seen he saith to the sons of Adam Return The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is he that hath the power of life and death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without the providence of God much lesse the servants of God the precious ones upon the earth the excellent ones as David calleth them I say God is seen much in these works and it is a great dishonour to God when men do not consider the works of his hands David by the spirit of prophesie in Psal 28.5 wisheth a curse upon ungodly men and for this reason among the rest because they consider not the operation of his hands this is that that puts men into a curst estate and exposeth them to the wrath of God when they regard not the works of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein we give God the glory of his wisdome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraignty and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when we labour to draw to a particular use to our selves the works of God in the world specially the death of men of all men good and bad for we must give it the same latitude and extent and scope that the Text doth here he speaks here of the death of men in general and he saith of all men that their death shall be laid to heart by the living Secondly as their is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that cometh to God thereby so in respect of our selves also much benefit cometh to our selves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three special things considerable in the death of any one that is matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them Therein we see the Certainty of Death Therein we see the Nature of Death Therein we see the Cause End of Death First therein we see the certainty of death For now we have not only the word of God that tels us that we shall die but the works of God taking others before us that as the Sacraments are called visible instructions because they teach by the eye and the outward senses so the death of others are visible instructions to the living it teacheth by the eye a man is guided by the eye to see his own condition and as it were in a glasse there is represented to him his own state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we do that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we do and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our works shall cease as theirs do when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certainty and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that
too he is a man that liveth to himself This was the case of the second and third grounds they received the seed with joy that is when they were sensible of comfort they followed Christ but afterward when persecution arose for the Gospel they fell off and took offence Such as these live to themselves they seem to live to God but it is to themselves and therefore when self-respects fail they fall off too Secondly take another instance for the clearing of it Suppose that not only sensible advantages fail but sensible disadvantages come in the world A man is sensible that he shall disadvantage himself much if he go on in the wayes of obedience to God It may be if he make conscience of his wayes he must make restitution of his estate unjustly gotten He must deny himself in a greater measure of pleasures that he hath unlawfully pursued He must empty himself in works of mercy and piety of a great part of his estate for the good of others that God may be glorified by his substance He shall lose some worldly friends some esteem among men Here are sensible disadvantages to a man Now the Question is what he resolveth to do Here is the command of God and here is the thing whereupon the heart of man and his affections are set upon disadvantages in the world These come together Here is an occasion for a lust a sinful affection to express it self If that be laid in the ballance and shall prevaile above the other that rather then I will endure disadvantage in the world I will neglect the way of serving God this party liveth to himself whatsoever good he did before in matters of religion all was done to himself I say when these two come together as you know when two men walk together and one servant followeth them a man knoweth not whose servant he is till they part but then when they part a stranger may know whose servant he is he followeth his own Master and leaveth the other So when God and the world go together God and a mans own advantages go together when their is nothing commanded but standeth with his own advantages so long a mans deceitful heart may flatter and delude and misguide him he may go on in a false perswasion and in a strong conceit that he is in Christ in a blessed estate But when these two part that I shall not only not advantage my self but sensibly disadvantage my self in outward things Here now I say the the Question is what a man doth If I resolve to cleave to my outward advantages and leave God and leave the wayes of God I live to my self A man that liveth to God you shall see it is otherwise with him as for instance David when he might have had the kingdome of Israel somewhat sooner by sin he would not do it his heart smote him for cutting off the â—…appe of Sauls garment though he might have gained the kingdome of Israel by it he would not lay his hands on the Lords anointed And what was the reason of it because he would not advantage himself by disobedience to God he would rather want himself What was the reason that Daniel when he saw he was in an apparent hazard not only of the loss of honour but of his life and that for the performance but of one duty prayer and that but for a short time yet would not omit it no not for a short time though he might by that not only have saved his life but kept his honour in the Court he prayed to God even at that time when he was forbidden Why so because he lived to God and not to himself Had Daniel lived to and sought himself more then God he would have dispensed with this and saved both his life and honour though he had offended God in that particular of omission But this is the disposition of a heart that is faithful and upright with God it will not dishonour God for the greatest advantage that can come to it self it will not neglect a duty to God whatsoever loss it have in the world Thirdly Take another instance whereby we may see what we intend in this tryall Let the will of God and the bent of a mans own will come in competition together God will have me leave this I will hold it God will have me forsake this I will keep it It is a comfort a wordly benefit I lose my comfort if I part with it He that now liveth to himself he will please his own will and be disquieted and vexed against Gods will that crosseth his But he that liveth to God will be contenâ—… that God should cross him in his will because he would glorisie God in his own will in his soveraignty in his purity in his holiness and justice c. See it in the case of Abraham Abraham had a strong love to Isaac and good cause yet nevertheless though he could see a comfort to himself in this son when God telleth him thou must sacrifice thy son Isaac when he had the revealed will of God Abraham now resolveth to shew that he lived to God and not to himself therefore he would part with any comfort of his life for God when he required it So David If the Lord will saith he he can bring me back that I shall see the Tabernacle and the Arkâ—… if not If he say I have no pleasure iâ—… thee loe here I am let the Lord do with me as seemeth good in his owneyes When the case is this when the will of God crosseth thy will what now prevaileth Doth the desire of having thy own will prevail against the desire of submitting to Gods will Doth it raise murmuring and impatiency of spirit So far thou livest to thy self Therefore consider this Here is an occasion now for a lust and a sinful affection to shew it self either a man may advantage himself in an evil course or he cannot but disadvantage himself in a good course or when God crosseth a man in that he desireth and delights in in the world That is the first tryal whereby a man may know whether he liveth to himself Secondly another tryal will be this Consider if their be any part of the truth of God of his revealed will that for self-respects thou art willing to be ignorant of least the knowledge of it should make the do somewhat to thy own disadvantage in this thou livest to thy self See this to be true in all that live to themselves Balaam though he profest that for a house full of gold he would not go beyond the word of the Lord yet notwithstanding he was willing not to take notice of Gods will but to go on rather to curse Johanan in Jer. 42. professeth deeply that he would obey the will of the Lord but when he understood the will of the Lord when it crost his will then saith he to Jeremy It is not the Lord that hath bid
Lord the Lord that sheweth judgment and righteousness upon the earth there is a mercy shewed to the creature but it is I that do it faith the Lord. If you meet with a merciful man God is merciful in that man If you meet with a bountiful man God is bountiful in that man If you meet with a man whose lips feed many God instructeth that man I say seeing all things we have though they have divers channels and pipes and conveyances whereby God conveyeth goodness and mercy to men yet nevertheless it is in God and from God we receive all let us therefore look upon every creature as instruments in Gods hand that can do us neither good nor hurt without him What good it doth it doth by the influence of the supream cause working by that creature let us so look upon and conceive of every creature Thus the Saints have done in all times Jacob when he saw Esau I have seen thy face as the face of God saith he He saw God in the face of Esau So in all good men we should say God is good in them This should make men not to seek themselves not to study men more then God not to study gain with men with the loss of God to please men with the displeasing of God but to venture the loss of all men that they may please God if they cannot keep men and God together For the affections of men are in Gods hand and he fashioneth and frameth them according to his own pleasure either to love or hatred as David observed in the case of Shimei God hath bid him curse Be convinced I say of this that if we get all the men in the world to be our freinds with the neglect of God if we get all the treasures and wealth of the world if a man were advanced to the Monarchy of the whole earth yet these things are more in Gods hand then in ours When a man hath wealth it is not in his own keeping riches have wings When a man hath favour God gives it not into his own keeping whatsoever we have it is secured to us by Gods protection and made good to us by his blessing Let this be our care and work therefore how we may live to God how we may enjoy God in the things we enjoy and possess God in all things we possess in the things we have still to keep God and that will keep our estates and names and comforts and lives and all That is the first Again secondly There are certain graces to be exercised if a man would not live to himself for indeed it is the property of a Christian and none else to live to God and not to himself and he doth it by vertue of those graces in his heart that empties him of himself and draws him to God therefore I say there are certain graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himself What are those First the knowledg of God in Christ Get a more full and particular and experimental knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefess of ten thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so we would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sons better then ten friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith he Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in Heb. 11. What made them live so to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himself by faith Moses for sook the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whome the world was not worthy wandred up and down in sheeps skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith works by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly we shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soul to Christ The love of Christ constraineth me faith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for we thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soul loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that for instruction Being convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinful estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possiblity of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and less to themselves A man simply censidered without any relation to others or dependance upon an another man he may please himself but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men he must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himself as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himself as a Christian and observe the good of the body he must carry himself as a member to do good to the whole Let every Christian labour to do this if he would have comfort to his soul that he doth not live to himself that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithful dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man faith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the souls of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their souls but when he saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to do men good with whether it be inward or outwards gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man any thing whereby I can be advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not
bodies the wider the gates of heaven stand open to receive their souls Besides the pretending their cause is Gods cause will in a manner legitimate the barest means in pursuance and prosecution thereof for though it be against Gods word to do evil that good may come thereof yet this old error will hardly be beaten out of the heads and hearts of many men that crooked waies are made direct by being directed to a straight end and the lustre of a bright cause will reflect a seeming light on very deeds of darkness used in tendency thereunto This hath been an ancient stratagem of the worst men great Politicians to take piety in their way to the advancing of their desences Thus Rabshakeh pretended a Commission from God for all the wickedness he committed and complements blasphemy Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it the Lord said to me Go up against this place to destrey it The Priests of Bell were but bunglers which could not steal the meat of their Idol but they must be discovered by the print of their foot-steps Men are grown more cunning thieves now adaies first they will put on the shooes of him they intend to rob and then steal that so their treadings may tell no tales to their disadvantage They will not stride a pace nor go a step nor stir a foot but all for Gods cause all for the good and glory of God Thus Christ himself was served from his cradle to his cross Herod who sought to kill him pretended to worship him and Judas kissed him who betrayed him By these arts and divices it cometh to pass that wicked men prolong themselves into heir wickedness Traiterous Zimri indeed continued but seven daies that was not long wicked Jehojachin reigned but three months in Jerusalem that was not long ungodly Amon reigned two years in Jerusalem that was not long idolatrous Ahab reigned in Samaria twenty and two years that was indifferent long cruel Herod the King who sought to kill Christ reigned in Judea well nigh forty years that was long indeed he prolonged himself to purpose in his iniquity Seeing therefore to recollect what hath been said the righteous hath most foes the wicked many friends the righteous free from the wicked full of jealousies the righteous too often over-careless the wicked over-careful in his defence the righteous limited onely to lawful the wicked left loose to any means for his own advantage No wonder if it often cometh to pass that the righteous man perisheth in his righteousness and the wicked prolongeth his life in his wickedness Come we now to the abuses which wicked men make of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And here the whole kennel of Atheists come in with a full cry oh that there were no more of them on earth then there are in hell where torture makes them all speak truth spending their wicked breath against God and his attributes Some bark at his Provedence as if he perceived not these things How doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high Others cavil at his justice that he has no mind others carp at his strength that he has no power to rectifie and redress these enormities This world say they is a ship without a pilot steered onely with the windes and wayes of casualty it is a meer lottery wherein the best man dayly draw the blanks and the worst run away with the prizes And as Absolom boasted if he were king of Israel how far he would out-do David in right managing of all matters so these impudent wretches conceive with themselves the Plat form of the world hath been more persect might they have been admitted to the making thereof The Moon would have shined without any spots Roses grow without any Prickles fair weather should never have done harm because rain should only fall in the night neither to hinder the pleasure of the rich or hurt the profit of the poor Merit should be made the onely standard of preferment no perishing of the righteous man in his righteousness when success should onely be entailed on desert In a word such Atheists presume all things by them should be so prudently disposed that nothing no doubt in the whole world should be out of order save themselves More might be spoken to heighten and prove the objection but I am afraid to persist further therein It is not onely dangerous to be but even to act an Atheist though with intent to confute their errour for fear that our poisons pierce further then our antidotes But in answer to this objection know that God without the least prejudice to his justice may suffer the righteous man to perish in his righteousness because allow him righteous justicia cause he is not so justicia persone the best man standing guilty of many faults and failings in his sight God needs not pick a quarrel with any man having at all times matter of a just controversie against him And seeing God hath oftentimes connived at him being faulty he may condemn him being faultless for mullum tempus occurrit Regi the King of heaven is not limited to any time but at his own pleasure and leasure may take an opportunity to punish an offender Secondly grant that the cause of the righteous man was just in the primitive constitution thereof yet if it branch it self forth into numerous circumstances appendant thereunto many whereof may be intricate and perplext if it be of so spacious and ponderous a nature that it requires many heads and hands as subordinate instruments in several places for the managing thereof Lastly if the cause be so prolix and tedious that many years must be spent in the prosecution thereof the original righteousness of the cause may be already with the handling of it and much injustice annexed thereunto for which God may justly cause it finally to miscarry For it is possible that a cause consisting of such variety of limbs retaining thereunto should be carried on without many grand errours and mistakes committed therein and the righteousness of the best men will not spread so broad without shrinking stretch so long without tyring apply it self so exactly to each circumstance without some swerving therein Especially when all the faults of the inferior officers employed under him are chargeable on the righteous mans account the matter of whose cause may justly perish by Gods just anger on the unjust managery thereof Yea God without the least blemish to his Justice may suffer the righteous temporally to perish in his righteousness because in the midst of their sufferings his mercy supports them with the inward comfort of a clear conscience In the time of persecution a woman being big with child was imprisoned and condemned to die which the night before her execution was I cannot say brought to bed delivered of a child when her pain wanting the help of a midwife must be presumed
