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
To humble his children Psal 9.20 2. Cor 12. To strengthen their faith 2 Cor. 1.9 10. To encrease their watchfulnesse Mat. 25. 2 Pet. 3.1 1. To prepare them for death 2 Chro. 20.3 2. Sathan 2 Cor. 7.5 The inward causes of the fear of death 1. Natural In respect of the object it self death The apprehension of death as an Ill. Eccles 9.4 The apprehension of death as an ill unavoidable The apprehension of Death as an ill future In respect of the subject men Judg 8.20 Gen. 201 1. Sam 16. 2. Inward causes sinful 1. The want of the fear of God Deut. 28.65 66 c. 2. In ordinate love of the world Isa 38.11 Eccles 9. 3. Want of the assurance of Gods favour Luke 16. Mat. 6. Rev 6. Isa 33.14 Object Answer Psal 42. Exod. 14 11. Psal 23. Object 2. Answer Vse For exortation To be under the fear of death an uncomfortable estate The fear of death a bondage in two respects 2. It is possible to be freed from the fear of death Means to be freed from the fear of death 1. Humility 2. Faith 3. watchfulness 4. Preparation 5. Right apprehension of Death Phil. 3. Assurance of Gods favour 1 Cor. 3.23 2 Cor. 5.4 Coherence Definition of Patience Rom. 15.5 Gal. 5.22 Mat. 25 VVhat I is to let patience have her perfect work Rom 15.13 Collos 1.11 VVhat is meant by intire and wanting nothing 1. Sam. 30.6 The parts the text 1. A duty exhorted to 2. An Argument to Inforce it Conclus 1. Conclus 2. Conclus 1. A Christian not perfect without patience Mat. 5.48 Reas 1 A twofold perfection of a Christian Perfection of parts what it is 2 Pet. 1.5,6 Reas 2. Luke 21.19 Reas 3 No dutie can be rightly performed without patience Not Prayer Matth. 15. 2 Cor. 11. Not hearing Luk. 8.15 Rev. 3.10 Heb. 10.36 James 1.21 Reas 4. Heb. 10.36 Heb. 12.1 Conclus 2. Christian must labour for perfection in Patience Coll. 1.11 Mat. 5 48. Reas 1. Eph 5 Exod. 34.7 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 3.2 Pt. 2 Rom. 8.29 Luke 9. James 5.10 verse 11. Rom. 15.4 Reas 2. Acts 14.22.2 Tim. 3.12 Psal 73.27 Vse 1. For reproofe VVayes how men increase Impatience in themselves 1. By aggravating their afflictions Lam. 1.12 2. By giving liberry to their passions 3. By resusing comfort Gen. 37.34 4. By looking only on afflictions present not on mercies Est â—… 13 5. By looking on the instrument and not on God Psal 55.12.13 Plal. 39.9 6. By looking on the smart and not on the benefit of affliction Heb. 12.11 1. Cor. 11.32 Vse 2. For exhortarion How to exercise patience In present crosses 1. Cosider God the orderer of all conditions Therefore give him the glory of his soveraignty 1 King 20 3. Job 1.21 2 Sam 15 25 O his wâ—…sedome Of hâ—…s mercy Lam. 2. Ier. 45.5 2. Consider the desert of siu Dan. 9. Eâ—…â—… 9. Lam. 3. 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 born 〈◊〉 Patience Rev. 3.10 How to exercise patience in Gods delaying of mercies 1. Consider that delayes are not denyals 2. That delaies increase mercies Isa 61.7 2. Cor. 4. 2. Cor 1. 3. That delaies are but short compared to eternitie Coherence Division 1. Davids carriage durlâ—…g his childs sickness Meaning of the words 1. Cor. 3.8 Rom. 14.17 Davids Fast a religious fast Davids teâ—…rs proceeded nor from a natural but from a spiritual principle Gen. 32. Hso 12. Isa 38. 2. The reason of Davids carriage Gods absolute sentence implies condition Isa 38. Jonah 3.4 1 Sam. 15. Verse 35 Chap. 16.1 Num. 14. Vse 1. For instruction Jer. 18 7. Vse 2. For inconragement Ezek. 33.10 11. Gen. 3. Joel 2.12 13. Observe first Davids piety Mat 15 22. Comfort to Gods children Psal 103. Isa 63.9 2. Observe Davids piety Parents in their childrens miseries should remember their own sins 1. King 17. Object 1. Deut. 24.16 Ezek. 18.20 Answ Object 2. Answ Quest Answ Pro. 31. 1. Sam 2 29 chap. 3.12.13 Vse 1. To parents The sins that bring judgments upon mens posterity Vse 2. To children 2. Davdis carriage when his child was dead The reasons of it Observation from the first reason Psal 44. The way to order our affections is to reduce them to the principles of rectified reason Job 14.14 Observation from the second reason Vse Encles 1 2. Observation from the third reason Observation from the fouth reason Eccles 3.2 Coherence Division Pâ—…pos Sin is the sting of death A double consideration of death What death is here meant Corporall death Principally Two parts of spiritual death What sin is the sting of Death Sin two wayes considered Sin unmortified proves the sting of death 1. In respect of the guilt 2. In respect of the filth How sin is said to be the sting of Death Sin stings before death A death After death At the day of Judgement After the Judgement Sin makes death fearful Sin makes death hurtful Vse Bâ—…cles 11. How a man shall know whether Death shall come with a sting to him Eccles 11.9 How to get the sting of Death pâ—…lied out 1. Get a part in Christ Rev. 1.18 Rom. 8. 2. Get sincerity of heart Isa 38. 3. Practise Mortification 1 Cor. 15. Vse 2. Division of the text 1. Death is Nature teacheth 1. what death is 2. The properties of death That it is 1. Universal 2. Inevitable 3. Uncertain The Scripture teacheth 1. what death is 2. what are the causes of death 3. what are the consequences of death Heb. 9.17 The particular judgment The general Judgment 5. what is the remedy against the evil of death 2. Death is an enemy 1. Depriving a man of all that is benefitial or comfortable 2. Inflicting misery upon a man 3. Death the last enemy Not to all But to the Saints 4. Death shall be destroyed Vse 1. For Examination How a man may be fitted for death 1. Get death disarmed now 2. Get armour against death Vse 2. For reprehension Vse 3. For Exhortation Vse 2. For comfort The division of the text The first part of the Text. The meaning of the words 1. Of the subject Merciful men 1 Joh. 4.20 Rom. 12.18 2. Of the predicat they perish Eccles 3. Observat 3. Of the extent from the evil to come 1 From the evil to suffering That he shall not see it That he shall not endure it Ezek 9 Exod. 12. 3. From the evil of finning That he shall not see sin com mitted by others That he shall not commit sin himself Vse Quest Answ The loss of a godly man a great punishment to a place The second part of the Text. Inconsideraton a great sin A frui of sin A cause of sin Isa 40.6 Luk. 1.4 Psal 90.10 Exod. 17.14 Isa 8.1 Ezek. 24.2 Rom. 14.1 The division of the words Observation 1. Aust lib. 19. de Civit. Dei. A double blessedness Phil 3.21 2. Cor. 5.7 Phil. 1 23. 1. Cor. 15.19 Eccles 9.4 Job 2 4 Job 6.3 Psa 119.175 psal 39.13 Isa 38.18,19 Job 7.15
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
Nation or Kingdom it is an infallible sign of judgement falling upon it And is must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it cometh or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must befall men and places when they are under this carnal security First look to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall do well It proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sin should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they go on in a course of sinning against God Durst they add drunkenness to thirst one wickedness to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that he hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear prepared an Ark. He beleeved the word of God was faithful that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Ark for the safety of him and his house and therefore he feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Ark. So likewise Josiah when he read the book of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sins of the people his heart melted within him and why because he beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sins wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a discription of a beleever in Isa 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what is the reason why infidelity doth presently bring judgements upon men The cause is apparant infidelity it draweth men from God