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
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
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
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
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
fruits of sin you shall keep your estate and keep it with comfort as far as it is good for you your sins provoke God even to curse your blessings You shall not lose your pleasure if you part with sin nay you shall gain pleasures All sorrow and grief of heart and disquiet of spirit that ariseth from terrour of conscience are they not hence because of sin Would you have joy and pleasure unspeakable and glorious part from sin that is the cause of sorrow When we bid you part with sin we speak to you to part with a needless thing it is a superfluity as well as hurtful superfluity of malice what need one sin in the world cannot you live and be happy without it cannot you live comfortably and die blessedly without sin Nay is it not that that hinders your blessedness and happiness The Angels in heaven they are blessed because they are without sin but those of them that sinned they are reserved in chains of darkness to the judgnent of the great day Adam in Paradise in the state of innocencie he was blessed he was without sin but as soon as he sinned he was cast out of Paradise and a Cherubin set with a flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of life that man should not come at it You your selves the best comfort the best peace the best evidences you have are those that do arise from your hatred of sin Therefore do but consider how needless a thing it is Can you get any thing by it can you live a day longer or an hour more happy can you be a whit better by it If you could enjoy any present good by sin there were somewhat to be pleaded but what is it you get a little wealth by unrighteousness is it gain Job saith their belly shall be filled with gravel If a man sill his belly with gravel what hath he gotten by it you will get that that you must cast up again you get that that one day you will wish you had never known as Israel when they turned to God they should say of their garments of silver and gold that they had made for their Idols Get you hence So every worldly man that raiseth his estate by unrighteous means the time will come that he shall wish all the money that he hath gotten were in the bottome of the Sea that he had never known what a penny or a house or apparel had meant that he hath gotten or made or appropriate to himself by any unrighteousness whatsoever What Use is there of it And will you lose your souls for that that is nothing and will you lose heaven for that that is needless and eternal happiness for that that will not do you a moment of time not a little present good not a little present ease not a little present comfort But lastly the great benefit that redounds by it that is spoken of in the Text it is that you shall live and live to God The more you die to sin the more you shall live to God through Jesus Christ Now we come upon a strong motive to perswade you to set more heartily against those evils that are daily reproved the more you die to them the more you shall live to God Suppose the work of repentance be a hard task suppose it should be somewhat painful suppose it be something that vex and disquiet the natural spirit of man as there is pain in repentance and mortification of sin yet nevertheless if you may get eternal life by it is it not worth the while Consider what you do for natural life suppose a member of the body be gangrened that it is in danger to be spread over the whole body and the taking away of natural life the loss of a hand and the loss of any member though it be never so useful rather then the body shall be in danger and a man deprived of life you will lose a useful member and when you have done you do it but in hope to preserve life for you are not sure when you have cut off that member to live a day after but yet because it is possible because it is the way to natural life and yet if you have that life granted suppose for term of years as Hezekiah had for fifteen years yet it is but a natural life a life full of misery a life exposed to many vexations and disquiets a life that hath so many troubles in it that men in the best estate of health with sometimes that they were dead through disquiets and troubles and yet for the preservation of a troublesome life if you were sure of that you would lose a member I know when we come and speak of renouncing your former wayes your cove ousness and prophaneness and pride and vanity and wickedness in any kind we speak of cutting off of hands of members of the body they are so dear therefore Christ saith If thy hand off end thee cut it off if thine eye off end thee pull it out it is better to go to heaven with one hand then to hell with both This I say I know you apprehend it a hard lesson there is no life no Christ without such a death to sin Yet it is a truth and a necessary truth for you to know and therefore consider it and that seriously what you lose If we come and perswade you to cut off some useful member yet you yeeld to that for a natural life you wil cut off a hand that is as useful as any member of the body but we bid you cut off superfluous members those needless members the members of sin that will be your death We would have you but to be rid of the Ulcer that is all we would have you deprived of to preserve spiritual life and to live to God If I were to speak for a natural life it were but temporal it were but upon conjecture but we speak for a life upon certainty When we perswade you to die to sin that you may live to God we assure you that this will certainly follow on it you shall live to God if sin die in you and we speak not only upon certainty but for eternity too you shall do it for eternity too you shall do it for eternity it is not a life that ends Nay we speak for a life wherein there is true happiness that hath no mixture of misery to make you weary but a life that hath perfect peace and joy a life that hath blessedness begun and shall have blessedness perfected in heaven this life we perswade you to live Consider now what we say if there were more you shall live to God the more you die to sin Skin for skin faith Job and all that a man hath he will give for his life but if it be such a life as this to live to God a spiritual life what to live as the Angels do that live with God! to live as
exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause insuseth into arighteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveyances so that he imbraceth even death in self with a smiling countenance seeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in another world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a cretiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings Bench or Common Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Errour remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agrieved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guilty conscience which they carry about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is preformed by a guilty conscience that Squire of the body alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy empty body shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did Balaam Wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an Iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwayes howling fighting scenting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guilty conscience increaseth the neerer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the Fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chasing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperity of the wicked his heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who porspereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdy kind of Devils that will not be cast out save by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God there understood I their end O let them of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and mis-spend their courage to chase and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publike worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto them the equity of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimousand heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melancholly and heavy tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish then live walking
know all the house sets against him and never rest till they cast him out and if they want strength they cry for help but the Master of the house comes in and then all the servants are in their places to do him service all take care to please him and give him content How entertain you the motions of sin look upon your former wayes upon your former customes and vanities look upon your wonted course of ill and consider now whether there be an endeavour to satisfie the sinful inclination of your hearts or is there a striving and using all means to be rid of it Do you make this your question to the Ministers you converse with to the Christian friends with whom you consult in this case how to be rid of such a corruption how to get such a sin purged out Is this the matter of your prayer to God do you cry to Heaven for help to get out this theif that is stollen into your hearts this traytor that conspires against the glory of God this rebel that maintains a fight against the kingdom of Christ do you so look on it It is a sign you are dead to sin or else sin is alive in you and you are dead in sin Thirdly and lastly consider your actions consider your conversation doth sin get strength or is it weakened For know that this is not the mortification of sin that a man be never troubled with it more that he never hear more of it that he be never more troubled with the motions of sin no As a man that hath a deadly wound given him it may be he more fiercely sets on him that gave him the deadly blow then ever before yet he falls dead at his feet after so it is with the motions of sin think not when sin is dead by vertue of our union with Christ that we shall not be tempted any more to sin that you shall not have sin any more in you no it will be in you and molest you But what fruit do you bring forth What actions do you what strength hath sin all the strife it hath is but to disquiet and disturb you not to rule and command you as it was wont to do It is a sign that sin is dead naturally by way of incoation it will die in the end you shall hear no more of it at the last and though it a great while disturb you and disquiet you yet this is your comfort you are disturbed and you maintaine Gods quarrel against your corruptions and fight against it it is a sign it hath a deadly blow Therefore let every one consider his estare let no man deny himself his own portion let him that is dead in sin know that he is dead and the wretchedness of that condition eternal death begins in that death And let him that is dead to sin know that he is alive to God and is among those that live in Christ and shall be saved A word of exhortation and so I conclude Doth this testifie our life in Christ that we are dead to sin Then as you hope for any comfort or priviledge or advantage by Christ labour to make this good to your souls and labour to secure this evidence more and more that you are dead to sin There are none that hears me this day but they profess they hope to be saved by Christ and they look for no other name under Heaven to be saved by but the name of Jesus It is certain but who will Christ save they are such as whom he sanctisies and will he sanctisie such as by union with him are dead to sin and alive to God Then I beseech you make this good to your selves strive more and more to kill sin take this as a quickning argument that you are in Christ and therefore you must be conformable to Christ Saith the Apostle He bore our sins in his body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 that we might be dead to sin and live to righteousness Why did Christ bear your sins in his body upon the Tree but for this very end that as he died for sin you might die to sin Now that we may perswade you know that it is upon special ground you lose nothing but get much by it the more you die to sin the less you lose by it First you shall not lose any thing that is comfortable and good you shall not lose life by it nay indeed the more you sin the more you die every sin is deadly and mortal every sin tends to your destruction to the taking away of life this is certain Therefore look as a man when he is in a mortal dangerous disease that every man concludes if the disease prevail he will die nay it hath so far prevailed that it will be the death of him you need no more to perswade him to spend all his estate upon Physitians to cure that disease Now the sins that you cannot endure should be reproved that you cannot abide to reform they will be death in the end your eternal death therefore labour especially against them When we diswade you from sin and perswade you to purge outsin we perswade you to your cure to be free from your disease to be free from that that will end in death You shall not lose any rest and peace by it the more you mortisie sin the more rest and peace you shall have nay the more sin rules the less rest and peace There is no peace to the wicked but they are as the troubled waves of the Sea that alway foam and cast up mire and dirt as the Prophet speaks such is the restless agitation of a man that goes on in sin he is ever restless and unquiet Would you have peace and quiet get out sin that hinders all peace and quiet Again you shall not lose outward good things not credit and name and esteem Nay what dishonours you and exposeth you to reproach and shame and obliquie is it not sin For what is it that men are evil spoken of is it not for this and that particular evil Do you love your name avoid sin sin will end in shame it is the issue the fruit of it God will give you honour with his servants nay even in the hearts of the wicked You know the more men strive to mortifie their sins the more the world reproacheth them ordinarily but we must not judge what men do in their jollity and in their passion but what themselves do when they are upon the wrack of a trouhled conscience upon their death-bed oh then if they might die the death of the righteous oh then they would they had lived the life of the righteous or any thing then if they had been like such a one whom they scorned This gained esteem of John in Herods heart Again you shall not lose your wealth your estate all losses of estate that are judgments and punishments they are but the