unthankfulness What greater enmity Therefore it was the speech of that parrabolical King in Luke 19. which is Christ the King of the Church these mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Such is the state of all those men that have wealth and abuse it consume it upon their lusts as Saint James speaks upon their pride in excess in apparel meats c. that have wit and spend it like Turtullus to cry down the wayes of God to harden themselves and others in the course of sin that have greatness and authority and mis-imploy it to the crushing of good persons and good causes these and the like are Stewards that abuse their Masters goods mis-imploy them to his dishonour these Christ counteth his enemies and he will not bear it There is a third thing that God expects of all his Stewards and that is this that they should do him Homage that they should appear at his Court dayes Gods Sabbaths are Gods Court dayes wherein he calleth and assembleth his servants together He will have every one to wait there upon him that they may know his will as Cornelius bringeth his family together and saith he We are all present to hear what is commanded thee of God So God I say will have his servants present at his Court dayes and not only so not only to be present there to here his will and to understand his mind but to submit to his orders to yeeld obedience to his Laws to be governed by his rules God hath certain rules to which he will have every man subject there be rules for Magistrates for Ministers for Masters for Parents for Servants for Children for all and he is a rebel and carrieth not himself as Gods Steward that doth not keep the rules that God hath set up in his own house Again fourthly God expects this from all his Stewards that whensoever he sendeth his Bayliffs for rent that they return him the fruit of his own ground Every soul is Gods ground from which God expects some fruit or other and he sends his Bayliffs his Servants continually to gather these fruits from men When he sends a poor man to the rich there 's a Bayliff sent to him to gather some fruit of his wealth When he sends an oppressed man to those that are in authority there 's a Bayliff sent to him to gather the fruit of his power and greatness When he sends an ignorant man to those that have wisdom and knowledg there 's a Bayliff sent to him to gather the fruit of his Knowledge And so we may say of all things whatsoever whatsoever endowments of body or mind or estate any man hath if another need it that other is Gods Bayliff sent to him to call for his rent to call for the fruit of his ground and thou must return it by such a one for thou art but a Steward and you know how fearful the proceedings of the great King was in Matt. 21. He sent his servants to the Husbandmen to those to whom he had let out his ground to receive the fruits of it and there was none what was the issue of it He was full of wrath and cometh upon the Husbandmen and slew them So when God shall send the poor to thee for relief and thou helpest him not shall send the ignorant to thee for instrustion and thou informest him not shall send any one to thee that may have use of thy gifts and abilities and thou doest not imploy them that way thou deniest the great Lord the fruit of his own ground and art of the number of those Husband-men that must expect this at his hands to be slain in his wrath Ye see the Point opened That all men are Gods Stewards both in respect of what God hath bestowed on them and what God doth expect from them I come briefly now to make some use of this Are all men Gods Stewards Then certainly there is some work required of every man in the world by vertue of this title put upon him that he is Gods Steward It concerns therefore Every one to look to his place There are two things required of every Steward First a dispensation Secondly a right ordering of his dispensations First a Dispensation For a Steward ye know is appointed for laying out he is made for others not for himself for the good of the Family in which he is set not for his own benefit God hath made every creature to be for the use of others and not for it self those heavenly bodies the Sun and Moon and Stars their motion and influences are for us for the service of the world the Earth with the fruits of it the Beasts and all are for the service of man So every man in his several place hath some work to do for others some abilities given him for the service of others Hence it is that the Magistrate is said to be the Minister of God for the peoples good Hence it is that Ministers are said to be the servants of the Churches I am a debtour saith Paul to the Jew and to the Gentiles to the Greeks and to the Barbarians Hence it is that a Master of a Family is said to be worse than an Infidel if he provide not for those of his own house And every other Christian though he stand not in these relations to others he hath some gifts or other that are to be laid forth for the use and advantage of others and every private person in the world he may be of some use or other in the place in which he is set Hence it is that the name of Brother is common to all Christians and ye know Joseph acknowledged that he was preferred to those honours and that authority and place for the good of his Brethren for his Fathers house so should all Gods ' people acknowledge other Christians their Brethren and that whatsoever parts they have they have them for the good of the Family Hence it is that Christians are called Members one of another Every Member is of use to the whole body so must every Christian be of use to another to some by the riches of the body to some by the riches of the mind to some by the abilities of their estates every one according to the treasure he is intrusted with and the Talent that is committed to him This is the first thing that men must make conscience to do to be dispencers of their goodness of any thing they have to be communicative to defuse and extend themselves to others as occasion shall be offered And indeed where there is any goodness in a man he will express it this way by doing all the good to others he can Secondly it is required of a Steward that he consider of the manner and right ordering of his dispensations There be two Rules for that That he
such a house By the house of feasting he meaneth not only such a house wherein there is feasting but also all manner of abundance as commonly men shew their wealth in feasting By the end of all men he meaneth that which the Schools calls the end of termination Now there is a twofold end of termination as they speak either Positive or Privative A Positive end as a point is the end of a line and an instant is the end of time because the line resolveth it selfe into a point at last and all time resolveth it self at last into an instant A Privative end and that is that that causeth a cessation of beeing that is the end of action wherein all the work and invention and enterprizes of a man cease Of such an end here he speaks such an end of a man as that he ceaseth to be as he was upon earth and ceaseth to do as he did upon earth By laying to heart he meaneth more then a bare konwing or a bare observing and taking notice of things There is to be understood here a serious pondering an often considering of it as it is said of Marie She layed those sayings to heart and so Iacob he layed the sayings of Joseph to heart It is such a serious considering and pondering and discussing of every thing as they may bring it to some use may draw some fruit and benefit out of it to themselves So that the summe and substance of the words is thus much It is a better thing for a man to be conversant about the thoughts of death and to take hold of all occasions that may bring the serious consideration thereof into his heart then to delight himselfe in those worldly pleasures and sensual delights wherein for the most part men spend their lives The reason is because their is some benefit that ariseth thereby to the inward man some advantage gained to the soule whereas by the other there is none at all there is much hinderance and hurt but no furtherance and benefit The words then you see consist of a Proposition And a proof or confirmation of that Proposition The Proposition It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting The confirmation or proofe of it is double first because this is the end of all men secondly because the living will lay it to his heart This latter part is that which I purpose most to insist upon In the former He calleth the house wherein any one dies the house of mourning It is better to go to the house of mourning Where you see That the Death of men with whom we live is a just occasion of mourning to some The holy Ghost would not have described the house wherin a man dies in this manner if their were not some equity and justice in mourning upon such an occasion For he speaks not here as I conceive only with reference and respect to the common custome of natural and worldly men but with respect to the natural disposition and affection that is in the heart of man and the equity of the thing There should be mourning and there is in it a just occasion when men are taken away by death When Sarah died the text saith that Abraham came to mourn for Sarah to weep for her And Esau when he speaks of the death of his father Isaac he calleth the time of his death the time of mourning the dayes of mourning for my father are at hand So Ioseph when his father was dead it is said that he mourned for his father seven dayes When Samuel was dead all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him When Iosiah was dead there was such a great lamentation for him that it became a pattern of excessive mourning In that day there shall be a great mourning in Ierusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Our Saviour Christ when he looked upon Lazarus he wept because he was dead And those Ephesians this was it that broke their hearts they sorrowed most of all for the words which S. Paul spake that they should see his face no more I need not stand upon the proof of the point There is great reason for it first if we respect men in their usefulnesse to others There is no man but is of some use and so farre as a man is useful to another there is just ground of mourning for the losse of such a one Therefore David he mourned for the death of Saul though he was a wicked man because he was useful in his time by way of goverment And as there is more usefulnesse so there is more cause of mourning as we see in the death of Samuel and Iosiah and others Secondly because when those that are useful are taken away a man seeth some effects partly of his own guilt and partly of Gods displeasure Of his own guilt If those die that are evil that he did not do them that good that he might while they lived he did not converse so profitably as he might have done to further their spiritual good If they be good and gracious that he received not benefit by them that he did not mannage the opportunities as he might have done to have made that use of their society and conference of their prayers and spiritual helps of all those gifts and endowments that they had And as in the defect so likewise in the excesse there is guilt When a man idoliseth the creature too much and trusteth too much to the arm of flesh when he setteth too great a price upon men he may apprehend the displeasure of God taking away his brother that was as it were a curtain that stood between God and him taking away those that hid God from his eyes Upon these occasions and grounds the servants of God have reflected upon themselves seeing the death of others that are near and dear unto them and have drawn from thence matter and cause of mourning Nay it is a thing that the Lord looks for Thou hast smitten them and they have not grieved When God takes away any that are usefull to us there is a smiting and a correction in it even to those that live to those that were intimate and inward with him and God expects that men should mourne and grieve for it I briefly note this for I intend not to stand upon it against that Stoicall Apethy that stupidity I cannot say whether it have seized on the spirits of men or whether men affect it in themselves but they account this a matter of praise a vertue praise-worthy to see nothing doleful nothing worthy of mourning in the death of any one We see it is quite contrary to the very course of the Scripture But it will be objected We are bid to mortifie our earthly affections and if we must mortifie our affections we must mortifie all our
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
men We shall see the servants of God themselves have discovered this weakness of spirit specially upon sudden apprehensions of things Abraham upon the sudden and violent apprehension of Death was put to a sinful shift I thought saith he the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake therefore I said this is my sister So Samuel when God sent him to anoynt David he discovered this weakness If Saul should know what I am a doing he will slay me therefore he desired to have some other message under the colour whereof he might put Saul off So Peter out of a sudden apprehension of death and fear of it he denyed his Master This weakness of spirit is in man naturally Further there is another thing that causeth this natural fear and that is the unacquaintedness men have with Death there is somewhat in this matter that is strange to men notwithstanding they hear and see many die before them daily they hear things spoken of by the Minister and they read the Scripture many excellent comforts but who hath seen these what becometh of these men they see Death the strict Porter of the world let men out of the earth but he locks the door of the Grave upon them and none cometh back again to tell what is done in that place of silence to tell what is become of men when they are in the Grave how they speed in that world of souls there is no man returneth from the dead to report these things to them Now this affecteth the natural man nay all men naturally are affected with the fearful apprehension of death because they know not what will come after as the natural man speaks in Ecclesiastes When Joram set out a watch-man to see what was abroad and spied an army coming he sent a servant but Jehu biddeth him go behind him he sendeth another and he goeth behind him still saith he I see the men go but they come not back the Text saith he was afraid Make ready the Chariot saith Joram If this be the issue that men go but never come back again it is high time to look about us Certainly beloved such are the apprehensions of death We see men saith the natural man go down to the Grave and not come back again we see that a man ceaseth to be and to do those actions that we do when we are upon the earth therefore let us consider the matter more seriously When the Captain of the fifty that came to the Mount to Elijah saw the two former Captaines and their companies consumed saw that they were all dead that they ceased to be but he saw not what became of them afterward therefore he cometh with fear to the Prophet and intreateth him that his life might be precious in his sight All strange things we know affect men and every thing as it is more strange so it more affecteth man naturally Let there but come a beast out of the Wildernesse assoon as ever he cometh unto a man and seeth him he flieth from him because he is not used to the sight of man it is strange to him but now take a beast that is brought up in the pasture in the field he will come to a man without fear because he is used to the sight of him So it is here Death is apprehended as a strange thing as a thing that a man never knew by experience Men have seen thus much that people have died but they never heard of any that came back again to tell them how it fared with them after death This I say that men should go to the place of silence and have all matters hushed all things kept secret down there there cometh no report thence this affecteth men with fear These are the natural causes Secondly there are other causes within that affect men with the fear of death and those are sinful causes First the want of the fear of God and as this is lesse so the fear of death is more Therefore we shall find that wicked men that cast off the fear of God in their lives they are slavishly held under the fear of death this you shall see in those examples of Belshazzar a man that set himself with a high hand against God went on in a contemptuous course against God and prophaned the holy vessels when there was a hand writing upon the wall some terrible thing presented to him his knees smote together he could not hold his joynts still And so Felix a man that lived without the fear of God when he heard of judgment and other things the text saith he trembled and so likewise Cain and divers others I need not stand on it It was one of the Judgments threatned in part Deut. 28. Because thou dost not fear the the Lord thy God therefore wheresoever thou goest thou shalt find no ease neither shall the sole of thy foot have any rest but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee that is thou shalt be in continual fear of death and thou shalt fear day and night and shall have none assurance of thy life in the Morning thou shalt say would God it were Even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning because of the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see This is the first thing Secondly another thing is this when mens hearts are too much glued to the world and mark it according as there is worldly affections and worldly-mindedness in the the hearts of Gods servants so the feare of Death is more in them according to the strength of the one is the fear of the other What is it that disquieteth men ordinarily and makes them that they cannot think of Death with comfort but this now they must lose their company part with all their freinds when they die once Hezekiah complained of that I shall see man no more saith he with the inhabitants of the world This I say is that that affecteth the heart exceedingly that they must lose all their freinds specially when husband and wife must part parents and children must part and familiar and deare acquaintance must part this causeth the fear of death because the heart is too much set upon the creature So likewise worldly business when a man loveth much employment much business he cannot abide to think of death Why so because all work all enterprises cease in the grave as Job saith A man hath neither the works of his hands nor the enterprises of his head in the grave all actions cease both of the mind and body there So when a mans heart is set upon pleasures below there is neither love nor hatred in the grave saith Solomon That is those things that affected the heart that men love they cease there all his pleasures and