An unbeleeving heart departs from the living God And when a man departs from Gods presence God pursueth him with his judgments All the judgements of God are upon that place where Gods presence in his graces is not If I go faith David to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there if I go into the deep thou art there And how there Not only as an observer but as a punisher that is when men come to this point to flie from God Now unbeleef is a drawing of the soul from God to the creature therefore it provokes God for it sets up an Idol in the heart of man and Idolatry exceedingly provokes God and therefore he bringeth judgements upon it Beside that marke the threatning of the word against this Deut. 29. When a man heareth the words of this curse and blesseth himself and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart the Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the plagues that are written in this book shall be heaped on him When is that when is the time that the wrath of God shall smoak At that very time and instant when he flattereth himself with his vain conceits that he shall have peace though God threaten judgement then at that very instant the wrath of God shall fall upon such a man In this manner did God deal with the Israelites in Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and why so that they may see and not perceive that they may hear and not understand lest they should be converted and I should heal them How long shall this be saith the Prophet till the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate When God giveth over a people to be regardless in hearing the Word that they hear and do not hear ken they hear and do not regard they do not comforme and reform according to the doctrine delivered then God intendeth to sweep them away by judgement that they may be utterly left desolate as the Text saith You see then it must needs be a grievous fore-runner of a judgement upon a place or City or people or nation when they remain impenitent in their sins and yet cry peace Again secondly If you marke the concommitants what accompanies that carnal security in the heart of men and it will appear then that it must of necessity bring a judgement upon a Land and place What is that that accompanies it A disposition slighting of God himself When a man I say heareth the Word the judgements threatned heareth the Law warning him to take heed of wrath the Gospel alluring him to repent and yet all moveth him not but still he flattereth himself I say here is a disposition slighting God himself God in all his Attributes is slighted His power his wisdom his justice his truth is slighted yea his mercy and patience and long-suffering all are slighted when a man in the course of sin goeth on in carnal security Especially amongst the rest this is a slighting of Gods patience and long-suffering and forbearance of men Wherefore do men harden themselves against exhortation to repentance but because they presume upon the continuance of Gods long-suffering toward them Mark how the Lord takes notice of this The forbearance and long-suffering the goodness and mercy of God should lead thee to repentance and therefore God hath forbore thee all this while that he might bring thee to repentance But what if he do not Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart heapest up as a treasure to thy self wrath against the day if wrath What day is that The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if he should say Now you obscure Gods justice and righteousness from others and from your selves Well God therefore will take a time to declare his righteous judgement for that purpose God hath a day of wrath and thy daily going on in sin against the long-suffering and patience of God it doth but add wrath to that day Thus it is when God hath borne with a man his own self So it is likewise when God warneth a man by his patience toward others What hardneth men in security Do we not see God hath been merciful to many sinners why may he not be so to me too He gave them repentance after many sins committed why may he not do so to me Mark what Solomon faith Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer or an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in
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
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
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
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
present calamities of a mans life For crosses of any kind in name state freinds or families or in whatsoever a man hath or goeth about they may all be reduced to this one head when a man cometh from a state of health to a state of sickness from a state of comfort to a state of sorrow from acquaintance and society to be as a Pelican in the wilderness as David speaks destitute of all freinds and helps from inward rejoycing in his heart in the assurance of Gods love to spiritual disertions wherein he seemeth to be as in a cloud under the frowns of God When a man is in this case how shall he exercise Patience how shall he come to it Briesly the way for a man to get patience in such cases as these is this First to consider that there is no change in my life there is no condition whatsoever that I am cast into but it is ordered by God Set thy soul awork now to give God his glory in that change of thy life First give God the glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion Secondly give him the glory of his wisdome Thirdly give him the glory of his mercy in those changes of thy life that seem most grievous to thee First I say give him the glory of his absolute soveraignty Acknowledge him an absolute in-dependant Lord that doth what he will among the creatures His will is the rule of all his actions upon the creatures here below and uncontroul'd unquestionable It is high arrogancy and presumption and pride of spirit for the creature to contest with his Creator concerning his actions on earth Let every man reason thus I must give God the glory of his Soveraignty and acknowledge that he hath power and right to rule all the families of the earth and why not mine as well as another Why not my person as well as anothers Why not to order all the changes of my life as well as another mans That which Benhadad spake proudly to Ahab thy silver and thy gold thy wives and thy children and thy house and thy Citie are mine That may God speak truely and by right All that thon hast and all that thou art is mine therefore give him that glory that Job did in the change of his life The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord that gave hath right to take what he will There is nothing that will keep the creature in his due place but the consideration of Gods absolute soveraignty This consideration was that that meekned the spirit of Eli when that heavy message was brought to him that there should come such misery upon his house that whosoever heard it both his eares should tingle well saith he It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good It is the Lord and it becometh not servants to stand and contend with their Lord. So David when the Priests offered him their service to go along with him to the field from Absolom If saith he I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back to Jerusalem and his tabernacle but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Here was that that humbled the spirit of David when he considered that he was under the hands of an absolute Lord let the Lord do with me what seemeth him good Secondly as thou must give him the glory of his soveraignty so of his wisdome Know that God ordereth all his wayes with wisdome and counsel he knoweth what is good for his children Ye are content when ye are sick that the Physitian should diet ye because ye account him wise and one that hath skill in that course If God diet thee for the purging out of some corruption and for the curing of some spiritual disease in thy soul submit to God in this case