Death and therefore when by faith he looks upon Christ and through him upon Death he looks upon that as a thing made instead of poison a medicine instead of a destroyer a Saviour and deliverer as a means to free him from the bondage of sin and misery and afflictions c. Thirdly Doth God do this that he may make men more holy and watchful in their course then certainly the more thou canst purge out thy sin in the course of thy life the less thou shalt fear death The sting of Death is sin then if thou wilt have Death comfortable let thy life be conformable to Gods rule and word or else every sin will present it selfe in death before thee specially those sins thou allowest thy self in will make Death as bitter as Hell Fourthly Doth God do it for this end that he may make thee better prepared for death Then the more thou art prepared for Death beforehand the less thou shalt fear it when it cometh upon thee it will not come as a stranger but thou wilt be ready to receive it as one with whom thou art acquainted already It is a great matter if men could learn this wisdome to die daily that is be every day imployed as dying daily I mean for the manner of your carriage not for the matter for the substance of the duty If a man were sure to die this day he would lay aside all business and set himself to be prepared for judgment and would lay aside the use of any other comforts and delights But this is not the meaning but this that we carry our selves in business every day as if death should seize upon us in that business that we might be found well-doing that is when a man followeth his earthly business with a heavenly mind when he keepeth to the rule of righteousness and truth in his ordinary calling when he is doing or receiving good in his company when he useth his pleasures and recreations as the whet-stone to the Sithe to make him fitter for God I say when thus we do things to a right end and in a right manner if Death now should seize upon us in such an action it should find us well-doing And this is that we perswade you to if you would have death comfortable and not tertible be so imployed as that your actions may be good both for matter and forme that you are now about because Death may stricke you in such an action But I cannot stand on these particulars Again for the causes in our selves If you would be freed from the terrours of Death then rectifie your apprehensions and opinions of Death think of it as it is as it is I say to beleevers to those that are in Christ It is not the destruction of nature and so a natural Ill as you account it It is rather a cure of nature for assoon as ever we live we are dying and all our life it is but a living death a continual decaying and dying Now when death cometh it putteth an end to all the decayes of nature and setteth all right again It is but a sleep and sleep it is not a destruction but a help of the body and that which inableth to vigour and strength and fitnesse to action Again it is not the distruction of any part of a man the body it self is not destroyed indeed it is in the Grave but it is in the grave as in a bed of peace They shall come and rest in their beds saith the Prophet The grave is but as a bed wherein the body lies asleep and no man you know is troubled with fear that he goeth to bed The grave is but as Gods chest to keep in all his Treasure whereof the bodies of his servants are a part precious to him even in the grave in death Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and God will open this Cabinet and the Chest of the Grave in the great day of the Resurrection and bring the body out again and then it shall be as good as ever it was nay I say not only as good but much better too for our vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ Phil 3. No man when he goeth to bed thinks much to have his old cloathes taken off that they may be mended and made better against morning When we sleep in the Grave it is no more but this the garment of the soul the body the old apparel that is taken off that it may be made better and a more glorious body this is all we lose nothing by it but our estates even our bodily estate is bettered by it And for the Soul Death doth not destroy that neither for know this the soul liveth for ever the bodie indeed returneth to the Earth as it was but the soul returneth to God that gave it The soul I say liveth that is the thing that Christ himself proveth in 22. Mat. Abraham is alive why so for God is not the God of the dead but of the living for God said I am the God of Abraham c. How can this be that God is the God of Abraham and yet he is dead Indeed he is dead if we looke to the separation of the soul and body in the cessation of bodily actions but if we looke to the better part of Abraham his soul that continueth the everliving God hath made an everlasting Covenant with him and therefore he dieth not Again it is not only not the destruction of nature but not of your actions neither Death doth not destroy them neither Indeed there is a cessation of bodily actions but it is that the body may have better strength and be the fitter instrument of holiness after But for those actions of the soul that depend not upon the body they are as perfectly done when we are dead as when we are alive and better too When a man liveth upon the earth you see his soul is much hindered by the body A distempered sick crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hinderance to the soul because of that tie that is between the body and the soul and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soul is affected somewhat in this sense But it is not so then the soul shall be loosed from the body and so freer for spiritual actions then now it is The souls under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The souls of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more prefectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their souls are in these mortal bodies And at that very instant when the soul of Cods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love
why is thy conntenance fallen Or as that great King said to Nehemiah Why is thy countenance sad So if men would put the question to themselves concerning their affections as concerning love why do I set my heart upon such and such things and so likewise concerning their sorrow and anger and every thing Why is it thus As Rebecca said when the children did strive in her womb so when there is a conflict of passion in the soul against reason since it is so why am I thus Who art thou that fearest mortal man saith Isaiah to the Church If men I say did thus they would not break out into such exorbitancy of passions as commonly they do The way then to order any affection aright is to reduce it to the principles of sanctified and rectified reason and judgement Let reason be guided by the Word of GOD and let the affections be ordered by that reason so rectified Thus it was with man in the state of innocency and experience telleth us that in the state of corruption all disorder cometh from the want of this subordination of the affections to reason in their several actions and motions When a man goes hood-wink'd up and down he is in danger of stumbling and falling into one hole or other this is for a man to walk in darknesse then a man-walketh in darknesse when he is not guided in all his actions and affections by the light of truth shining in his understanding A man should therefore strive to check himself and to suffer others to check him Why is it thus If a man cannot give a cause and a reason it is a passion to be rejected a distemper o be repented of This is the first thing He saw no reason therefore he would not do it The second is this It was altogether bootlesse Why should I fast I cannot bring him back again He meaneth bring him back again to live on the earth So Job meaneth when he speaks in the same manner If a man die shall he live again he cannot be brought again to live and converse among men The point I note hence is this That all the actions and opportunities of this life cease in death There is no calling of them back again No bringing of a man back to take new opportunities to enioy the comforts he hath lost and to make use of the means he hath neglected and to redeem the time he hath slackly let passe When the request was put to Abraham by Dives that some might come from the dead to tell his brethren upon earth where he was No faith he that request shall never be granted that a man should come from the dead to give warning to the living much lesse that a man himself should return from thence to begin upon a new score a new reckoning to have a new time appointed when that time is past over They have Moses and the Prophetes let them hear them God hath appointed the means and a time to use the means Now they have Moses and the Prophets After this life they shall have none of these means no time of using them The child shall not come back again nor the man shall not come back again Death is a strict door-keeper all that passe out that way the door is shut on them they shall never return back We read of many several Ages that have gone to the place of silence we never read of any that came thence to tell what is done there we never heard of any yet that came back again to reform his course A friend with all his prayers and tears cannot bring back a friend that is dead It teacheth us a point of wisdom to make good use of our time the time of grace we have We draw neerer death every day then other and when once we are dead we shall never be brought back again upon the earth If a man had all the world and would give it to obtain an hours time upon earth to do what he neglected before he cannot have it therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts yet a little while and you shall have the light saith Christ while ye have the light walk in the light Make use of the means of grace the time may come when ye may wish as Dives is described to wish that some body much more that you your selves might come from the dead Certainly if those in Hell were to come from the dead again though it were to live a hundred years on earth a holy strict and concionable life to watch over all their wayes to keep a good conscience towards God and men they would not omit a duty nor slight a duty they would not omit an opportunity a minute but spend their whole life in working out their salvations with fear and trembling they would sleep and awake with fear lest they should sin they would be careful that they had no sinful thought they would be patterns of the strangest expressions of conformity to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this do you that now which they wish for and wish in vain make use of the time of grace now there is no coming back again afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall go to him As if he should have said I have another business in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall return to him Return signifieth to go back to a place where one was before So David shall return to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soul where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soul to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soul cometh from God and returns to God again Therefore he saith here I shall return to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their principles the body to the earth and the soul to God they are said to return Ye see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest business he hath to do on earth is to prepare for death His business is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the main business of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and be fitted for death for I am going thither We should observe the death of others to stir us up to a serious preparation for our own death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes
me shall never see death He meaneth to hurt himselfe Again This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Son And He that hath the Son hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that he might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at liberty that all their life-time were in bondage under the fear of death And Saint John saith He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil which are sin and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying he slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man he offered himself to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Cross so satisfied the justice of God on the behalf of all those that are in him that death can do them no harm It is nothnig else but a passage to eternal blessedness Oh blessed be the name of God that hath been pleased to provide so perfect a remedy against so mortal an enemy and to lay it open so clearly and plainly in the Gospel Ye have heard of those things that I thought to put you in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemy Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certain sting it hath Oh death where is thy sting It is an armed enemy it cometh as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soul putteth it to exream perplexity if he taks not order to disarm this enemy An enemy ye know is a person that setteth himself wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisedness against his will or he may lay wait to do him hurt intending misceif and seeking to peforme somewhat that shall be injurious to him We call not him an enemy that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and before-hand desireth to be an enemy Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremity before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficial and comfortable to rob him of all that is contentful to him in this life As when a company of Foes break into a Nation they burn their goods and spoyle their houses and rob and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemy It desireth to bereave a man of that necessary contentment he hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoon as he is dead he ceaseth to be a great scholler It cometh to a rich man and robs him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it cometh to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crown off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust he is King no longer when he is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it devideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford Death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as he came he must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemy for he spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemy also in inflicting a great deal of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxiety and vexation of body and mind unless he have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his own proper nature it is so furious an enemy that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soul into the presence of God and after from his Tribunal to the torment of eternal fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its own nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sin and therefore must needs he the perdition and overthrow of the soul For sin bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angry with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seeks to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappiness therefore it is an enemy So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemy after which there shall be no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feel death to be the last of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedy to these and these alone death is the last enemy after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemy they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyl and misery to a good man after death And why Because death separateth sin from his soul as well as the soul from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away misery and unhappinesse it self Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Jesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happiness in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sin and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it self and sin and therefore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sin Therefore it is the last enemy because it killeth the worst of our enemtes for when we are dead there shall be no more enmity between God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemy shall be destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when its self ceaseth to be and it took out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it
evil to good to the best good the good of immortaity and eternity the good of the enjoying of God of that that eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard It is true that when we see any impenitent man die any man die in his sins there is just cause of mourning That was the course that David observed he lost two sons Absolom a wicked sonne he mourned for him he lost the child that was begotten in adultery for the life of which he prayed he mourned not for the childs departure and Saint Ambrose giveth the reason well he had a good hope and assurance that the child was translated to a better estate he doubted of Absolom he died in his sins therefore he mourned for him for his death not for the childs So when we see any die in his fins there is cause then of tears and of excessive tears then David crieth Absolom oh my son my son But if there be good evidences of a Saint translated to glory shall we mourn as men without hope As Saint Jerome speaks to Paula mourning for her daughter Art thou angry Paula because I have made thy child mine He bringeth in God speaking thus dost thou envy me my own possession my own Creature It is true for the state of an impenitent man he hath his good things here and his evill to come after there is cause of mourning for that he is translated from good to ill his heaven is in this world his heaven is in his treasure in his riches in his chests and upon his table and as he enjoyed a heaven here so he must not look for it after there is a place of another condition his heaven is here his hell after But the penitent and contrite his ill is here and his good after his hell is in this world in suffering and in mortifying the flesh in wrastling with sin in incountring with tentations here is his hell and his torments but after cometh his heaven and his bliss so he is translated from bad to good he is took away from the evil to come So here is the meaning of all I have shewed first the meaning of the three phrases The second thing I propound is this What the Prophet bemoaneth and makes lamentation for and these merciful men for if they be took away from evil present and evil to come evil corporal and spiritual sufferings extraordinary plague and famine sufferings ordinary sickness and tentation â—… if it be so that no sin shall fall upon them to destruction no tentation fall on them to destroy them here much less afterward if they be took from all these evils how cometh the Prophet to make lamentation that merciful men are taken away from the evil to come for he speaks it mourningly It is one sufficient reason he mourneth over them because others did not But there are two reasons that are more special There is the loss of the godly man for the present when he is taken away that is a thing to be lamented And the danger of the world in respect of the loss of a godly man First the loss of a godly man that is a great punishment that God sendeth on a place there is a great loss to those that survive The loss of their example they shine as lights there is a Taper a Candle taken away Ye rejoyced to walk in his light faith Christ to the Iewes concerning John there was a light not only of Johns Doctrine but of his example whereby those that heard him walked There is the light of grace set up in the life of the Saints of God they are as a Taper to guide us in the paths of mercy and piety that they tread in Job was set up a light of patience Abraham of faith Cornetius of Charity and so every grace that the Saints are eminent in they are set up as so many lights When the light is gone is there not a great loss to have a candle put out Though they enjoy their light we lose it the benefit of their example and society their advice and counsel Oh the experience of the Saints bring a great deal of good to their acquaintance I am in this affliction I remember that you were in the same case how did you carry your self It is a great matter to build upon the experiences of the Saints of God We lose many benefits by losing of a Saint He is not only beneficial in his example but in his prayers He is one of the Advocates of the world that pleads with God that stands in the gap Abraham was a strong Advocate for Sodome and so was Moses for Israel and so was Aaron and so other Saints in their time The Saints while they live in the world there is a great deal of power in their prayers to with-hold judgements and is there then no loss when they are taken away When a Saint is removed a Pillar is removed a Pillar of the house and of the Earth and must there not be danger when the Pillar is gone They are the Corner stones when a corner stone falleth there is a great deal of trash and rubbish falleth with it There is a great deale of discomfort upon the fall of a Saint When God removeth godly and merciful men there is a loss every way to the Church to the State The Church loseth a member the State a Pillar godly men lose an example wicked men lose an advocate poor men lose a Patron all men lose a comfort That is the fitst thing the Prophet bemoaneth in the loss of righteous men First it went to his heart that the world should be left empty of piety and all those vertuous examples that God should cut off those precious plants those that are looking-glasses for us to see our selves in and that pitch of perfection we should breath after and aime at That is the first thing But that is not all for their was impendant danger when they were gone It is a prognosticating of some evil to befal a place when God takes them away If Noah enter into the Ark the world may expect a deluge If Lot be out of Sodome let it look for a showr of fire and brimstone God himself expresseth himself by the Angel that he could do nothing as long as Los was in Sodome he had a commission not to rain fire and brimstone while Lot was there while Lots person and prayers were there assoon as Lot was gone there cometh a cloud of Judgment and in that a showre So the Saints when they are translated into the Ark when they are took from the earth as Noah was Noah was to ascend from the earth to the Ark when Lot is gone to the City God provided for him the City of refuge then we may expect one Judgment or other for they are means to hinder and keep them from being poured out That is the second thing in the loss of righteous men They are took