be willing to resigne thy self up to be ordered by him A man that hath a Gangreen or such a dangerous disease in his body submitteth to the Surgeon in his course though it be to the cutting and sawing off a limb though it be never so painful and the losse be never so great yet he is for the saving of his life willing to have that taken away God is a wise God that knoweth what estate is best for thee not onely when tryals are better than comforts but what one kind of tryall is better then another it may be it is better to exercise one with poverty another with disgrace another with spiritual trouble another with restraint of liberty which particular tryall is necessary to cure that disease and which this that is in my soul the heavenly Physitian will bring that upon thee as a spirituall prescription and a heavenly course that he takes in insinite wisdome to cure thee Lastly give him in all this the glory of his mercy What hast thou lost but thou maiest have lost a great deal more What dost thou suffer but thou maiest have suffered a great deal more As Alcibiades when he was told that one had stollen half his plate I have cause faith he rather to be thankeful that he took no more then to be troubled that he took so much I am sure it is true of God in this case what hath God took from thee some part of thy estate some friend some comfort of thy life some one or other particular comfort could he not have done more He afflicteth thee in thy body he might have afflicted thee in thy soul and a wounded spirit who can bear He hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soul into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meek heart and willing spirit to God as a merciful God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their own houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Jeremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added grief to his sorrow What grief was that that He must go to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions comes upon thee they might have been greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give
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
Death Every sin vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sin but in the event that sin proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sin in the event proveth the sting of death but that sin that liveth in us or rather that sin that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sin that putteth a sting into death That very sin that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sin will make death terrible Secondly Sin may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soul When a man setteth upon the root of Sin and the way of Sin and falleth a crucifying the body of Sin and the members of it I say howsoever there be divers motions and stirrings of Sin in the soul yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue pass over them if they come not within the judgment to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walk but fall within the improbation of the judgment to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sins these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sin remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sin is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sin he hath committed if the Sin be in the book of God uncrossed be a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall hear anon then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthiness of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinful motions those depraving qualities in thy soul that thou likest and practifest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hand of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in sin and will go on in Sin do so But know this when thou comest to the full strength of thy Sin let it be what it will when Death cometh it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sin the very power of thy sin armeth Death against thy soul No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will go on in Sin So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to work in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feels his sin there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily sixeth his sting in the soul and makes the sinner feel the smart of his sin There be three times wherein Sin can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that bears himselfe up alost in his own eyes in scrone and contempt of the ministry of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrows into his very soul and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne form the wrath that boyleth in his soul And it is one thing to deal with the Minister and another to deal with God When God strikes his Arrows of vengeance into the soul of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his own children for sin David cries out he roared for the disquietness of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long faith he If there be such deep disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sin in a Cain a Judas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore think not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sin stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death cometh and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sins unrouched howsoever he behaved himself in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breaks his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a Person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sins when it cometh to a Belshazar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidst all those sweet morsels his sins which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sin only but then at the time of death sin is a poyson indeed Lastly Sin can sting not only before and at but after death Bothat the day of Judgment and after At the day of judgement Is not the concience of a sinner think you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountains to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our one cause think of it it will be our case as It is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgement And after the Judgement when the sentence go you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worm for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happiness for a sinner if he might only hear the sentence if this worm might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sin is called the sting of death because then Sin stingeth more eminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in
and now will be finished in a time of Mortality certain And that there should be no part of correspondency wanting this latter part of the Verse is answerable to the former it is but the same again in other words In the former part there is mention of the righteous man here of the mercyful man they are both one In that he is said to perish here to be taken away they are both the same There No man is said to lay it to heart and here no man is said to consider it both the same So that look upon the whole both parts joyn together they walk on by pairs two and two as the living creatures into the Ark Male and Female The first pair sets forth to you the state and condition of a godly man he is righteous and merciful those are the male and female of Piety The second sets forth to you the state and condition of a dying man he perisheth and is taken away those are the Male and Female of death The third sets out the state and condition of a worldly man he layes it not to heart he never takes it into consideration those are the Male and Female of carnal security And that all the pairs should now be made up the former part was handled at the burial of a good old Man this latter now at the burial of an old and vertuous Gentlewoman those are the Male and Female of nature The former part that is a complaint that the Prophet made and so is the second and this second is set as a Commentary to the first this latter part is as Eve created as a help to Adam for every word in this latter helps to expound some word in the former The first word in the latter part tâ—… us of the merciful man that is the Exposition of the first word in the former part the righteous man Lest any man should make question who this righteous man was that the Prophet speaks of how we should know him and define him and find him find me a merciful man and he is truly a righteous man The second word in the latter part is taken away that hath reference to the second word in the former and it is a qualification of the harshness of the former there it is said The righteous man perisheth but lest any man should scandal at this word shall we think that he perisheth whose life is hid with Christ in God Shall the Scripture say that he perisheth whose name is in the bundle of life written in heaven To lay aside therefore the rigour of the word here is the Qualification he is taken away The third word of the latter hath reference to the third of the former too No man considereth it If any man ask the reason how it comes to pass that people should be without natural affection that they take it not to heart that they are not grieved for Joseph that they are not striken with any sense of their own losses what should be the reason of it The reason is in this word they take it not into consideration They trouble not their heads therefore not their hearts with it That it may make an aggravation of that They were so far from taking of it to heart that they never propounded it to the examination and scanning of their judgment they consider it not So every word in the latter part is serviceable to the first I shewed concerning the first part who this Righteous man is how great the dignation of the Spirit of God is that he will stile holy men that are so imperfect in holiness yet because of their holy endeavours to walk in the wayes of God blamelesly the Spirit stiles them Righteous men Secondly I shewed how this Righteous man is said to perish and it what sense and how it is impossible they should perish and why the Holy Ghost chooseth this word which is more then death to set out to us the death of the Righteous man And then the last considered in particular how it is lawful to 〈◊〉 for the departure of those that are gone how that God alloweth that how that God blameth for the neglect of it Men are to lay it to heart to grieve How 〈◊〉 this griese is to extend These were the heads of those things that concerne the first part I now go on forward to the second And that is a complaint as the former was that the Prophet takes up over the people of the Jewes for their great stupidity in that they considered not any work of God toward them And it hath these two parts There is the complaint he takes up over the dead Merciful men are taken away from the evil to come And the other complaint he takes up over the living those that are living and survive them they care not though heaven and earth be mingled together though they lose all their props whereby the earth is supported they never consider it I begin with the first of these And that is The complaint that is taken up over the Righteous mans departure In that I consider two things First looke to the meaning of the words And then see what were the motives that made the Prophet take up this complaint and lamentation that whereas others wanted it the Prophet should supply it and should give testimony to their departure The righteous are taken away First for the meaning of the words It is a proposition and there are three parts of it The subject of the proposition Merciful men The Predicat Are taken away The Affix anexed to it from the evil to come Briefly look upon the meaning of all these and they will all afford us some instruction The First is the subject of this proposition It is said here and it varieth from the former Merciful men A man would wonder why he should alter the stile except it were because the Spirit of God delighteth to set out godly men according to the multitude of their titles the righteous and mercyful men Otherwise the same terme might have been kept in the latter part for they are both the same in effect He that is a merciful man is a Righteous man and he that is righteous will be merciful yet the Prophet varieth it righteous men perish and merciful men are taken away There is some special reason of the variation I conceive it is one of these three or all The first reason why he useth this word merciful men in the latter part is For the greater conviction of their stupidity They were such as were not affected with the condition or loss of righteous and holy men nay they were so stupid that they were not affected with the loss of mercyful men that is more If there were any sense of piety they should for Gods cause grieve at the loss of godly men but if their were any sense of their own good there should be grief for the loss of merciful men Generally
away for their good but for our ill we have lost the benefit of their example the comfort of their society and now we may fear that Judgments will come plentifully for merciful men are taken away from the evill to come So I have done with the first part of the Complaint I will be very briefe in the second that is over the living no man considereth it this is truly to be bemoaned There is a doudle extent first of the Act they consider not And then an extent of the person no man considereth This Act hath a great latitude It is either an aggravation of the former they lay it not to heart nay they do not take it into consideration or else it is a rendring a reason of the former they lay it not to heart because they bethink not themselves Consideration is an act of the judicial part of the understanding as incogitancy is a rocking of reason asleep a shuting of the doore of reason Neglect that is a negligence of due care to be taken on the other side inconsideration or incogitancy that is a neglect of the due course of reason due pondering of a thing A man is said not to consider that scanneth not that examineth not the cause that laies not the effects and consequences together that compareth not one thing with another So that it is thus much now they considered not that is they pondered not in their hearts they examined not according to the rule of reason they looked not to it what should be Gods meaning in taking away merciful men from the evil to come they looked not forward to the time to come nor backward to the time past they were altogether inconsiderate It is a great sin and a fruit of sin and a cause of all sin It is a sin in it selfe for God hath given man Reason to use upon all occasions to consider Gods works and his own works and those things that befal others and himself The true improvement of Christianity is the exercise of consideration That exciteth a man to repentance David laies it as a ground I considered my wayes and turned my feet to thy testimonies A man never repenteth that considereth not his wayes The want of consideration keepeth a man freezing and setling on the dregs of sin It is a fruit of sin of the first sin incogitancy bringeth security that rocks reason asleep then passion hath her scope when reason governeth not It is the trne punishment of the first sin and the fruit of it because reason is decaied in man by sin reason was then unrectified reason grew irrigular Nay it is the cause of all sin We can resolve no particular sin to any other principle but this that men consider not before they commit it The reason why men go on in excess and riot and continue in drunkenness is nothing but this they lay it not heart they look not forward what will be the issue and event they consider not the account they are to make to God they think not that God is providing a cup of deadly wine and that all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ The reason why mens desires of the world and of living here are so inlarged it is the want of consideration