rotten name that stinks while he liveth yet he would live still Yea and not only wicked men do make many base shifts to live they have their portion in this life no wonder therefore they do it but even Gods best children that look for a better life then this when this ended are not willing to part with this life if they could keep it Do you not remember how David pleaded for life Oh let me live that I may praise thy Name oh spare me a little before I go hence and be no more Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall and wept oh shall the grave give thanks unto thee or shall the dead celebrate thy praise No Vivens vivens it is the living it is the living that must praise thee as I do this day I know indeed that sometime you shall find some of Gods children wishing for death Job My soul hath chosen strangling and death rather then my self Lord I pray thee saith Moses kill me out of hand and let me not see my wretchedness Elijah when he fled from Jezable for his life Lord quoth he take away my life for I am not better then my fathers He was not willing that Jezable should take away his life but he would have God to take it away You know Jonah his pettish mood that he was in when he would needs think to know what was better for him then God himself doth Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee for it is better for me to dic then to live These men of God they were sons of men they had their passions as other men have and passion was never good judge between life and death I know again that there is question made by Job Wherefore is light given to a man that is in misery and life to the bitter in soul Such a man I confess that hath bitterness of soul he may happily seek for death as for treasures and be glad when he hath found the grave But let God be but pleased a little to allay that bitterness let him but lay up that bitter pill in sugar a little and then he will like life well enough Why do we all this while go from my Text Surely there be so many voyces upon earth against it that if there were not a voyce from heaven to say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord we should scarce beleeve it But then if the dead be blessed why do we not die that we may be blessed There is such a like Question of Scipio in that same book of Tullies Somnium Scipionis Scipio asked his Father when his father had told him of those glories that the soul enjoyed in immortality Why saith he do I tarry thus long upon the earth why do not I hasten to die The schollers of Eugesius when they heard their Master dispute of the immortality of the soul went and laid violent hands upon themselves that they might go to that immortality And so Cato Uticensis after he read Platoes books of the Immortality of the Soul made away himself Many such examples there have been And I find often-times in your bills many that have laid violent hands upon themselves some that cut their own throats and some that hang themselves I pray give me leave a little to speak upon this Saint Austin tells me of five causes for which persons do usually lay violent hands upon themselves The first is this Some do it to avoid some shame or some dishonour or misery or beggery that shall befall them Thus did Achitophel when he saw that his counsell was defeated he went home and hanged himself Thus have many done to avoid shame and dishonour Alas poor wretches While they seek to escape temporal punishment they run into eternal like our fishes in the proverb out of the frying-pan into the fire into hell fire where the worm dieth not and where the fire never goeth out Secondly some have done it to avoid the terrors of a guilty conscience Thus Judas troubled in conscience after he had betrayed Christ he went and hung himself Poor wretch He had more need he had lived that he might have healed that sin of his by repentance This is not a way to expiate thy sin this is a way to increase it Judas when he killed himself he killed as wicked a man as was upon the earth and yet he shall answer to God aswell for that nocent bloud of his own that he spilt as he shall for the innocent bloud of the Son of God that he betrayed Thirdly we find some that have done this to avoid some villany that they feared should be offered them As for example Pelagia a noble Lady that we read of in Ecclesiastcall stories when she was followed by some barbarous souldiers that would have abused her she speaking nothing but never a villain of them all shall touch me threw her self over a bridge and drowned her self Some of the Fathers do little lesse then commend her for this Saint Augustine condemnes her so should I. For why should she that had done no hurt do hurt to her self why should she to escape the hands of the Nocent lay violent hands upon her self that was innocent Our chastity of body is not lost when the chastity of our mind remaineth inviolated Fourthly Some have done this to purchase to themselves a name of valour Rasis in the book of the Machabees did thus And if there were no other thing in the world to shew that book to be Apochriphal Scripture this is enough in that the Author of that book commendeth Rasis for it It is not valour for to flie a danger it is valour to bear it If any example can be alledged to this purpose that of Sampsons may But Saint Austin he answereth The Spirit of God secretly commandeth him to do it And we may verily beleeve it for if the Spirit of God had not commanded it yea and assisted him in it too he had never done that he did in pulling down the house upon himself and the Philistims Lastly some have done it or they might have done it because Blessed are the dead Some will die that they may be blessed Poor wretches They that diprive themselves of this life may not look for a better when this is ended I will not judge particulars I leave them unto God But in the general Considering that life is Gods blessing it is he that giveth it and it is he that must take it away Considering that man is not lord of his own spirit Considering that God hath set us here in our stations and we may not move out without leave from our General Considering that we are set here to serve God and we must serve him as long as he will and not as long as we will Or specially considering that God hath forbidden us to kill others therefore forbidden us much more to kill our selves therefore surely except Gods mercy
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
Host of the house who is living there and is right owner and hath the whole estate No he only resteth there for a night after his weary journey but on the morrow God be with you then he is gone So a worldly man he may say here is my estate here is my stock all that I have is laid up here But a beleever saith I am now in my journey I am here no other then a pilgrim my home is in Heaven and while I am passing through this pilgrimage If I have a piece of meat in my hunger and a cup of drink in my thirst and clothes in my nakedness there is all that I care for Thirdly the last and the main Argument to prove that every true beleever must be as if not in all the things of this world is because if he be any otherwise in them hee will be so intangled that he shall not be fit for the service of God And this third Argument will be of the greatest force to a true beleever For the other two you will say if they be none of mine why do I meddle with them and if they be empty why likewise do I meddle with them But now thirdly if I meddle with them they will make me directly that I shall not be a Christian they will hinder me from the service of my God this will make a beleever of all things to look about him The Apostle saith directly that none that warreth intangleth himself that is thus Suppose a man have received press-money to go a souldier will he be so mad as to lay out his money upon a Farm in the Countrey when upon the command of his Captaine upon pain of death he must follow presently Beloved he that intangleth himself with the things of the world and of the flesh if his wife his pleasures his credit or any thing have taken up his heart or if sorrows and afflictions drink up his spirits and eat up his very soul when God calls this man now to come to prayer to come to the Church to hear his Word to fight against his lusts or to do any duty alas his head his heart and all are eaten up with his Farme with his oxen with his wife with his crosses and afflictions so that he is altogether unfit for any service that God hath called him to Therefore saith Saint John he that intangleth himself with these things below he cannot possibly have the love of the Father dwelling in him This shall suffice for the clearing of the point I have spent the more time in it because I would fain lay as good a foundation as I might that the Application may take the deeper impression in your hearts We that live in the Country when we come up by occasion into the City and here see all men so full of trouble every man so toyled in his work so full of business and so little time taken for any thing else me thinks that such a point as this to Brethren to beleevers should be of special use Now beloved this is the sum of that I have to say Be in all these things as if not Shall we all resolve as obedient children to carry this point home and examine indeed and in truth whether we be in these things as if not But alas what shall I say I remember a story of one Thomas Lennot a learned English-man who reading once in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of S. Mathews Gospel how our Saviour Christ faith You have heard how it hath been said of old you must do thus and thus but I say unto you you must love your enemies pray for them that curse you do good to them that hate you and persecute you and so he goeth on in injoyning such strange duties to flesh and bloud He breaks out Oh Jesus either this is not thy Gospel or we are not Christians Truly beloved I would to God a Minister might not have just cause to say so in this point that when he cometh and reads this of the Apostle It remains brethren that he that hath a wife be as if he had none he that useth the world as not abusing it and he that buyeth as if he possessed not c. And must it be thus if we mean to be Christians I would to God I say a man might not break out and say Oh Paul either thou art not the writer of this or we are no Christians We talk and prosess it in words that we purpose to do it but if we come to the deed and the truth it is clean contrary we are not at all moderate in the use of these things In matters of Heaven and in things that concern our everlasting welfare where God would have us take the kingdome of heaven with violence Where we should cry out as the Horse-leach his daughter Give give and never say it is enough We are even like children that go to school that care not how little they have for their money In hearing if the Sermon be but half an hour we think it enough and in prayer and in conference a little will serve the turn Like the Jesuit that when he thought he had a revelation he cryed out Satis Domine enough Lord I have revelation enough So we in matters of Religion Enough Lord. But turn us to wives to children to cloaths to honours to preferments to riches to ease to pleasures and the like there we are as the barren womb that never faith it is enough Brethren is it not thus But me thinks I should bring you some particular instances to convince you that it is thus and I would to the Lord I could throughly convince you of it that thus it is with you But to instance a little Suppose now a man comes and meets with a Citizen in his business and say to him How have you spent this day Truly he will say I am so full of business that I have not time so much as to eat my meat But I hope you have been at prayer in your family have you not Alas will he say I cannot get so much as a quarter of an hours time Do you call this as if not brethren Come to another that hath a wise all his care is for her oh my wife and children if I should die and leave them poor what should I do when I sleep I dream of them when I awake in the morning my thoughts are of them Is this to be as if you had no wife and children Another he is ever a complaining and mourning oh I have such crosses I am so full of affliction I have lost such and such friends and such and such an estate and though I go to Church and hear such and such comfortable doctrines one after another and all telling me of the all-sufficiency of God of the comforts and joyes of the Spirit of the good things that are laid up in Heaven yet like Rachel
them to do evil This they purpose they resolve upon they venture upon God hath been thus and thus to others patient and long-suffering and why may he not be so to them Well yet I know saith Solomon that it shall not go well with them in the end neither shall the wicked prolong his dayes Why because he feareth not before God They are not awakned by the example of his judgement on others they are not allured by his patience and long-suffering it doth not make them to fear him therefore it shall not go well with them in the end Thirdly Look to the end what the consequence of this carnal security is what followes upon iâ—… Where there is carnal security there must of necessity be an increase of sin and consequently a hastening of judgement for the more sin hastneth to ripeness the more judgment hastneth also upon the sinner God hath set unto particular men a certain stint and it is not known to them what that stint limited is Gen. 15.16 The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full They were a sinful people at that time but the neerer they came to the fulness and stint and limitation that God intended to be the immeditate fore-runner of the judgement the faster judgement hastneth upon them So for particular persons there is a certaine stint limited Let every man look to it The adding of one sin more may by thy uttermost stint that shall bring the last stroke of judgement and destruction upon thee Now I say this carnal security is that that increaseth sin upon a man We know how the security of the Israelites increased their sin upon them And the security of Sodome their pride and idleness increased the rest of their sins and consequently hastned on their judgement In Rom. 3. when there was no fear of God before their eyes when there was a neglect of that there was abundance of wickedness amongst them and what follows then their was nothing but destruction and calamity in all their ways I could give you sundry instances of this in the word of God But I hasten You see the reason Let us now come to make some use of it that we may not be prevented We have told you that it is true of States and Kingdoms of particular persons of every man that when in a course of sin and impenitency they cry peace to themselves then judgement and destruction is comming upon them It serveth therefore to inform us what to think of our selves of the estate of this Land wherein we live of these times wherein we are fallen What can we expect when we consider to what a height of sin we are come how impenitent men are how obstinate and hard-hearted and stiff-necked against the voyce of God in the Gospel and the means of Grace but destruction to come upon us If we look upon the sins of men we may perceive even a general ripenesse for judgement When the sins of the Amorites were full judgement came upon them How near the sins of this Land are come to that fulness we know not we have cause to fear We see in other Countries the shaking of the sword upon us it hath not yet awakened us to fear God At home we have had the voyce of the Prophets the Ministers crying unto us from day to day to return lest destruction come upon us it hath not brought us to return from our sins We have seen the mercies of God upon particular persons and families it hath not awakened men to walk conscionably in their places We see no reformation there is rather an increase of sin And what can we expect there wants but one sin and when that is come sudden destruction cometh What is that Security And have we not cause to bewail the general security that is amongst us May not the Angel of the Lord return that answer as he did in the first of Zechaâ—… All the world is at rest Go in to the streets the houses the shops of men every man is at rest no man is troubled about his estate nor affected with Gods displeasure either against himself or the Land we live in See is not the Land as secure as they of Laish or worse They were secure because they did not here of the danger of the purpose of the Danites against them therefore their security was not altogether so culpable and blame-worthy But I will tell you what security ours is nay the holy Ghost hath told us to our hands Prov. 23.34 That judgement there that is threatned against a man that goeth on in sin seems to be a judgement executed upon us at this time Thou shalt be as a man that lies down in the middest of the sea or as he that lies upon the top of a mast They have striken me shalt thou say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not when I awake I will seek it yet again Our security I say is like that of a man in the middest of the sea and yet asleep as a man upon the top of a mast and yet asleep Nay men not only in danger out such as have the stroke upon them They have struken me and I was not sick they have wounded me and I felt it not Is it not thus with us in these dead and secure times that we live in And shall we say that we are not asleep Hath not the Lord sent the destroying Angel amongst us that hath smitten thousands in our streets and yet we have not felt it Shall we say we are not in danger We are as a man that sleepeth on the top of a mast at Sea Nay as a man in the middest of the waves in a dead sleep like such as are drunk and yet we feel nothing Truly we have little cause to be secure we have little cause to flatter our selves with vain conceits of peace and continuance of prosperity if we look well about us Where is any man that takes occasion by what he hears abroad or sees at home to enter into the reformation of his own house of his own heart It may be some men will say It is an unjust tax that you put upon us we are not so secure as you speak of You shall scarse come to any mans table but they will be talking of the jndgments abroad You shall scarse meet a man in the streets but he will leave other occasions and tell you how ill it goes with the Churches beyond the Seas You shall scarse meet with one in the field but all the time is took up with discourse of the evils at home or troubles abroad And is this a sign of security Alas beloved this is to be asleep in the middest of the waves Every man is in the middest of danger and yet is secure How shall that appear I will make it appear by demonstrations and signs that may convince you before the Lord that we add this
to the rest of our sins that in the middest of our sins and impenitency we are secure and therefore that destruction is coming upon us What are the signs whereby we may be convinced of security I will give you a few that by those you may see whether the Land the City your families your selves and all be not asleep and at rest this day The first sign shall be this When men profit not by the judgements of God Certainly it is an evident sign of a deep sleep in sin when neither the afflictions that are upon others or upon our selves do any good upon us Look how God hath smitten others Hath that awakned us You will say that it is a secure child that seeth his brother beaten for the same fault before his eyes and yet goeth on in it you will say that that is a secure malefactor that seeth such a person executed before his face and yet goeth on in the same fellony and thest And must we not say that we are a secure generation when we can see our brethren in other Countries how they have suffered and yet go on in the very same fins that we our selves think the hand of God is upon them for We can talk of their sins of their unrighteousness and in justice we can talk of their neglect of the Lords day and other holy duties and for these we judge them smitten of God How is it then that we are such our selves how is it that we go on in unrighteousness in prophaning the Lords day in neglecting the house of God and our own families have they found such sweetness in these sins that we walk on in the same Is it a pleasant and comfortable thing to be driven from Gods house and from our own houses to be a reproach to all the world If we think that the hand of God is upon them for these sins how is it that we are not awaked I remember Daniel in the fifth Chapter of his Prophesie taxeth Belshazzar for this though thou knowest saith he how the hand of God was upon thy father for this and this yet thou hast done the like and hast not humbled thy heart So may I say You have kown what God hath done to your brethren in other Countries yet you do still the same your selves for the which they have been punished Is not this security Look likewise upon our selves and we shall see a general neglect of those judgements of God that have been upon our selves How hath God smitten this Land this Citie eipecially with the Pestilence and may we not say we have been smitten and yet have not felt it is not this security and a dead sleep God threatneth those in Jer. 31.9 That escaped the pestilence that they should fall by the sword by the hand of Nebuchadnezar Why so because they did not reforme and amend by the pestilence What cause have we then to fear lest we fall into the hands of the sword of some Nebuchadnezar or other when the pestilence hath done no more good amongst us when it hath not awakened reformed us Look upon our selves upon your houses upon your dealings your company your conversations see if there be any reformation since there was such a mortal calamity as drove you from the Citie and frighted you from your own houses and from the house of God Well these are fearful presages that when former Judgements prevail not worser are a coming I have smitten them saith God in the fourth of Amos with cleanness of teeth and yet they have not returned unto me What then I have smitten them with blasting and mildew and yet they have not returned unto me What then I have smitten them with the pestilence after the manner of Egypt and yet they have not returned unto me What then Therefore I will come against them and because I will do this prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel As if he should say I have now stood out and tryed you at one or two weapons and found you obstinate and rebellious I have stroke at you with the sword of Famin I have shot at you the Arrows of pestilence I have smitten you with other judgements You should now meet me if not I have more weapons yet I will come and bid the battel against you and it shall appear who is the stronger you or I And since you will stand out against me notwithstanding the Judgements executed upon others and afflictions upon your selves see if you can stand out against my last stroke you have escaped some lesser sicknesses upon your own bodies you have escaped the Pestilence already but you shall find it a hard taske when God biddeth battel to escape his last stroke if you will not now be reconciled and come in and seek his face This is the first demonstration whereby it appears that we are sinfully secure which is a fore-runner of Judgement because we are not awakened by the Judgements of God upon our selves and others Secondly another sign is this The contempt of Gods ordinances the slighting of the Prophets This is an evident demonstration that we are under this carnal security I now speake of Mark how the Lord describeth a people whom he meaneth to destroy Zach. 7.11 12. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Yea they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former Prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts A great wrath what is that Therefore vers 13. it is come to passe that as He cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not here saith the Lord of Hosts Well beloved little do you know what time and wayes God hath to make you cry and roar in the anguish of your hearts because of Judgements and afflictions when you will not now hear God that striveth with you and cries unto you with the voyce of his Spirit in his Prophets from day to day When men will not hear God speaking to them in his Word it is alwayes a fore-runner of judgement In the sixth of Amos the Lord challengeth his people and telleth them that he had used many means for their reclaiming but nothing would do them good well now saith he hear the rod and him that hath appointed it As if he should say there is no more dealing with you with the Word but I must come with the rod with judgement Is it not thus with us at this day May not the Lord say of us as he did of the people in Jeremies time You have forsaken my law which I set before you and have not obeyed my voyce neither walked therein but have walked after the imaginations of your own heart And then what follows Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Behold I will
feed this people with Wormwood and give them water of gall to drink and I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them Do not many cry out as they in Jer. 23.33 What is the burthen of the Lord Where is it that the Ministers have not been threatning judgement and telling you that God is coming out to be avenged upon a sinful nation have they not been crying thus this seven ten twenty years Where is that burthen of the Lord Well you shall find what it is when the day of the Lord cometh a day of blackness and terrour it hasteneth and this very security is an evident sign thereof even as in the dayes of Noah that Preacher of righteousness and in the dayes of Lot that vexed his soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites they would not beleeve their words but they seemed unto them as if they mocked and then came the judgment of the Lord upon them If this be not the estate of this Land at this day what means the complaints the heaviness of the spirits of the Prophets What means their tears and cries and prayers because of the obstinacy and hard-heartedness of people that will not be drawn from their sins by any means This is a second evidence or sign when all this crying and calling will not awaken that we are in a deep sleep of security Thirdly another evidence is the vain hopes of this Land It is a signe of carnal security and that we are all in a dead sleep when we have such idle dreams out of idle fancies and vain confidence that delude and deceive men What do men rest on to secure and perswade themselves of immunity from wrath and impunity Certainly this that we have the ordinances of God amongst us Oh the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. Alas had not the people of Israel the Ark and yet the Philistims took the Ark and slew the sons of Eli. Had they not the Temple and yet the Lord in Jer. 7.11 Sendeth them to Shiloh Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel And now because you have done all these works saith the Lord and I spake unto you rising early and speaking but you heard not and I called unto you but you answered not Therefore will I do to this house which is called by my name wherein you trust as I have done to Shiloh Had not the Churches of Asia the golden Candlestick and yet are they not now tributary to the Turk The ordinances of God beloved are means to increase and hasten a judgment when we shut our eyes and will not open them but walk in darkness Oh but there was never so many Preachers nor so many means there seems to be a new spring of the Gospel there are abundance of men that come daily furnished for the Ministery and are zealous and forward and powerful Prophets and the like and therefore it is a sign that much good is intended towards us and that no judgment shall come But do we not read that immediatly before the seventy years captivity there were more Prophets then in many years before Why should we rest in such things as these But nevertheless we have many good people that are full of prayers and tears and they shall deliver the Island It is true there are many blessed be God and we have cause to wish that there were many more and to say as Moses said to Joshuah when he would have had him forbid Eldad and Medad that prophesied in the Camp of the Israelites Would God that all the Lords people were Prophets and that he would put his spirit upon them So we of such godly men that walk with an upright heart would God that there were many such But yet are not these as Lillies among Thorns a few amongst many men Are not these the objects of reproach and contempt amongst an unrighteous generation Who are the men that are cryed down most by the world that are most opposed and injured by all men Are not these they that support the land by their prayers and hold up all by their standing in the gap May we not rather fear that God will avenge the quarrel of his servants upon an ungracious and ungrateful people they live amongst What shall we speak of other things Did no Bozrah in Jer. 49.16 boast her self of her scituation that she dwelt in the clefts of a rock Saith God though thou hidest thy self in the clefts of the rock though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the Eagle I will bring thee down from thence It is not talking that our Island is scituate in the Sea and environed with walls Judgment can leap over the Sea as well as the pestilence hath done our walled Towns It is a vain thing and yet if you hearken to the discourse of most men you shall see that this is that that keeps them secure Or it may be as some in Isa 48.15 We say they have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass thorow it shall not come unto us Well saith the Lord your covenant with death shall be dissanulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass thorow then you shall be trodden down by it When judg ment cometh of all the people in the world it shall certainly meet withyou What mean these idle dreams and vain-conceits that when we go on in an unreformed condition and in a course of sin and impenitency yet because you have the Ministers and the ordinances and the people of God amongst us because we are convenient for scituation and such like things These are vain things they will do us no good at that time and for the present they shew our security our horrible security Fourthly take another evidence and that is the abounding of the sins of the Land Were it possible that at such a time as this of shaking the Rod the Sword over us when judgments are upon the Nation that there should be such abundance of iniquity in all places if men were not in a dead sleep How doth drunkenness stagger and reel in every street How doth pride vaunt and boast it self in every Church and Assembly though it be cryed down never so much Alas beloved are these times to pride up our selves in vanity Are these times to run after the sensual and sinful courses of an ungodly generation These are times wherein God calleth for fasting and brokenness of heart Lay aside thy fine apparrel saith God to the people that I may know what to do unto thee We shouldlay aside these things that we may shew our selves to be men awake But men generally do so abound in wickedness and ungodliness that we may rather conclude
Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I go on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seize upon me in this imployment in this business in this action Fear lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keep a constant watch against the shares that are in those places Fourthly keep good company Company you know is a good means to keep men awake Two are better then one and wo to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keep not company with a froward person lest thou learn his frowardness So keep not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keep a man in carnal security No keep company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Keep company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth help Fifthly would you be kept from this sinful security then keep God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keep himself awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this main object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence faith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keep them from sin in Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himself from God in any secret place Think in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witness he would not venture upon many things that he now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet nevertheless he would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the dark hears you in your most secret whisperings knows every action of your life and every circumstance of those actions This will be a means to keep thee from security I will add but one more which is the sixt Consider thy latter end The night is now coming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou fool this night shall they take away thy soul I think there is none that heareth me this day but he would certainly keep waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spiritual waking a waking from sin a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the door ready to seize upon you We speak not only to you that are aged that are at the brink of the grave but we speak also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain That Church was asleep as many of us are at this day God cometh to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodness you have left may be renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and go on in a course of sin sit now down and humble your souls get into a secret corner wherein you may consess those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccless 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Judgment As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this would know that there will come a Judgment day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us be sober and watch We know not how neer the end of the world is we know indeed it shall not be yet be cause Antichrist must be destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but nevertheless certainly thy end is neer thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular Judgment may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that cometh the Judgment That is the particular Judgment that cometh upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doom Judg your selves now that you may not be Judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sick and weak and many sleep that is they are dead what then If we would Judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. So say I to you judg your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Bar arraign your selves as malefactors before the Judg bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercy the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore do it now I might add many other helps to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present We have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to live securely as men that dream of a long life for many years Here is a young man dead took away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sickness though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sickness you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your security make good