of what is the heppiness of heaven of the promises that God hath made There is no sin but it is resolved into this case So here it is that the Prophet complaineth of the want of consideration When merciful men were taken away they consider it not to sympathize to prepare themselves to what God would doe after he had removed these that when he had removed the obstacles that then he would pour his wrath upon them Secondly there is another extent of the Word that is of the subject of the person No man It argueth the neglect to be general A man would have thought that upon the mention of the first word Mercyful men are taken away the mourners should go about in the streets the poor Orphans should weep because they have lost a Patron No such matter no consideration on no hand that is a wonder had the merciful man no wife no children no freind to mourn after him when he was buried in the earth was there no well-willers to him that had benefit by his piety to mourn for the righteous man was there none like to himself one righteous man will mourn for another What is this then No man If they would not regard the piety of the godly man or merciful when he lived me thinks when he died there should be some consideration A Mountain as long as it standeth men take no great notice of it â—…but if it fall all eyes look upon it The Sun when he is in his strength there are few eyes that look on it but if it come to an ecclipse every man gettteh into his Turret Generally men delight to look upon those Stars that in their opinion they think are fallen All these the godly man is He shineth as a star here as the Sun in his strength after he is as a Mountain as a Beacon upon a Mountain more glorious The Mountain and the star falleth the Sun is in the Ecclipse Merciful men are taken away and no man considereth it I will not say it is to be taken in the full extent it implieth not a nullity but a paucity As in that place in the Psalme there is none that doth good no not one The Prophet doth not imply that there was not one godly man at all but so few that they could hardly be numbred a great paucity So here No man considereth that is those that considered were so very few that there was hardly notice taken of them they were hardly in the compass of a Number Nay it is twice noted No man no man to shew it it was almost a nullity there is not any not any that is they were exceeding few What is the reason Because they were not acquainted with the rule and way of piety therefore they mourned not If piety were within it would simpathize without as there is like rejoycing so they would sorrow together We are not to think but they had natural affection though it were almost cut off It is likely if any of their kin were took away they would mourne If a Pather or Mother were taken away the most impenitent man would have tears though not for sin yet for losses and crosses then there are those that would crie with Elisha My father my father the Chariots of Israel c. If a brother or a sister were taken away I doubt not but there are those that would follow with the voyce of lamentation Alas my brother alas my sister wo is me for my brother Jonathan We have tears for brethren Further if it were but a child that were lost a man would be sure to find tears for him and sigh along time after and would say with David Oh Absalom my son
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
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
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
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
of protection on the right hand and on the left That then that was the ruin of the Egyptians it was the protection of the Israelites So it is in regard of death that that is the entrance to the doleful misery of evil men that is the most blisseful and joyful day to a child of God that can be for then he rests from his labours and his works follow him But notwithstanding all this it is hard to live without fear I enjoy many things I am afraid to lose them and my children are afraid and loath to part with me my heart wavers and is full of perplexity how shall I be freed from this I know fear is a natural thing deeply rooted in nature think not to get the conquest wholly but by little and little Labour to get the Spirit of God that is supernatural that must overcome this for the strongest resolution of the most resolved spirit in the world will not overcome it it must be by a power that is stronger then our own namely by the Spirit of GOD that we being assured by the Spirit that God is our portion and living the life of faith we may not fear any thing in regard of this world Secondly labour to keep our covenant with God there is an admonition Numb 14.9 Only faith God remember you do not rebel against God and then fear not this people for God is with you but he hath for saken them The righteous is bold as a Lyon but the wicked fears and oft-times where there is no fear What is the reason we are so faint-hearted that we fear the loss of the things of this world because we are not assured that God is our portion for if a man were assured that what he loseth here God would make up in regard of his presence that he would be All in all instead of wife and goods and children and honours c. it is impossible that this man should fear the loss of any thing for he possesseth all in God and he cannot be lost In particular labour to strengthen faith make God our strong Tower and live by faith he shall not be afraid of ill tydings why his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 1.12 When men make the things of this world their portion when they make riches and the arme of flesh their portion that they must rely upon here is a reed that will either break or pierce a mans hand No wonder that this man fears in all occasions and extremities because he forsakes the Lord and cleaves to the creature But that man that lives by faith is without fear As Peter when he began to sink faith Christ Why dost thou fear O thou of little faith The reason he did sink was fear and why did he fear because his faith failed him he did not lay hold upon God and Christ Lastly let us remember to order our selves aright in regard of our love and this will keep us from inordinate fear For we must conceive that love is the fountain of all other affections we love things and therefore we desire them if they be absent and we rejoyce in them if they be present and we fear the loss of them to be abridged of them Now let us order our love aright in regard of the things of this world and we shall never fear much for it is the observation of S. Austin we fear to lose somewhat that we have attained or not to enjoy somewhat that we desire so it ariseth from love somewhat that we love and affect we are afraid of the loss of it and this is the cause of fear Now in regard of wealth a man is afraid he shall not have enough he shall not have a competency it is because he loves the things of the world too much A man is afraid of Death why because he loves his body too much A man is afraid he shall lose his children or his Friends what is the reason he loves them too much too inordinatly We should labour to love them only in and for God and then we shall not be afraid of the loss of them but shall be content to be disposed in them and in our selves as God shall see convenient in his heavenly wisdom A word for the occasion and that I will dispatch in a word You know the occasion of our meeting at this time and in this place it is to perform this last rite to the body of a Child that God hath taken lately to his mercy You see how Almighty God is pleased to dispose it sometimes even ost-times from the Cradle to the Grave out of the Swadling-bands to the winding-sheet God will have it so sometimes and when it is so we must lay our hands upon our mouths and be content with the will of God For those that are Parents let all learn this lesson not to dote too much upon their children not to be enamoured too much upon such flowers you know how soon