very nimbly too yet you do not say presently that that is a living creature No it moveth only by an external cause by an artificial contrivance it is so framed that when the wind setteth in such and such a corner it will move and so having but an external Moter and cause to move and no inward principle no soul within it to move it it is an argument that it is no living creature So it is here if a man see another move and move very fast in those things which of themselves are the wayes of God see him move as fast to hear a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hasty to thrust himself and bid himself a guest to the Lords Table when God hath not bid him as any the Question is what principle sets him awork if it be an inward principle of life out of a sincere affection and love to God and his ordinances that carrieth him to this it argueth that man hath some life of grace But if it be some wind that bloweth him on the wind of State the wind of Law the wind of danger of penalty the wind of fashion or custome to do as his neighbours do if these or such like be the things that draw him thither this is no argument of life at all it is a cheap thing it is counterfeit and poor ware Thirdly that which I have often said to be the principal and the most considerable thing that I know in all practical Divinity and which is the most Charactaristical of the truth of Grace and of the life of Piety in any one our spirits and souls and affections towards God must be advanced to this hieght to be carried toward God above all other things I beseech you seriously think of it I have often spoken of it but it may be there may be some room left for the mention of it now and some necessity of pondering it well It will be the Charactaristical thing by which a man may most certainly discern himself And I would desire to know wherein my defect of understanding is if I be mistaken but it seems to me as a clear thing that every one here that hath not a mind to affront the mind of God he dares not contest this argument that it is a rational thing that if God be the best of Beings he should have the best portion in our love All reason commands us to love that best which is best and to dispense our love according to the degree of the excellency of the thing There is no man but apprehendeth this clearly A man may say that he loves his Wife and he will prove it and this shall be his argument I love her aswell as I do another woman Is this the proof of conjugall love was this the covenant made between them hath he fulfilled it in this case to her or 〈◊〉 to him There is no man but seeth that there is more required there is a peculiarity and propriety of love required in this case It must certainly be so here for we contract and espouse our souls to Christ and upon those very terms for better and for worse to forsake all the world and to cleave to him alone and if our spirits be not raised and advanced to that degree of affection that Christ and God be so lovely and beautiful in our eyes and so good for I name one sometime and sometime another it is all one upon the point if I say they be not advanced thus high the conjugal knot was never tyed between Christ and the soul it is impossible therefore that such a one should have to plead the benefits that flow from a Conjugal union neither can he have title or right to any thing that issueth from a marriage with Christ whose soul did but equivocate and would never speak out the words and who never answered the interrogations of a good conscience as Saint Peter speaks in another case that when the soul in the contract should say that she takes him for to love and honour and obey him and to make him her Lord and Saviour if the soul do not yeeld to this which it cannot do if it do not esteem him the best of all others and that all others are to be thrown away and to be forsaken in comparison of him This is the third circumstance I have noted hence which I suppose is intimated in these words Though I have not said it is exprest here yet it is so carryed with such a fulness the desire of our soul is to thee and to the remembrance of thy name as if it were to God only or at least to him principally But I must hasten In the fourth place It must be universal love and so a universal obedience which is the fruit of it which must justifie the truth of our affections towards God and set the heart in a right frame and temper Except a man love God and love all the wayes of God and all the ordinances of God and yeeld himself in subjection and resign himself in obedience to them all if he do but reserve and make choyce of any one sin to lye and wallow and tumble in he doth evacuate all the other good he throweth down all the other good with that one evil Will you come and plead with God that there is but one sin that you have defiled and polluted your soul with and wallowed and tumbled in all your life and I hope God will never refuse me or bar me out of his presence and fellowship and communion with him for that Yes you are as filthy all over as filthy and defiled and abominable and odious to his eye and to every other sense aswel with one as if you had been in ten thousand slowghes one after another And as the Philosopher speaks a Cup or some such thing that hath a hole in it is no Cup it will hold nothing and therefore cannot performe the use of a cup though it have but one hole in it so if the heart have but one hole in it if it retain the divel but in one thing as we use to say in law one man in possession keeps possession and a man can never have true possession till he have voyded all so except all be rooted out and extirpated and a man cometh to yeeld a full and absolute subjection to Christ universally Christ hath no part or portion in us nor we in him Lastly there were divers other particulars that I thought to have added in this but I see I must pass them over It is not every affection that may seem to have some height and universality though I do acknowledg that they will in some measure characterise out the truth but yet there must be this addition as it was with the seed that was cast into the good ground it had depth of earth so this must have depth in the heart it must be well rooted and fastned for
men oft rejoyce they are prudent and wise And you see that this is a vain thing In the second place if a young man rejoyce in his honour and credit amongst men this also is vain Solomon hath shewed it Eccles 2.16 He declareth to us that all the honour of the world will end in oblivion there is saith he no remembrance of the wise more then of the fool for ever for that which now is in the dayes to come shall be forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the fool Again if a man rejoyce in honour and much glory he cannot beleeve so faith Christ John 5.44 How can you beleeve since you seek honour one of another and not the honour that cometh of God only And it is noted to be the reason why many of the chief Rulers that beleeved on Christ did not confesse him without which faith cannot be unfeigned because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God John 10.43 Nay further the Apostle sheweth us that this is the cause of envy Gal. 5.26 Be not desirous of vain-glory envying one another Envy is a vexing affection this vain-glory is the cause of this envy whereby we shall pine away when we see the happiness and welfare of our brethren Further if young men delight in pleasures which is the common course of youth these also are vain things I said in my heart saith Solomon Eccles 2.2 Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Kings that have had the greatest wisdome to invent them and the greatest leisure to use them yet they never found full contentment in the same I made me saith he vers 4. great works I builded me houses I planted me vineyards I made me gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kind of fruits I made me pools of water I got me servants and maidens also I had great possessions of great and small cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before me I got me men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musicall instruments of all sorts Here were the pleasures of Solomon But vers 11. Behold saith he I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun The wise Solomon that had been trying every creature whether it had any thing in it that might give him a true rellish profest that there was no profit under the Sun Yet further these pleasures shall cease there shall be an end of them 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is short it remaineth that those that have wives be as though they had none they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not they that buy as though they possessed not they that use the world as not abusing of it for the fashion of this world passeth away Lastly our Saviour Christ in Luke 8.14 sheweth that the pleasures of this life choak the word of God that it cannot bring forth grateful fruit to God Fourthly if young men delight in riches and rejoyce in their estates that God that given them this likewise is a vain thing For first many times wealth is gotten by deceit and then God bloweth on it Jer. 5.27 As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord and shall net my soul be avenged on such people as this Again wealch is kept with much sorrow Eccles 5.12 The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep Thirdly wealth is lost with a great deal of sorrow and vexation Rev. 18.18 when the smoak of Babylon ascended up to heaven Oh what lamencation there was they cryed out What city is like unto this great city and they cost dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had shipps in the sea by reason of her costliness for in one hour is she made desolate But suppose further that a man should get and keep his wealth in the fear of God yet these things are most uncertain as the Apostle faith 2 Tim. 1.16 Charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches Lastly these riches cannot preserve our life so faith Christ himself Luke 12.25 Take heed and beware of Covetousness for no mans life is preserved by the abundance of that he possesseth In the last place If young men rejoyce in friends and Allies this also is a vain thing For Psal 62.9 The man of low degree is vanity and the man of high degree is a lie to be laid in the ballance they are lighter then vanity Again no friend can deliver us from Death Psal 49.7.8 No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Thus I have shewed several things that young men rejoyce in and have shewed likewise that their joy is founded upon vanity upon nothing And this is the second means to heal young men of the inordinateness of their Joy to meditate with themselves how vain and frivolous all things are that they delight in The third means is to betake themselves to seek spiritual joy The well-head of this Joy is God whom the Scripture calleth the God of cousolation The instrument to convey this Joy is Faith Rom. 5.1 Being jnstified by faith we have peace with God The grounds of this Joy are twofold First the good things exhibited Secondly the good things promised The good things exhibited That God hath written our names in the book of life Here is the fountaine of spiritual joy to a true Christian Rejoyce saith Christ not that the divels are fallen before you but that your names are written in the book of life Secondly the other ground of spiritual joy is the good things promised us And those may be reduced to two heads God hath made promises either in regard of evil things as we call them of afflictions that befall us Or the weakness of the graces that are in us Now in the evil of Affliction we may rejoyce first In the promise of protection in affliction 2. In the promise of Edification by affliction 3. In the promise of deliverence from affliction All in the best season Again for the defects of grace in us which indeed is a thing exceeding grievous to a true Christian Here we may rejoyce First In the promise of preserving of grace 2. In the promise of augmentation and
therefore he cannot but with amazement and fear continually tremble before God and he desires if it were possible that there were no God at all that he might never be called to account for his doings But now the child of God a faithful Abraham that is in covenant with God he may in the middest of all evils lift up his head with joy and comfort even when wicked men are at their wits end and know not whether to turn themselves It is I say a point needful to urge in these times wherein we hear abroad of wars and rumors of wars and so many distractions and what they feel we have cause to fear but now it is seasonable at this time when we see the King of fears act his part before our eyes he that the Philosophers call the most terrible of all terribles that is Death that tends to the extirpation and abolition of nature in regard of our being here I say there cannor be a better argument treated of then somewhat that may fence us against the fear of this evil Now for the opening of this point First consider what fear is And then what fear a Christian should be freed from And then how it comes to pass that a Christian is exempted from all slavish and inordinate fear And then come to make some Use of it to the present occasion First that we may know the point the better let us consider what fear is in general And fear beloved is such An affection or passion of the soul that is stirred up with a through apprehension of some future evil that is very difficult to be resisted by the party or patient It is an affection or passion of the soul for it makes a real transmutation in the man It is such an affection as is stirred up with the apprehension of evil for evil is properly the object of fear we do not primarily fear any thing that is good axcept the loss of it and it is ill to lose any good thing Again it is evil future for if the evil be present we grieve and not fear And it is such an evil as is difficult and hard to resist an overcome with patience for if it be a small evil that is easily conquered you contemn it you fear it not You see then what fear is in general Is all fear prohibited Not the fear of God c. Fear is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kinds of fear First natural fear and that is called natural either in regard of the material or efficient cause When the party that doth fear is phlegmatick or melancholly and so is naturally inclined to fear this may be called a natural sear Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the fear of death it is natural to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this natural fear is an affection that Almighty God concreated with the soul it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evil but according as it is determined by circumstances Again there is a carnal evil fear namely when a man fears the evil of punishment more then the evil of sin a corporal evil more then a spiritual a temporal more then an eternal He is afraid of losing something he enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnal fear as I shall explain it to you more anon and this so far as it is carnal is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile fear and this is such a fear as looks at the punishment only and not at the sin when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never fears sin that is the cause of it And so withal when this fear is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sin there is a love of sin a wishing that God would give him leave to sin and let loose the reins to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor Hell that he might sin were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor hell that he might sin freely And if he abstain from sin at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sin and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile fear though in it self it be not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that fears servily he doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as far as it goes It is good for the restraining of evil men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filial son-like fear that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatness and especially of the goodness of God whereby a man so hates punishment as he hates sin also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filial fear One degree we call innitial fear in this World And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the fear we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to do that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstain from evil out of the fear of punishment For answer briefly And thing almighty God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to do well or to deter us from evil we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we do so we do well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propounded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstain from the forbidden fruit partly out of fear of punishment If Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evil we may have an eye to the punishment that will be the consequent of the thing for Christ urgeth this to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill the body c. And to do things meerly without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stir us up to avoid evil and it is well if we can heartily and truly out of love to God do it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a fear meerly for punishment and still to retain the love of sin and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstain from sin
And this will cut sore and lie heavy on our conscience and therefore let us do it betimes Not only to prevent the Divel and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may be taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learn to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soon that evil day may come we know not that the wise man speaks of therefore betimes while ye have opportunity do it And for our own part let us learn this First when God crops such flowers that rise in the bud when he takes away such Children be thankful to God that he hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our years that he hath given us such a great deal of space and opportunity to glorifie him here to do him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it self and a blessing to us if we improve it Again every one remember if Children do die old men must die any man may die For it Death strike such as do but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to fear it I speak not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we fear it inordinatly because we love our lives we love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continual spectacles of mortality let us be acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scares him and he runs from it at the first but at last he grows throughly acquainted with it and fears it not so it is in regard of death many men will not endure to hear of death they will not endure to think of it they will not endure to hear a Funeral Sermon or to come to the hous of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and run from it but if we did oft think of it as oft as we think of sin in the cause of it And when we feel sorrow think here is a harbinger of death I feel pain in me ere long I must surrender to the stroak of Death And as oft as we see spectacles of mortality to read a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves down in our beds think of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and think of Death If the Serpents sting be plucked out a man may handle it he is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he fears it not So we have cause to thank God for death as well as for other things thus far because he hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world he will be our exceeding great reward he will be All in all to us here and hereafter THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF JUDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was That in the day of Judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not only their works 2 Cor. 5.10 God will bring every work to judgement and so Eccles 12. He will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that he will bring every word to judgement too even the very vain words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matt. 12.36 And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speak in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily been passed by He that calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5.22 Then much more those evil speeches against God Jude 13 14. He shall come with thousands of his angels in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evil and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madness fell to evil and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appear that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speak evil and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evil speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appear at that day to be just against him so we see God will bring both words and works to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now bind them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandment of the words of men concerning God he that takes the name of Godin vain he will not hold him guiltless And then the ninth commandment of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdoms they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions whereby the judges proceed in their course of judgment upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vain it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the express rule whereby Christ himself will proceed in matter of judgement Again secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you read of some Psal 73. that set their mouths against God and against heaven Indeed they can do no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sun can hurt the Sun by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against