God takes them away before you be aware It is not their wit or their comliness or agility and nimbleness or healthy constitution or any thing that can award them from the stroak of death when God sends it Therefore learn to love them in and for God for his sake and you shall have no cause to fear the loss of them or grieve immoderately when they are taken away why because they are all alive still to God and this tender Babe is not lost he is but sent before he is alive still in the presence of God the soul stillives and the body shall live and is in Gods account Christ hath the charge of it and will raise it at the last day That man can lose no friend that loves his friend in and for God because they live with God and he shall enjoy them at the last day Again as we may mourn for the loss of our friends and children or else we were without natural affection so we must rejoyce that they have gained as we have lost them as they are taken from us so they are taken from the evils of the world from a great deal of sin and misery and what that might have been the Lord only knows therefore we have cause to be thankful And beloved be thankful too if God spare any if he take one he might have taken all and prepare for it too be thankful for them that are lest And remember labour betimes to instruct your children in the fear of God let it be the first thing we infuse into them as soon as they be capable namely the elements of Christian Religion holy and heavenly things why because they may be taken away before we are aware It may be we have but a little time but a few opportunities to do good to them I tell you what our conscience will tell us else that we have not been so careful to instruct our children as they have been capable
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
it is death What a world of people run blindly and desperately on they turn to the race of sin as the horse to the battel without fear as if the Psalmists Tremble and sin not were rather sin and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sin in our selves to which so dreadful and woful wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learn as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and misery we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himself For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stipend that we have earned is eternal death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ coming between Gods justice and us Think we then if we can what misery it is that we have escaped as many of us I mean as be in the state of grace we have escaped death the hurt of temporal death we have escaped eternal death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soul for ever unutterable torments company with the divel and his angels and the rout of reprobates darkness blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernal lake that worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sin and that it is not rendred to all sin and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath been already exacted of Christ in the behalf of all true beleevers therefore in their own persons they are discharged how infinitely are we bound in thankfulness to him and how careful should we be to walk worthy of it resolving never to return to the service of sin again but to make it our whole study that we may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such misery as this that we may please him for we had deserved eternal death as well as others and he hath not only freed us from that that we had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to be considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sin Now the reward of the service of God is eternal life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is natural and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spiritual proper to the faithful begun by the union of God and the soul and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when we begin to beleeve and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternal life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our souls being freed from our bodies are withal free from all sin original and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soul shall be reunited we shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever 〈◊〉 could here And this spiritual life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternal life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternal three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternal and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternal for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have but it shall never have an end and this eternal life it is called here The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us only for the merits of Christ For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when he had said The wages of sin is death he doth not add and say but the wages of righteousness is eternal life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternal life meerly for his own mercy not for our merits or else surely the Apostle would have made the latter part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may ask why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness as well as death the wages of sin I answer because there is not the same reason between sin and righteousness For first sin is our own it merits it but righteousness is none of our own it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then again sin is perfectly evil and so it deserves death but our righteousness inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternal life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternal life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ Indeed eternal life sometimes many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercy as well as of justice Nay God is said sometimes to reward his children in justice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himself by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if he had not promised eternal life otherwise he ows us nothing at all much less eternal life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a
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
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
first degree of his exaltation so this spiritual Resurrection that we have spoken of it is the first degree of a Christians exaltation therefore get this in the first place yea get this and all will follow If thou attain this thou maist be assured of the second Resurrection also to the life of glory Remember that Christ by raising himself from the dead by his own power declared himself to be the eternal Son of God He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his Resurrection So if thou canst by a power and vertue drawn from Christ rise out of the grave of thy sin then thou shalt declare thy self to be the member of Christ the Son of God the daughter of God therefore labour to attain this first Resurrection But here this question may be demanded but by what means now doth Christ convey this spiritual life to his children and how shall I get to be partaker of this Resurrection by what means shall I attain this first Resurrection to this spirituall life To this I answer briefly that by the same means by which Christ works faith in the soul by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life for he that beleeveth liveth and he that liveth beleeveth he that beleeveth is raised to life therefore by the same means that Christ works faith by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life Therefore the outward means is the Preaching of the Word the inward the Spirit of grace By such means as Christ will raise the bodies of the dead at the last day by the like means he now raiseth the souls of those that are dead in sin Now Christ will raise the bodies that are now dead in the Grave at the last day First by his voyce John 5.28.29 and by the sound of the Trumpet 1 Cor. 15.52 The Trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And he shall raise them by his quickning Spirit So by the like means Christ now raiseth our souls that are dead in sins therefore if thou desire to be raised out of the grave of sin let me counsel thee First to attend diligently to the word of God upon the preaching of the Gospel The word of Christ is a quickning word as Christ saith Joh. 3.63 My Word is spirit and life The voyce of Christ is a quickning voyce as Christ by his voyce raised Lazarus out of his Grave when Christ said to Lazarus Come forth presently Lazarus quickned and came forth so the voyce of Christ in the ministery of the Word hath a quickning power to raise sinners from the death of sin therefore when the Ministers cry aloud and the Prophets lift up their voyce as a Trumpet then hearken Secondly be frequent and fervent in Prayer for the Spirit of grace and of Christ before thou hear pray and after thou hast heard pray that the Spirit of Christ may accompany his Word that so this may be a means to awaken and to quicken thee out of thy natural estate and to raise thee out of the death of sin Thou must pray to God to give thee a hearing ear and a believing heart that so the sound of the Word may not be as the sound of a Trumpet in the ears of a dead man but that thou maiest be quickned by the voyce of Christ And though thou have continued a long time in thy sins yet be not altogether discouraged remember that Christ is able to raise thee though thou have continued never so long in thy sins for he that was able to raise Lazarus that was dead and buryed and now stinking in the Grave he is able to raise up thee also In the last place in one word if upon examination thou find thou have attained to this spiritual Resurrection then here is a ground of exhortation To humility To thankfulness Here is a ground of Exhortation to Humility and Thankfulness to joyn them both together because they usually go together the proud person is alway unthankful and the humble man is alway a thankful man Now if thou have attained to the Resurrection thou hast great cause to be humble and to be thankful First thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou hast nothing but that thou hast received thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou puttest not any hand to this work no more than the dead body of Lazarus could help to the raising of him No more then a creature being nothing can help to its own creation no more can a sinner help forward this mork of his Resurrection therefore thou hast cause to be humbled for not puting the least helping hand to this work it is wholly supernatural Therefore let not any one arrogate any thing to the power of his free will but remember the work is wholly supernatural Secondly as we have cause to be humbled so to be thankful too do but consider the desperate and dangerous estate of sin whence thou art raised and then make thy humble confession with the Israelites when they brought their first fruits before God Deut. 26.5 A Syrian ready to perish was my father he went into Egypt with a few and become a Nation mighty and populous and the Lord brought him out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm with terrour and signs and wonders and hath brought us to this place and hath given us this Land even a Land flowing with milk and honey The like deliverance the Lord hath wrought for thee therefore be thankful and make thy thankful acknowledgment with the Psalmist Psal 115. Not unto us but to thy name give the glory And then desire God as he hath by his mercy brought thee to the Kingdome of grace so by his power to preserve thee to the Kingdome of glory And desire Christ as he by his quickning Spirit hath made thee partakers of the first Resurrection to the life of grace so to make thee partaker of the second to the life of glory DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRUIT OF EVES Transgression SERMON XXXVI GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died IT is a Statute law of God that all both Men and Women must die The causes for which it pleased Almighty God to leave the bodies even of his dearest Children under the power of Death to be returned to dust are many First for the manifesting his truth according to that ancient threatning mentioned Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Secondly for the manifestation of his power that by death he may translate his chosen servants to life Sin it was that brought death into the world and God will shew his strength in this that death shall be the utter abolishment even of that very thing which brought it first upon us and made us all lyable to it If there had not been sin there should not have been death and now God will that in those that are his the kingdom and being of sin shall utter
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
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
fear is Kinds off fear 1 Natural 2 Carnal fear 3 Servile fear Act 2. 4 Filial fear Isa 8 12. Reas We are delivered from our enemies either Luke 1.47 1 By reconciliation 2 By conquest Vse 1. The power of grace must reflect on a mans self Vse 2. Possible to live without fear Psalm 23 Vse 3. Reproof for inordinate fear 1 We fear too soon 2 Too much 1 It brings a great deal of ill Isa 66.4 2 It unfits the heart to bear evils It hurts the body It doth hurt to the soul 1 Natural 2 Spiritually Fear the ground of most sins Vse 4. To sence our hearts against it No cause of fear 1 Of spiritual enemies 2 Of worldly evils Ier. 46.28 Object Answ Object Answ Quest Answ How to get the conquest of fear 1 Labour for the spirit 2 Keep covenant with God 3 Strengthen faith 4 To place our love aright August Simile Doctr. Both words and actions shall be called to account Matth. 5.22 Iude 13.14 Reas 1. The Law binds men in speeches Reas 2. Words injure God and man Levit. 24.11 Act. 8. Vse To condemn those that make light account of words Pal. 39. Psal 131. Doctr. God will proceed in judgement according to his Law Ioh. 12.48 Object Answ All men judged by the Law The Law not alike expressed to all Rom. 2 14. Reas 1. The Law is Gods scepter that he ruls by Reas 2. Because the law is a rule Vse 1. Reproof of those that neglect the law Quest Answ To despise Gods commandement what Matth. 25.41 Vse 2. Admonition to observe the Law 1. For direction 2. For tryal Doctr. The consideration of the day of Judgment should move to holiness 1 It hath drawn some to obedience Eccles 11.9 1 To forsake the world Phil. 3.7 2 Disposing the heart to obedience Eccles 12.10 Heb. 12. Rev. 14â—… 2 It quickens to actions of obedience 1 Of particular calling 2 General calling 3 It confirms in obedience Vse Shewing the cause of the worlds prophaness and the Saints dejectedness 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. To strengthen faith of the judgment Jerome Parts of the Text. Meaning of the words Doctr. Death due to sin as wages Quest Answ What death due to sin 1. Temporal Object Answ How Adam died a natural death as soon as he sinned Object Answ How Christians freed from temporal death Christians undergo temporal death why Simile 2 Eternal death Answ Sin infinite three wayes 1 In respect of the object 2 The subject 3 The sinners desire Vse 1. Original lust a sin Basile Vse 2. Confuration no sin in it self venial 1 Joh 3.5 Sins mortal and venial how Vse 3. In spectacles of death to see the heinousness of sin Vse 4. To deterre us from sin Similles Joh. 2. 1 Sam. 14. Vse 5. To be humble and thankful Life twofold 1 Natural 2 Spiritual 1 In this life Job 17.5.2 In deathy 3 Afterth e Resurrection A thing eternal three wayes Doct. Salvation the feee gift of God Quest Answ Austin Quest Answ Joh. 3. Vse 1. Confutation of merit Rom. 8. Vse 2. To humble us Vse 3. Comfort Vse 4. Thankfulness Isa 45 24. The Analysis of the Chaper Propos 1. God is pleased to set himself to procure the profit of his people Proved by instances 1 In his instituting Ordinances in the Church 1 The preaching of the Word Act. 26.18 2 Tim. 3.16 2 The Sacrament of the Supper 3 Prayer Unprofitable living under the ordinances a taking the name of God in vain 4 Sending of Christ into the world in our nature 2 In his command and injunction Deut 10 13. Matth. 