and hindred by it from doing the good which thou shouldest certainly death will be to thee the biginning of thy thraldome and after it thou shalt be a perpetual bondslave unto Satan in the kingdome of etetnal darkness Mark this all ye that take delight in evil to whom it is a pastime to do wickedly and who seek rather how to satisfie then how to suppress your own corruptions who repute it a kind of happiness to follow the swing of your own lusts and to have liberty to do as your own hearts do lead you when you die this shall be your reward even a most miserable and endless captivity under Satan him have you served in the lusts of sin while ye lived his slaves shall you be without hope of releasement world without end This is the right Application of this Doctrine death is a day of enlargement to the godly it is a dismission The next particular is that it is a dismission accompanied with peace the lesson we are taught hence is that The servants of God have at their going out of the word a comfortable quiet and peaceable departure Thus Simeon here he prayed for no other thing but that his end might be as the end of the Righteous is ever wont to be even a departure hence in peace Hence is that general rule of the Psalmist Mark the perfect man and behold the upright man for the end of that man is peace Agreeable whereunto is that of Solomon that the righteous hath hope in his death And memorable to this purpose is that which is storied of old father Jacob shewing unto us the quiet end of the Righteous He gathered up his feet into the bed and so gave up the Ghost It was the blessing promised to Abraham that he should go to his fathers in peace And the same was made to good Josias There is a twofold reason hereof First the assurance which they have of the favour of God in Christ This must needs breed quietness when I am perswaded in my soul and conscience that all cause of danger after death is removed and that God is and will be gracious unto me in his Son What cause of fear is here lest what occasion of perplexity If any man shall doubt whether the servants of God have this assurance I prove it thus that all of them first or last have it in some good measure If any man faith the Apostle have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Hence it necessarily followes that all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ but now the office of the Spirit is to bear witness with our spirit So that all that are the Lords as they are endued with Gods Spirit so they feel this Spirit bearing witness to their souls of this Adoption Secondly the comfortable Testimony of their own consciences touching their former care to glorisie God by a Religious and godly conversation Hence came Saint Pauls peace I have saith he fought the good fight I have kept the faith Therefore I am sure there is laid up for me a Crown of life Hence Hezekiahs I have walked before thee oh Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Not that they do ground their hope upon the desert of their fore-ran courses but because they know good works to be the way and do understand by the Scripture that a holy life here is the first fruits of a glorified life hereafter Thus we see the truth of this point and the reasons upon which it is grounded Now here some may object first We see many worthy men that have made a great and an extrordinary profession of Religion in their lives and which have also carried themselves unblamable yet to give appearance of much anguish and perplexity and even of a kind of despair in their death How can we say then that all good and holy persons have a peaceable departure I answer first We ought to remember the Rule our Saviour gives not to judge according to the outward appearance It is a very weak argument to say that this or that man dyeth without peace because to the standers by he makes not shew of peace Certaine it is that as a man may have peace with God and yet himself for a time by reason of some tentation not feel it so a man being sick or going out of the world may feel it and yet others that behold him cannot perceive it Secondly we must know that these outward unquietnesses which do many times accompany sickness do happen as well and as ordinarily to good men as to the most wicked such as are ravings and idle-talkings and strange accidents in the body in this sence all things come alike to all God hath made no promise in Scripture that those that serve him shall be freed in their deaths from violent sicknesses Therefore these things must not be thought to be any abridgment of their peace Thirdly we must consider that with the best servants of God Satan is most busie when his end is neerest and when he is as it were out of all hope of prevailing The red Dragon in the Revelation had greatest wrath when he knew his time to be short When the evil Spirit was commanded once to come out of the child then it rent him sore Now these temptations though for the time they be very violent and extream so that the party may happily utter out some words and speeches of dispair yet be they no final prejudice to the inward peace Interrupt they may but utterly quench it they cannot because the power of God is made perfect through weakness And so even in death Satan receives the greatest foil when he thinks to get the greatest victory Thus then I answer in one word The peace of Gods servants at death is not ever in the like measure felt by them but yet it never dieth in them they which behold their death do not alwayes see it yet they themselves sooner or later are sure sweetly and secretly to feel the same My reason for my assertion is grounded first upon that of the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness He brings his servants to Heaven by the gates of hell out of sorrow and anguish and tentation he raiseth out their greatest quiet Secondly because the love of God is eternal and unchangeable Whom he loves he loves to the end It is impossible that the Lord albeit he try and that sharply yer should finally for sake those that are his in their greatest extremity But again secondly if you make a peaceable death to be the reward of the Righteous what say you to this There be many that in all their life gave little evidence of any Religion or grace but of the contrary rather yet in their death were very quiet and still and seemed to all that were by to have in them no manner of vexation no
themselves and pay him So liberal a Patron he was that he not only freely bestowed all the Benefices that fell in his gift but was also at all the charge of institution induction composition first-fruits and whatsoever burthen fell upon the Incumbent Such patterns of Patrons we may rather wish then hope for after him what shall I need to add more concerning him whose birth was illustrious his education liberal his Patromony great his Matches sutable his life exemplary and his death comfortable Single vertues we meet with in many but such combinations as were in him such affability in such gravity such humility in such eminency such patience in such trials such temperance and moderation in such abundance as we have just cause to bless God for in him so we have great cause to pray for in others of his Rank In his tender years he was set as a choice Plant in the famous Nursey of good learning and Religion the University of Oxford where living as a Commoner in Corpus Christi Colledge under the care and tuition of Doctor Sebastian Wenfield he very much thrived and grew above his equalls both in grace and in knowledge gaining to himself as much love as learning After he was removed from thence he fell into very great troubles as well before as after the death of his Father but the Lord delivered him out of all These crosses and afflictions served but as Files to brighten those gifts and graces in him which shined afterwards most brightly in his more setled estate and eminent employments being chosen Deputy Lievetenant in Wiltshire Commissioner in three Shires Four times High-Sheriff and often Knight for the Shire in Parliament in all which places of important negotiations and great trust he so carried himself that all men might see in all his actions he had a special eye to the Motto in his Escouchion Jeay bonne cause for with Mary he alwayes chose the good part and stood up for the truth which he confirmed with his last breath You have heard what he was in publick but what was he in private we have seen him in the Sun how demeaned he himself in the shade True Religion is like the precious stone Garamantites which casteth no great lustre outwardly but semper intus habeat aureas guttus but we may discern as it were golden drops within Three of these after I have presented to your view I will then set free your patience and give your sorrow full scope to vent it self in tears The first of these was tenderness of conscience which is one of the most infallible tokens and marks of the Child of God so tender was he that he would undertake no business before he was fully perswaded of the lawfulness thereof both by clear texts of Scripture and the approbation of most learned and conscientious Divines he made scruple not only of committing the least known sin but of imbarking into any action which was questionable among those that love the truth in sincerity And therefore although God blessed him with great wealth and store of coyn yet he never put it to Usury or Intrest thereby to increase it for he held the tolleration of the Law in this Kingdome to be no sufficient warrant for any violation of the divine Law the destinctions lately coyned of toothless and biting Usury he no way allowed judging truly that all Usury according to the Hebrew Etymology is biting and hath not only teeth but Adders teeth envenomed for all Usury if it bite not our Brother as per accidens sometimes it may not yet it biteth the conscience of all such who have any remorse of sin The second aurea gutta was Christian compassion whereby he took to heart the afflictious of Joseph and misery of Lazarus whose fores he cured with the most precious balsamum he could buy for his money What Pliny writeth lib. 32. c. 8. Attalus usus est Thynni recentiores adipe ad ulcera on the Fish in Latin Thynuus that it is a soveraign remedy against many diseases and cureth all kind of ulcers was truly verified in him for he furnished himself with the best cordials and the rarest medicinal receipts and when he heard of any poor sick or hurt he not onely sent them money but Bezar and balsamum thinking nothing could cost him too dear whereby he might save the life or recover the health of the poorest member of Christ Jesus In the years of death and sickness he sent provision to all the Parishes about him and thrice a week relieved a hundred at least at his gate neither did his compassion die with him for in his Will and Testament confirmed by him the day before his Death he bequeathed divers Legacies to the poor whereof these following came to my notice To Saint Margarets in Westminster 10. pound To Kempsford 60. pound To Cosley 60. pound To Froome and the Woodlands 100. pound To Warmester 100. pound To Deverill and Mounten 100. pound The last aurea gutta which I shall present to your view at this time was his servency of zeal for the truth of the Gospel in all the Benefices which he bestowed he took special care to make choice of men sound in the Faith no way warping either to Popish superstition or schismatical seperation as he made greatest accompt of those Ministers of the Gospel who were servent in spirit zealous for the truth so he hated none more then temporizers and luke-warm Loadiceans he seldome spake of any Romanist without expressing a great detestation of their idolatry and superstition the night before he changed this life for a better after an humble confession of his sins in general and a particular profession of the Articles of his belief in which he had lived and now was resolved to die he added I renounce all Popish superstition all mans merits trusting only upon the merits of the Death and passion of my Saviour and whosoever trusteth on any other shall find when he is dying if not before that he leaneth upon broken reeds Here after the benediction of his Wife and Children being required by me to ease his mind and declare if any thing lay heavy upon his conscience he answered nothing he thanked God yet like an obedient child of his Mother the Church of England both heartily desired and received her absolution and now professing that he was most willing to leave the world he besought all to pray for him and himself prayed most fervently that God would enable him patiently to abide his good will and pleasure and to go through this last and greatest work of faith and patience and the pangs of Death soon after coming upon him he fixed his eyes on Heaven from whence came his help and to the last gasp lifted up his hand as it were to lay hold on that Crown of righteousness which Christ reacheth out to all his children who hold out the good fight of Faith to the end and conquer in the end Which
up all the sons of Adam shall be swallowed up it self into victory Till then we shall all go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our several rank and order take our last walk the way of all flesh and it is happy if we go it as Abraham did here in peace and a special blessing if we be gathered as he was to his Fathers in the Autumne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedy the former acted upon his Stage thou shalt go to thy Fathers the latter under the scaffold and be buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better than they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloom of their beauty and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happiness For this cause Joseph of Arimathes is supposed by many to have set his Sepulchre in his Garden as it were to sawce his sweetest pleasures with the sad thoughts of his Funeral and John surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Consecrated Patriark of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have several sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tomb-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlineary gloss yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle wherewith the Kings were annoynted should be compounded with Cinnamon and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mould as is digged out of Graves to put them in mind that very day in which they were made Gods upon earth that they should die like men In which regard we have great cause to Bless the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Marriage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too far set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learn from all the changes and chances of this mortal life not to sing a requiem to our souls here with the fool in the Gospel because we have wealth laid up for us for many years for if our riches take not their wings and fly away from us we shall be taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliff Death and then we must go But thou shalt go Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it self into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dream when the Sun was going down a heavy sleep fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt go in peace 2. An honourable burial and be buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sun was setting a deep sleep and dreadful darkness fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dream the misery and thraldome of his postetity in Egypt Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. years vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dryed up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a smoak of a fiery furnass vers 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safety and peace for himself and of deliverance of his posterity also out of their grievous servitude after a certain period of years allotted for the promise of the growth and ripeness of the Amorites sins For dreams in general the great Secretary of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreams of good men are better than the Dreams of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleep And doubtless as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantesies in the day beget better dreams in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sun shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsels and discloseth his secrets as well by dreams in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Joel I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soul by day and night though not for supernatural and prophetical revelations or not so frequent Dreams therefore as they are not with the Eastern people supertitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vain nocturnal phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter sends Dreams and Ariflotle dreamed not when he wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreams nor Artemidorus when he published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment of Dreams for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreams of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the window of the senses are shut the soul hath best leisure to look into her self and after sickness hath battered down the walls of the dark prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breaks in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte the soul looks out as it were neer death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreams or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh known the year to some the moneth to some the very day and hour when they shall go the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lecteum by the milky way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a natural death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dream he