5.29 3. In his several administrations 1 Permitting sin to remain 2. To prevail 3. Withdrawing his presence 4. Suspending his answer to their prayers 5. Denying their particular suites 6. Deprives them of their dearest blessings James 5.11 Use of exhortation Vse 2. Of instruction Propos 2. Gods aim in afflicting his children is their profit Gen 41.52 Afflictions they are profitable The blessed fruit of afflictions 2 Chron. 33.12 Deut. 8.15 Isa 27.9 Hab. 1.12 The Saints of God have walted for the profit of afflictions 2 Sam. 16.12 2 Sam. 16.12 Isa 37.4 Vse 1. For reproof Gods children prone to misconster the intent of God in their afflictions 1 Sam. 27.1 Esa 6.5 Lam. 3.16.18 Isa 49.14 Vse 2. For comfort Isa 10.57 Simile Isay 12.12 Vse 3. Exhortation to a patient expectation of the fruit of affliction Object Answ Iob 17.4 The sum of the words Division Explication Simile Doct. 1. Ground 1 From God Psal 84. Why God withdraws the light of his counâ—eâ—ance from his people 1 For correction of their former abuse of his mercies 2 Of the neglect of their duty Cant. 5. 3 Of their carnal security 3 To teach them wherein their present comsort and happiness consifts Simile 3 For prevention 1 Of pride 2 Of considence in the creature or in habits of grace Ground 2 From Satan How Satan causeth trouble in the hearts of Gods servants 1 By stealing out of thest hearts the promises of the Gospel Heb. 12. Matth. 13. 2 By presenting to the soul the truths of God in false glosses Ground 3. From our selves From some distemper of the body 2. Prevailing of some strong lust Heb. 12.1 3 Inordinate passions Heb. 1. Vse 1. To teach us compassion toward those that are in trouble Isa 53.4 God suffers his servants to be in inward distress and why Doctr. 2. Faith is a special means to quiet the soul 2 Cron. 20.20 2 Tim. 1 12. Vse Doctr. 3. Faith that quiets the soul must be pitched upon God in Christ Doct. 4. Vse Quest Answ What it is to believe in Christ What it is to receive Christ as a Prophet As a King As a Priest Quest Answ Object Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Devision of the words Doct 1. Strong trials befall strong Christians 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Job 1.8 Wherein the strength of a trial consists Why God laieth strong tryals on strong Christians Reas 1. Reas 2. Doct. Faith acquits a man in great tryals Reas 1. Reas 2. Reas 3. Reas 4. Reas 5. Vse 1. 1. 2. Vse 2. The sum of the words Parts of the Text Coherence The first branch of the Text Explication 1 What life it is that is here meant Eternal life proper to the Saints Begun in this world Gal 2.20 Heb 2 3. Consummated in the world to come Phil 1.21 1 Thes 4.17 Joh. 5.26 Joh. 6 33. Vse 1. For instructiou Vse 2. For demonstration 1 Tim 5.6 Ephes 2.1 Vse 3. For consolation 2 Tim 3.12 Act 14.22 Mark 5.26 Eccles 9 4. Job 2.4 Phil. 1.7 Rom. 14.17 2 Cor. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.9 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor 4.17 The second branch of the Text. Eternal life cometh from divine grace Tit. 3.7 Eph. 2.8 Reas 1. Reas 2.2 Cor. 3.5 Vse 1. For confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Instruction Vse 4. For exhortation The third branch of the Text. The
God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly look to sin as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sin into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sin hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealt with the as a just God though not in the extermity of rigor yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theif on the Crosse said We suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sins deserve thy sins deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee We see that a commutation and change of punishment a less for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but the confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath laid on thee thou maiest conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sin let us search and trie our wayes and turn again to the Lord. So let this be the main businesse of thy life in this case rather bethink thy self how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man look to sin in all this Lastly consider the gratious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgment impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleâ—…h and striveth the more he increaseth his pain The more patiently a man yeeldeth himself to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mitigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that he layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the presene be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are other afflictions of our life and that is not only in those cases wherein some positive evil as we account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred maketh the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seem to catch at it it is drawn from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they ask is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soul desireth How shall a man come to exercise patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not danyals though God delay the thing he may and will in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Job in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk wait for it it will come and it will not tarry it will not lie God will be known a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to wait for the present Now this is an act of faith He that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seal that he is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve wait for it Secondly Gods delayes are not only not denials but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes he recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetness into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamity for their affliction faith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions faith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farr more excellent and sxrpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternal weight of glory for momentary afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abonnded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a year what if twenty thirty forty years what if the the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercy with the time to come of thy enjoying of mercy A small time of waiting on earth to an eternity of recompence in heaven Compare eternity with the time of thy suffering Alas how little what a small or no agreement is between them A moment to eternity If the life of a man should extend to a hundred years to a thousand yeares to which age never man yet lived yet that is but a point a moment to eternity A thousand years past and to come they are but as yester-day to God Take the eternity past in God himself that is without all beginning and the eternity to come that shall be without all end and put the life of man in the middest of these two and we will conclude it is as a point in the middest of a circumference it is but a moment nay not so much as a moment of time Stretch out the duty of Patience then hast thou waited a week wait a month a year seven years seventy years nay seventy Ages all the ages of the world if it were possible All these are but a moment to eternity And where is there a man that hath waited so long but God that his servants may not faint in their expectation either supports them with other comforts lest they should faint in their desire or else giveth them that which they desire before their hearts faint Know therefore that it is no such great matter for