committed to my custody never any but one escaped whom the heaven of heavens could not contain much less any earthly prison he might truly say and none but he O grave where is thy victory all save him I keep in safe custody that were ever sent to me Yet may all that die in Jesus and expect a glorious Resurrection by him even now by faith insult over the Grave for Faith calls those things that are not as if they were it looketh backward as far as the Creation which produced all things at the first of nothing and as far forward to the resurrection which shall restore all things from nothing or that which is as much as nothing Faith with an eye annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit seeth death swallowed up into victory and the earth and sea casting up all their dead and upon this evidence of things not seen triumpheth over Death and Hell saying O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory We have spoken hitherto of Death and the Grave let us now hear what they have to say to us Death saith fear not me the Grave Weep not immorderately for the dead Death bids us die to sin the Grave Bury all thy injuries and wrongs in the pit of oblivion both say to us slie sin and neither of us can hurt you both say to us Give thanks to him who hath given you victory over us both the sting of death pricks you not but if you die in the bosome of Christ rather delights and rickles you Death is no more Death but a sleep the Grave is no more a grave but a bed Death is but the putting off of our old rags the Grave is the Vestry and the Resurrection the new dressing and richly embroydering them Enough hath been said to convince us that Death which before was like a Serpent armed with a deadly sting is now but like a silly flie that buzzeth about us but cannot sting Yet as long as there is sin in us we cannot but in some degree fear Death and as long as natural affection remains in us take on for them that are taken away Neither doth Christian religion pluck out these affections by the root but only prune them All that my exhortation driveth unto is but to moderate passion by reason fear by hope grief by faith and nature by grace Let love express it self yet so that in affection to the dead we hurt not the living Let the natural springs of tears swell but not too much overflow their banks let not our eyes be all upon our loss on earth but our brothers gain also in heaven and let the one counter-ballance at least the other The parish hath lost a great stay his company in London a special ornament his Wife a careful Husband her Children a most tender Father the poor a good friend for besides that which his right hand gave in his life-time which his left hand knew not of by his Will he bequeathed certain sums of money for a stock to those Parishes wherein he formerly lived and to the poor of this twenty pounds to be distributed at his Funeral Many shall find loss of him but he hath gained God and is found of him no doubt in peace for there were many tokens of a true child of God very conspicuous in his life and death He loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honour dwelleth He was just in his dealings and sought peace all his life and ensued it he forgot nothing so easily as wrongs and though he enjoyed the blessings of this world in abundant measure yet he joyed not in them his heart was where his chief treasure lay in heaven he foretold his own death and the manner thereof that it should be sudden and sudden it was yet not unexpected nor unprepared for for three dayes before he set his house in order and desired to converse with Divines and all his discourses was of the kingdome of God and the powers of the life to come When the pangs of death came upon him he prayed most earnestly and desired if it so stood with Gods good pleasure to be eased yet uttered no speech of impatiency but being asked how he did answered that he was in Gods hands to whom he committed his soul as his faithful Creatour and so died as quietly as he lived wherefore sith he lived in Gods fear and died in his favour and shall rise again in his power though the loss of him be a great cut unto us as the loss of their children were to Pericles and Horatius Pulvillus yet as the one hearing of their death as he was at a solemn sacrifice kept on his Crown the other as he was at a dedication held still the pillar of the temple in his hand till the whole Ceremony was performed So let us continue our devotion notwithstanding this Parenthesis of sorrow and make an end of our evening sacrifice concluding with the words of the Apostle immediately following my Text Thanks be unto God who hath given unto our brother and will give unto us all victory over Death and the Grave yea and Hell to through Jesus Christ c. FATO FATVM OR THE KING OF FEARES FRIGHTED AND VANQUISHED SERMON XLIV HOSEA 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues THe Rose is fenced with pricks and the sweetest Flowers of Paradice as this in my Text are beset with thorns or difficulties which after I have plucked away the Holy Spirit assisting me I will open the leaves and blow the flowers in the Explication of this Scripture and in the Application thereof smell to them and draw from thence a savour of life unto life The Thorn groweth upon the diversity of Translations for Rabbi Shelamo larchi reads the words Ego ero verba tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death Aben Ezra ero causatuoe mortis I will be the cause of thy death Saint Jerome Ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will be thy death O Hell I will bite thee and he conceiveth that when our Saviour descended into Hell and his flesh in the Grave saw no corruption he spake these words to Death and Hell O death I will be thy death for therefore I dyed that thou mightest be slain by my death O hell I will bite and devour thee which devourest all things in thy chops The Septuagint render the Hebrew ubi causa tua ô mors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is thy plea or thy indictment what hast thou now to say against the chosen of god Saint Paul ubi stimulus tuus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting that is faith Saint Austin where is sin wherewith we are stung and poysoned Is not this Ghius ad Choum do not these Translations as well agree as harp and harrow neither can it be answered to salve the repugnancy and solve the difficulty that
all foul play towards him justling him on the side seeking to trip up his heels yea sometimes thrusting him forward on the back that so he might fall headlong by his own weight and their violence so often cometh it to pass betwixt rivals in the race of honour and vertue Ill-minded men perceiving themselves quite out strips by some eminent person who hath got the speed of them and despairing fairly to overtake him resolve fouly to overturn him by all means possible contriving his destruction Hence come those many millions of divices and stratagems contrived for his ruin endeavouring either to Divert him from his righteousness or Destroy him in his righteousness If the first takes no effect and if his constancy appears such as without regret he will persist in piety leaving them no hope to byass him to base ends then dispairing to how him from they contrive to break him in his righteousness Thus whilst he hath many enemies which conspire his destruction seeking with power to suppress or pollicy to supplant him The wicked man on the other side hath the generality of men the most being bad as himself to befriend him a main cause of his prolonging himself successful in his wickedness Secondly Righteous men perish in their righteousness because not so wary and watchful to defend themselves in danger being deaf to all jealousies and snspitions over-confident of other men measuring all others by the integrity of their own intentions This makes them lie at an open guard not fencing and fortifying themselves against any sudden surprisal but presuming that deserving no hurt none shall be done unto them Thus Gedaliah Governour of the remnant of the Jews after the captivity twice received the express intelligence of a conspiracy to kill him yet was so far from giving credit that he gave a sharp reproof to the first discoverer thereof Yea when Johanan the son of Kareah tendered his service to kill Ishmael sent as he said from Baalis King of Ammon to slay Gedaliah Gedaliah rejoyned Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael His noble nature gave no entertainment to the report till he found it too late to prevent it Whilst wicked men partly out of policy more out of guiltiness sleep like Hercules with their club in their haud stand alwayes on their guard are jealous of their very shadows and appearances of danger a great cause of their safety and success prolonging themselves in their wickedness Thirdly They perish because of a lazie principle which hath possessed the heads and hearts even of the best men who are unexcusable herein namely that God in due time will defend their innocence which makes them more negligent and remiss in defending themselves as the Prophet makes mention of a stone cut out without hands they conceive their cause will without manshelp hew its own way through the rocks of all resistance as if their cause would stand Centinal for them though they slept themselves as if their cause would fix their Muskets though they did it not themselves Thus the Christians in their battels against the Turks having won the day by their valour have lost the night by their negligence which principally proceeded from their confidence that God interested as a Second in every just cause was in that quarrel concerned as a Principle and it could not stand in his justice to suffer it to miscarry Whereas on the other side wicked men use double diligence in promoting their designs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their signs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their careful solliciting thereof and will soulder up their crackt title with their own industry They watch for all tides and wait for all times and work by all wayes and sail by all winds each golden opportunity they cunningly court and greedily catch and carefully keep thristily use in a word they are wiser in their generations then the children of light This may be perceived by the parallel betwixt the wife and the harlot many wives though herein they cannot be defended knowing their husbands obliged in conscience to love them by verture of their solemn promise made before God and the congregation at their marriage are therefore the less careful to study compliance to their husbands desires they know their husbands if wronging them wrong themselves therein and presuming themselves to deserve love as due unto them for their honesty and loyalty of affections are the less sollicitous to gain that which they count their own already Whilest the harlot conscious to her self of her usurpation that she hath no lawful right to the imbraces of her paramour tunes her self to the criticalness of all complacency to humour him in all his desires And thus alwayes those men whose cause have the weakest foundation in piety getteth the strongest buttress in policy to support it Lastly the righteous man by the principles of his profession is tyed up and confined onely to the use of such means for his preservation as are consonant to Gods will conformable to his word preferring rather to die many times then to save himself once by unwarrantable waies Propounded unto him a project for his safety and as Solomon promised favour to Adonijah so long as he shewed himself worthy otherwise if wickedness were found in him he should surely die So our righteous man onely accepts and embraceth such plots to secure himself thereby as acquit themselves honest and honourable such as appear otherwise he presently dispatches with detestation destroying the very motion and mention thereof from entring into his hearts On the other side the wicked man is left at large allowing himself liberty and latitude to do any thing in his own defence making a constant practice of doing evil that good may come thereof Yea we may observe in all ages that wicked men make bold with Religion and those who count the practice of plety a burden find the pretending thereof an advantage and therefore be the matter they manage never so bad if possible they will intitle it to be Gods cause Much was the substance in the very shadow of Saint Peter which made the people so desirous thereof as he passed by the streets And the very umbrage of Religion hath a sovereign virtue in it No better cordial for a dying cause then to over-shadow it with the pretence that it is Gods cause for first this is the way to make and keep a good and strong party No sooner the watch-word is given out For Gods cause but instantly GAD Behold a troop cometh of many honest but ignorant men who press to be listed in so pious an employment These may be kild but cannot be conquered for till their judgements be otherwise informed they will triumph in being overcome as confident the deeper their wounds got in Gods cause gape in their
exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause insuseth into arighteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveyances so that he imbraceth even death in self with a smiling countenance seeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in another world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a cretiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings Bench or Common Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Errour remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agrieved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guilty conscience which they carry about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is preformed by a guilty conscience that Squire of the body alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy empty body shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did Balaam Wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an Iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwayes howling fighting scenting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guilty conscience increaseth the neerer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the Fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chasing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperity of the wicked his heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who porspereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdy kind of Devils that will not be cast out save by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God there understood I their end O let them of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and mis-spend their courage to chase and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publike worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto them the equity of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimousand heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melancholly and heavy tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish then live walking
up and down disconsolate with soft paces sad looks and sorrowful hearts all their children they are ready to call and christen Ichobods the glory is departed from Israel being affected like the Citizens of Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib their hearts are like the trees of the wood moved with the wind But let such droopers know that herein they offend God and wrong themselves and let them gird up their loyns and tie up their spirits at the serious consideration that God in due time will raise them out of the dust maintain his own cause and confound his enemies The third sort of people are the Arguers or Disputers who being of a middle temper neither haughty nor stomackful neither low nor dejected and withal being good men embrace a middle course neither to fret nor dispute but calmly to reason out the matter with God himself Of this later sort was the Prophet Jeremiah who thus addresseth himself unto the Lord Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously The good man could not conceive Gods proceedings and although he kept to the conclusion Righteous are thou O Lord yet his heart was hot within him and he would fain be exchanging an argument with God that all was not right according to his humane capacity Job also was one of these Arguers in the agony of his passion Oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbour But let flesh and blood take heed of entring the lists by way of challenge with God himself If the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Silicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen were not able to resist the wisdome and the spirit by which he spake much less can frail flesh hope to make good a bad cause by way of opposition against God the best and wisest answerer Remember the Apostles question Where is the disputer But if we should be so bold in humility to examine Gods proceedings let us take heed lest whilest we dispute with God Satan insensibly prompts us such reasons as are seemingly unanswerable in our apprehensions so that instead of being too hard for God which is impossible men become too hard for themselves raising such spirits which they cannot quell and starting such doubts which they cannot satisfie Wherefore let not our ignorance be counted Gods injustice let not the dimness of our eyes be esteemed the durtiness of his actions being all purity and cleanness in themselves Let us if beaten from our out-works make a safe retreat to this impregnable castle Jeremiah his conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord c. Come we now to the good Uses that the godly ought to make of a righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And first when he finds such a one in a swoun he ought with all speed to bring him a cordial and with the good Samaritane to pour Oil and Wine into his wounds endeavouring his recovery to his utmost power whilest there is any hope thereof I must confess it is only Gods prerogative according to the greatness of his power to preserve those that are appointed to die However it is also the boundant duty of all pious people in their several distances and degrees to improve their utmost for the preservation of dying innocency from the cruelty of such as would murder it But if it be impossible to save it from death so that it doth expire notwithstanding all their care to the contrary they must then turn lamenters at the funerals thereof And if the iniquity of the times will not safely afford them to be open they must be close Mourners at so sorrowful an accident O let the most cunning Chyrurgeons not begrutch their skill to unbowel the richest Merchants not think much of their choisest spices to embalm the most exquisite Joyner make the coffin most reverend Divine the Funeral Sermon the most accurate Marbler erect the Monument and most renowned Poet invent the Epitaph to be inscribed on the tomb of Perishing Righteousness Whilest all others well-wishers to goodness in their several places contribute to their sorrow at the solemn Obsequies thereof yea as in the case of Josiah his death let their be an Anniversary of Mourning kept in remembrance thereof However let them not mourn like men without hope but let them behave themselves at the interment of his righteousness as confident of the resurrection thereof which God in his due time shall raise out of the ashes It is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown in disgrace it shall be raised in glory Lastly the temporal perishing of the righteous man in this world minds us of the necessity of the day of Judgment and ought to edge and quicken our prayers that God would shortly accomplish the number of his elect consummate this miserable world put a period to the dark night of his proceedings that so that day that welcome day may begin to dawn which is tearmed by the Apostle The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Five things there are besides many others in the primitive part of Gods justice which are very hard for men to conceive First How the sin of Adam to which we did never personally consent can justly be imputed to us his posterity Secondly How infants who never committed actual sin are subject to death and which is more to damnation it self Thirdly How God can actually harden the hearts of some as he did Pharaohs and yet not be in the least degree accessary to sin and the author thereof Fourthly How the Americans can justly be condemned to whom the sound of the Gospel was never trumpetted forth and they by their invincible ignorance uncapable of Gods will in his word Lastly How God as it in the Text can suffer righteous men to perish in their righteousness and wicked men to flowrish in their iniquity In all these a thin vail may seem to hang before them so that we have not a full and free view of the reasons of Gods proceedings herein yet so as that under and thorow this vail we discover enough in modesty and sobriety to satisfie our selves though perchange unable to utter what in part we apprehend we cannot effectually remove all the scruples which the pious nor all the cavils which the profane man brings against us But at the day of judgment at the revelation of the righteous judgment of God this vail shall be turned back or rather totally taken away so that all shall plainly and perspicuously perceive the justice of Gods dealing in the cases aforesaid Not that then or there any new essential addition or accession shall accrue to Gods justice to mend or make up any former desault or defect therein